Speaking of areas,what area are you in Demo?

why whorida tried sucking up to phunkhead after basically calling him an idiot i have no idea

phunk says....phonebook
whorida says....ask some1 in ya area
dogerman says .....well dont have the time to read.lol

what a joke

pigdog and by the looks of it a few others are the only decent 1s on here with postive input as they are the exact same as me cause they do everything themself like me and actualy has an idea on things

when you build a car ground up without it leaving your place 1ce and do conversions and mods etc etc maybee then you can comment but when you buy a car already done or pay other people to do your dirty work your in no position to comment

id still like step by step flipping leafs off pigdog etc

i wouldnt be able to find an extra leaf so just the normal flipping procedure

i do plan to reset leafs in the future but want a spare set 1st so i can change over if i get a defect in the future as they are strict in my area and i want it dumped on its ass

I think I've read about 50% of this thread....ewww!

C'mon, Dodgeman is a very active member of this website and has added useful and accurate information in hundreds of posts that I've seen. I've rarely found anything to disagree with him on. So please take off your cranky pants and get civilized!!!

Having said that, our race car uses a reversed upper spring with an extra, thicker half-leaf on top of the pack. It seems to work well, but I want to try something softer.

Like bert says, the aim of the suspension modification game is to make your car handle better. Your car needs to put the right amount of weight on the right wheels at the right time, and the target is moving constantly in any given turn.

Its true a car will handle like a sack of potatos if its suspension is poorly setup. An a couple of occasions I've run out of suspension travel in the front end of the race car. I couldn't believe the instantaneous transition from normal cornering to complete understeer. You honestly have more chance of steering a bullet after you've shot it!

Exactly mate, and im sure this is why you can notice no one really bothered to give a step by step guide on what to do.

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Yeah, can't say I know much about it, has been like that since we got it. It definitely sits way too low. Like I said I know bugger all about suspension and that's why I'll get a pro to look at it. The way I see it, if you have to ask heaps of Q's on how to do something then it's probably a little out of your depth (it definitely is that way for myself).

Given that there is a lot of conjecture on this topic as to which is the best setup, how to undertake it, and so on I think demo really needs to get into contact with someone personally to suss it out. Whether that is a pro suspension shop or an experienced racer from this site it probably doesn't matter, but there are a lot of variables which need to be discussed which probably makes it heaps easier to deal with in person.

Gotta say i totally agree with mattB110 on all his points of view,i've been punting these things in a controlled environment for longer than i care to admit.One thing i have learned along the way and are prepared to share is i have had more sucess with"soft low" rear springs and quality shocks than "hard low" rear springs on the back of any datto,this has nothing to do with ride quality,it's about weight transfer and putting power down on the ground.
Organise getting your Datto on some corner scales before adding extra leaves in the back.

Anyone hazard a guess at rear corner weights of a 1200 ute?

I'd like to hear Rallytwit's take on the leaf spring thing, since he's had a racing 1200 for a while, and had good luck with the suspension which uses 280zx / wilwood calipers on the front and has leaf springs in the rear.

I think his car has a reversed leaf. ( I don't know how or which one ) I know nothing about these crazy leafsprings.

I've gotten the impression the leafsprings are a better setup than the 4 link in some cases.

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That setup is pretty stupid and im sure no serious racer would use it. Its easy to see why the engineer feels that way.
If the main leaf was flipped upside down ontop of all the other leaves, it would be a different story.

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On that note, what happens to a humans brain at your age chump?

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Its called Personality Disorder. You may have read dodgy's writings about it in the past.

Quote:Well if an engineer responsible to the government regulations said that, I wouldn't argue with it.

Has anyone ever *actually* seen a leaf spring on a 1200 break? and if so what were the conditions?

Demo, the easy way to lower is lowering blocks. It's not the best way but works fine for street cars with mild lowering. In USA, 100s of thousands of cars have used lowering blocks and I've never heard of any bad reputation about it. I've heard lots of speculation from this forum, but no actual problem reports from those who actually used them. If you want the best handling, then don't use lowering blocks.

Next easiest is to take out the credit card and wave it in front of a spring shoppe. This is not only easy, but might result in the best ride and handling combination, and you can always sue the shoppe if the springs break afterwards.

For a ute, can you just remove two of the five leafs? Coupe/sedan springs are only a 3-leaf pack. I read that in a book so it is not a statement, just a question.

I really like this site, and often drop in to have a read (and a chuckle sometimes!) but I find threads like this pretty frustrating. A little bit of misinformation, followed by a little bit more to back up the original statements, then tweaked & tuned to further justify, just end up being a pointless effort for the poor bloke who was trying to get some simple advice on lowering his little datto.

A few facts to consider:

1.There are many, many club & state level racecars accross this land that use various arrangments of the standard leaves to achieve the desire combination of spring rate & ride height
2. I have never ever seen one of these arrangements fail.
3. The amount of load put through these springs in competion is harsh to state the least. Huge increase in power over stock, much sticker tires, locked diffs, big brakes etc.
4. You can improve the stock assembly when doing this (if you are so inclined) by replacing the centre bolt with a high tensile item, clamping a turned spacer that very accurately locates the diff housing to the spring.
5. This repeated reference to stiffening the spring rate is also misleading. You may find that if the suspension is being reviewed as a whole, soffter rear springs, shorter shocks & a sway bar MIGHT be a better overall solution. Note MIGHT be, I am not going to presume what Demo's driving style is like so I am not going to tell him he needs stiffer springs just because he is lowering his car.
6. There is another possible benefit to lowering the car by rearranging the leaves, this would be to "over-lower" the car, thereby necessitating the extension of the rear shackles to gain back some ride height which will also help get rid of some of the in- built roll understeer in these cars.
7. Lowering blocks of any height are probably last resort. Due to the increased moment they acentuate any axle wind up. Probably OK for mild street car but not ideal.
8. Comments like "everything else is unsafe & may be downright dangerous" are just inflamatory and scaremongering and shoudn't be encouraged on this site.

In my own racecar, I started off with professionally reset spings, reversed eyes etc and actually progressed (if you can call it that) to home made spring packs that let me fiddle and tune to my hearts content.

Hopefully there is not a response that starts with "So let me see if I understand..." Pfft