rear dampers (shock absorbers)

[kevin s]

Having recently replaced the oil in the lever arms one is now predictably leaking, Looking around ESM do a telescopic conversion for much the same as a good quality recon pair of lever arms, for another £50 they offer a gas damper version, I know the gas ones are supposed to help with aeration etc but would I notice the difference on a mildly tuned road car?

Anyone any experience?

[Steve Phillips]

With no disrespects meant to your or anybody’s car it will make absolutely no difference other than costing you £50 more,

There’s lots of talk of gas dampers being more responsive, better for prolonged driving, performance vehicles and fast driving etc,

Whereas oil is generally considered to live longer (no gas to leak out) but not as good for performance vehicles / driving,

It’s a bit like adjustable dampers, will you ever notice the difference, No in a word, unless you have power and use the car on track,

but as I started off saying no disrespects but if you have a relatively standard road going Minor with 40-something bhp and leaf springs you’re never going to know the difference as both will damp the ride perfectly well,

We have several customers who use their cars on track and some with out and out race cars and several of them are running oil dampers successfully,

Steve

[philthehill]

Kevin
The ESM oil damper conversion kit is more than adequate for your needs.
https://www.morrisminorspares.com/rear- ... il-p831381
There is no need for gas dampers.
I have run oil dampers on the rear for many years with upgraded lever arms on the front.
Adjustable SPAX gas dampers are in the process of being fitted on the front.
The rear damper conversion was supplied by Leadbetters of Lancashire and uses standard oil filled Mini front dampers.
I am in the process of revamping the rear damper mounts and using parts from the ESM damper kit.
I am also in the process of getting rid of the rubber/poly spring pads and utilising some of the parts supplied by Les and alloy spring pads by Peter May Engineering (the steel spring pads I made were way too heavy) You can see the bottom alloy spring pad in the photo below. The top pad has yet to be fitted. The 'U' Bolt nuts will be replaced by Nyloc nuts in due course. Doing the re-vamp has allowed me to get rid of some un-sprung weight.

[Grumpy21]

I have spax adjustable dampers all round on my current saloon. My previous traveller had functioning lever arms all round. The difference is quite startling. The spax were initially too stiff for my liking so I set the softer, two clicks from softest compared to 8. The ride is very accomplished and not at all harsh, indeed quite ‘modern’. The traveller had recon dampers but still wasn’t well controlled and tended to lurch and shudder on our pot hole infested roads.

Would I fit the spax again, probably not as they cost a fortune but I’d happily fit standard telescopic instead of lever arms if the cost was reasonable

Ps my saloon came with the spax already fitted, the kits cost around £700 I believe

[kevin s]

Thanks guys, you've reinforced what I was already thinking, I have spax adjustables on my TR7V8 and they are all pretty much at the bottom of their adjustment any thing else is way to firm, then thinking a bit deeper my elan is on std oil ones, I don't supose the minor will handle like that but if they work so well on there I think they will be up to the minor.

We are probably going to go the whole hog and fit some secondhand seven leaf springs we have, poly bushes and poly spring pads. The back tends to hop and skip around a bit.

on that subject does anyone near essex have a old leaf spring lying around. I cleaned up yhe 7 leaf ones in a electrloysis tank and had a senior moment on the second from longest leaf, connected it the wrong way round and heavily pitted it.

[philthehill]

If the back tends to hop and skip a bit then 7 leaf springs are not the way to go.
You can make things easier and a bit softer by removing the bottom leaf so making it a 6 leaf spring. You can put the bottom leaf on top which will lower the car by the spring leaf thickness and that will not make the ride harder.
I have run 6 leaf springs (count the leaves in the photo above) for many years without problems.

[kevin s]

Sounds like a plan, I'll probably stick to just the 6 leaves, it's used laden and for towing quite a bit and on the standard springs it hits the bump stops all the time , given the springs we have are used they should have settled a bit too so I hope it will end up around the standard ride height.

I had a escort which behaved simularly years ago, a panhard rod transformed that but I don't want to go to that level of mods on the minor.