I do not think the Jaguar rear suspension geometry is designed for race tracks, I think it was to concentrate the suspension loads on the central tub and not to the rear of the monoque shell that was quite flimsy, remember the Mk1 was their first monoque shell, think how much more steel would have been required to fit convential leaf springs. One big problem with Mk 1-2 rear suspension is one spring flattening on hard cornering giving you rear wheel steering!
I will be going with spacers under the front mounting brackets to lower mine, I have new springs so I have no idea how it will sit, I may need the wife and her sister in the rear seats on a daily basis! rear suspension is so overrated!
I modified the hell out of my 2002 Transit Mk6 rear suspension and it drives and handles just fine, it is a double cab so the rear bed is shorter, I used it for car collection and for transporting my motorcycles, it has a hydraulic ram operated beaver tail that doubles as a rear door when not carrying a car, also doubles as a loading ramp when, well loading, to be able to drive (in the UK) with the rear down I needed a longer wheelbase as you are only allowed 50% of the wheelbase as a rear overhang. The common mod is to cut and lengthen the chassis bu 18" just behind the cab, this is not really legal and if a German road safety guy spotted it you would be in deeeeeep trouble, I used to travel Europe in it pre covid,
I inverted the rear springs, added a central mount at the point the axle used to be, then mounted the axle at the rear of the springs (minus one leav for a softer ride when empty)
as per Mk2 jaguar! I had to add anti tramp bars as Jag and I added Range Rover air springs to help when loaded, as part of this the rear roll bar had to go, it drives great, loaded, over loaded, empty, handles well, and has been in use for 10 years now,
so my point is a few degres of change to the rear geometry will not be noticed at anything under warp speed!
I’ve concluded the same. Will be close enough and at least I’m making an attempt to correct the geometry…which makes me feel good but probably doesn’t really matter. I think the real benefit of my mod will be to easily fine tune the height.
If you do go ahead with the mod them why not position the new mounts so that it is possible to raise and lower the suspension. Earlier in the thread you were going to start the slot where the current anchor points are. I know that right now you want to lower… but hey in 10 years time you may want to raise
By the way I love your welding and metal work. If only mine was half as neat.
Thanks, Dave. Largely self-taught. The Mk2 has been a fertile learning ground for all kinds of new skills which serve as a good way to distract from my day job in the tech world. This is main reason why my restoration is taking so long…I enjoy the process of learning and applying these newfound skills. Steel, aluminum, wood…the Mk2 has it all. I have ~2k pictures of the work so far including teaching myself how to vacuum veneer for the woodwork. That took a while!
Unfortunately I already welded one side and the top-most position on the slot is the equivalent of the stock ride height. Like Ian, I replaced the rubber buffers in the leaf springs, I used 6/6 nylon round bar stock cut to the appropriate thickness. I would guess this will add some height…but my springs are also original so may have sagged. I suppose I could measure the arch to see how they compare to stock. Regardless, the front end is coming down using the spacers between the spring pan and the A-arm…so rear end will need to come down to match. If for some reason I need to raise it then I’ll be onto Plan B
Will post some pics when I get things a bit more buttoned up. I will be adding some gussets to ensure appropriate strength as the mounting plate mounted a but further back than I wanted on the stock axle bracket.
Done! Will let everyone know how this setup works around 2023
I ended up gusseting both the back and the front because of where the plate aligned with the existing bracket…it ended up further back than I originally planned. Top of the slot aligns to factory ride height, bottom of slot drops this about 1.25". I made the slot 10 degrees off vertical to compensate for the spring rearward extension (really lack there of).
Need to stop distracting myself with these fund side projects…need to get cracking on the body. Body metalwork is pretty much complete, some minor lead-loading to do before getting it completely stripped to bare metal and then into epoxy primer and on with the fun stuff.
