while coil overs are nice, i think you should first look into your existing parallel leaf setup and see why it's riding so rough. they can ride just fine if done correctly any pictures?
straight axles can ride fine with leaf springs---why would coilovers be any smoother ? your roughness could be from your ladder bars or stiff rear suspension---good luck...
The hairpins and coil-overs on the TLB car will work great, and offer far more tuning options than leafs ever could. It all hinges on understanding the relationship of spring rates, installed heights, and overall shock length. The one thing not mentioned about leafs riding too harsh, even if you removed leafs, is binding. You should post a pic of your setup. I am wondering if the shackles are properly arranged. If the shackles have limited movement range or bad angles, the leaf will lock up at both ends and cease to be a spring. Let's see what you've got, sitting on the wheels at curb weight.
geometry is key... ..and no, the Jeep is a triangulated 4-link. The TLB car uses radius rods or hairpins. If you want to use the Jeep parts, you will need to replicate all mounting positions on your frame and tube axle in order to avoid unintended results. That's an unnecessary complication. Tailor the length of the radius rods/hair pins to your needs. Especially tailor the spring rates. You will find that coil over take up much less room than the OE Jeep coils, and you will have space constraints. In a nut shell, do you want a system that performs best for your car, or just making do?
It starts with the wheels and tires. Place them in the wheel openings, where you want them. This means the body is at ride height and rake. Nose up?, Nose down? Decide now. Pick the rims and rubber, too. Get all the existing suspension out of there, and place the wheels and tires where you want them. Now measure for front axle width, the space between the wheel mounting faces. Imagine a straight tube axle passing between the wheels. Will it have interference from frame rails, oil pan, etc.? Figure out how much it will have to drop to achieve safe clearances. Minimum for a poser is probably 4"-5" of compression before the axle hits anything. (figure out where your bump stop goes) If you want a genuine wheelstander, you might want as much as 8" of room for compression. This is how you decide how much drop in the front axle. Order up your axle/spindles/brakes with this kind of drop. Make sure you have sufficient overall tire diameter to keep anything from getting to close to the ground. Don't worry about batwings for the hairpins or tabs for the coil-overs yet. Mock-up the complete axle assembly, with wheels and tires, spindles and brakes. Make sure you have appropriate caster on the king pins. You can tune it later, but you'll get in a jam if you don't think about it now. With all this in place under the car, pull a string from the axle tube, back parallel to the frame rails and find a point as far back as you can practically go, and 2"-3" higher than the axle centerline. This will be the rear pivot for your hairpin. Depending on the length, you may find some in the speedway catalog, or you will find a how-to in the tech section for making your own. You'll need to fab frame mounts for the rear pivot, and install batwings on the axle. The batwings should be a little wider than the frame mounts, and nothing should bump anything else when the suspension is fully compressed. Tack everything until assembly is finished and motion tested without springs. Add upper coil-over mounts to the frame rails, inside the wheel house, high enough for a shock selection that will allow the full compression you planned earlier. You'll need to do some scratch pad experimentation to find a shock with the correct ride height and compressed length for your needs. When you know these two numbers, you can select a coil-over shock. Wait on the springs. Add lower shock mounts that fit the recipe you worked out above. Again, tack everything. Mount your shocks and validate everything once more. Now add a panhard bar to the front axle, from one batwing, to a dropped mount on the opposite frame rail. It doesn't need to be big and fat. 3/4" tubing threaded for 1/2" rod ends will be fine. Add a steering box, drag link and tie-rod that fits in your available realestate. Vega boxes work well. Maybe a Corvair, possibly reversed. With hair pins, shocks, steering and a panhard bar installed, fully motion test the assembly. Fix whatever causes concern, then retest. Do this three or four times. NOW you can think about springs. Spring rate selection can boggle the mind, so consult the maker of your shocks. Give them all the dimesnions for shock length at ride height and fully compressed. They'll need a very accurate estimate of the unsprung weight on the front axle. Avoid chrome springs, and buy the cheapest option the first time out. You may swap to another rate a couple of times before you settle on one. Fine tune ride height with the coil-overs, and enjoy.
forget the Jeep stuff if you want help, post up some pictures of what you have now...help us to help you
Something just isn't "right". I also am using a Speedway axle and springs on my much lighter Austin, and I took two springs out and it made a big difference in the ride. I'd guess the noise you hear when you hit a bump is just the metal to metal in some pivot or mounting point. This can happen if there's some slop, or worn bushing in the springs or perches. I'd also look at the possibility of friction issues. If you have pivot point mountings that are too tight it will restrict the movement, and limit travel, even if the springs are tight. Using nylock nuts, or jam nuts to snug things, but not over tighten them will allow the suspension to work freely, but not work loose. Looking forward to seeing pics of your setup. Don't get crazy changing things until you get more input. A leaf spring axle can and does ride fine if set up correctly.
55 Chevy I did last week. It has 4 bar instead of hair pins. There is a lot less binding w/ the 4 bar. The shocks have 4.750 stroke. They are mounted on the axle centerline. Giving it a 1-1 ratio. This set up gives excellent ride quality and handling. Try to mount the pan hard rod as low as possible for a low roll center Make sure your cross steering shaft is parallel and on the same arc as the pan hard rod. This will achieve 0 bump steer. Also you'll want some down angle on your 4 bar or hair pins to dial in some anti-dive. You will appreciate this under extreme braking situations. Good luck!!!!
Choke, plenty nice..Brackets look to be built tuff with proper function and geometry in mind and still maintain smooth appearence...If some one could enlarge the pics it would be helpfull...I have the same set up in mind but with the shocks mounted in front of the axel to get them lower as I won't have the upper frame rail and will have to use brackets from top of frame..
Do the jeep stuff. Dont listen to these guys, they're all squares man. Think outside the box. Traditional hot rodding is making do with what you have, or thats what they tell me on here, anyway. Better yet, how about a four wheel drive S-10 chassis? I hear thats the latest thing. I wanna see this...
You need to make sure that your shackles have enough forward swing. When you hit a bump the spring will push the shackle forward. If you don't have enough shackle length or forward movement you take the spring out of the spring, essentially binding your suspension from any more movement.
Maybe the shackle bolts are cinched down so tight that the shackles are binding on the springs and frame brackets. No movement...no ride. You do have shackles on the springs...right? Hard to give advice with no pics! (hint,hint!)
You would think with the different leaf arrangements that have been tried the shackles would have moved one way or the other. We need pictures of your suspension man !
The Jalopy Journal
