Lowering a 105.

[MY105]

I have recently fitted new front and rear springs with the intention of lowering my 1974 2000 105. I also replaced the rubber and metal seats, front and rear.
I was advised they would lower the car by 40 mm.
They were purchased from a well known UK parts dealership.
At the moment, the measurements from the ground level to the wheel arch are :-
RHF 634 mm  LHF 626 mm
RHR 615 mm  LHR 598 mm
Fuel tank half full. The right hand side of the car looks the correct height.

The original spring pans were retained.

I've had the car back to the mechanic to check :-

There are no spacers remaining.
The front springs have rubber/metal seats top/bottom.
The rear springs have rubber/metal seat top only.
The spring ends are in the pan niches.

Question:- Has anyone had a problem with the vehicle heights after fitting these new "replica" springs  ie are they likely to be faulty or not equal ?
Thanks for any help.

[Brad M]

Do all the tyres have the same pressures?

Personally no experience with what you bought, I'm sure someone has an opinion for you though.

[MY105]

Roger that - tyres checked, thanks.

[1750GTV]

I went out to the shed and measured the ride height of my car. It is in original condition with tyres properly inflated and fuel tank about 3/4 full.

This is what I got -

LHF 690mm
RHF 696mm

LHR 650mm
RHR 656mm

A couple of things (please correct me if I'm wrong) -
I was told once that it is not unusual for the ride height to be different side to side to (?) compensate for the drivers weight.
Also, all suspensions should be preloaded prior to final tightening.

Just my 2c,
Chris

[Gary Pearce]

always a bit of a fiddle when changing springs on 105s because they have such soft springs in the rear and the stance is often effected by fuel levels or how the car looks with the driver seated.
Most owners want their car to visually look level without a driver seated, because that is the way we usually see them when we are admiring them  on the lawn at Spettacolo etc. (don't forget this Sunday 9.00 am)
It looks like you have ended up lowering your car by about 60mm, so you now just have to fiddle around with individual corner heights to achieve what you are after. The tape measure should only be used as a reference, as your best measure is how the car looks in your eyes. Depending on where you got the springs, sometimes they are different left to right and some of your new rubber spaces might also need to be switched with some of the older squashed ones to help you adjust the rear spring heights. The fronts can be adjusted with small spacers between the pans and the a-arms, but don't forget every corner that you adjust will have an inverse reaction to the diagonally opposite corner.

[MY105]

Thanks Chris and Gary, most helpful. I should have measured the body height before I changed springs.
I've been told by the supplier to check that the spring pans (Left/Right) have not been swapped. The deeper pans should be on the passenger side, regardless of LHD or RHD.
That is something I can check (comparatively) easily.
John

[MY105]

I  checked the 2 pans - they both look the same to me. Back to the drawing board !

[Gary Pearce]

I think the different depth pans were only fitted on 2000 GTV cars. Stick to my advice above.

[1750GTV]

A slightly different take on it follows -

Your average front ride height is (626+634)/2 = 630mm. The average error is therefore (634-630)/630 ~ 0.6%
Similarly on the rear it is about 1.4%

(Mine work out to about 1.0% front & rear)

It seems an awful lot of fiddling to correct such a small discrepancy.

Does the car actually look assymetric ?

Finally, I guess suspensions are dynamic and if the car drives well, you're on a winner. If you are after concourse perfection, it will take a long, long time and you still may never achieve it.

Another 2c 
Chris

[MY105]

Thanks Chris. A good way to look at it all.

Thanks Gary, BTW, it is a 1974 2000 GTV 105. Any more on that about the different pans ?
John.

[Gary Pearce]

I will check my parts book, but I think a slightly deaper pan was fitted on the left hand side. I always imagined that this ofset was for the driver weight for our r/h/d models. You will find a lot of things can be switched though on our 40y/o cars.
Of course the same was achieved on earlier model cars by using the 3/8 spacers that you may have noticed on some cars?
it is a pretty easy fiddle realy to pop in 4 spacers. You just carefully loosen off the pan bolts and take off one nut at a time, without letting the spring go. From your measurements, this might be all you need to make it look right.............. If it looks right it will handle better.

[MY105]

Thanks Gary, sounds like the way to go. I also received a photo of the 2 pans from the supplier - attached FYI. Not a great angle, but I can see a difference.
My supplier advised that the deeper one should be on the passenger side, regardless of LHD or RHD. I couldn't see any differences in my DVD parts catalogue - not enough detail.
John  

[1750GTV]

According to the information I have, the spring pans for the 1750 coupes have the part numbers -

LHS - 105.26.21.507.00
RHS - 105.41.21.506.00

They seem to be the same irrespective of whether the car is LHD or RHD.

The front springs have the same number for each side but that number does vary depending on whether the car is LHD/RHD.

That is -

LHD 105.02.21.505.00 (2 springs)
RHD 105.02.21.505.01 (2 springs)

and the original spacers are the same on both sides (7mm 105.16.21.528.01).

So it seems that the only difference is in the pans.

I guess all this is the same for the 2000GTVs, though I'm not sure.

Hope this helps,
Chris

[MY105]

Thanks Chris. The car is a 2000 1974 GTV. I maybe didn't specify that I was looking mainly at the rear spring pans as this was where the greatest difference in height was measured to the arch.  I haven't compared the front pans (Left & Right) as yet.
When you sit in the driver seat, I also measured quite a drop on the RHS height. But as was mentioned - most people look at the cars with no passenger on the "flat" .  I might also try the "theory" of drive it for a while and see where it settles. After that - maybe some spacers.
John.

[105s alive alfa parts]

Hi,

I have installed plenty of springs and usually work on it changing 15mm over the first month of driving it, but this is just not on the one side it obviously goes down and settles in on both side's.

This may seem a stupid question but i have seen this in the past, have you located the spring in correctly i.e the top and bottom of the spring is sitting correctly into the spring retainers? if it is not in there correctly it will be about 20-25mm out.

Ang