G_Reparaties

When I bought my Sabra the front springs and dampers were obviously not original. Original ones were Girling (spings & dampers in one set).

At first I replaced the dampers by Mini-dampers Monroe R 1045 B1B80 but the parts to hold the spring were welded on the dampers wich isn't the easyest thing to do.

The springs I had made by:
Hillaert bvba
Turnhoutsebaan 276
2110 Wijnegem
03/353 90 23.
The springs were made on a trial and error-base, it was only when the last pair of springs proved to be correct that I met Jacques, who confirmed me that his front-springs were the same size as mine. The order form of the last pair of springs states they are 290 mm high, inner diameter 55 mm, diameter of the steel 10 mm and (total) 13 windings. Same day a friend-engineer had calculated the same size for these springs (based on my errors).
Different Sabras still seem to have different front-springs!!
Perhaps if you order the springs and you are going to use the SPAX-dampers, you could order them inner diameter 56mm.

After some years of driving it showed that the dampers were not designed to take all the weight of the car. I.e. the connection - eyes to take the bolts were pushed out of of the center of the bigger eye at the end of the dampers. At MOT they told me I had to have it fixed.
Geoff Cooper advised SPAX-dampers G462S190+0.5"BUSH or G829AS190+0.5"BUSH.
Seems to be only one SPAX-dealer in Belgium:
Filter Service
Vliegplein 43
2270 Herenthout
014/51 64 31.

They couldn't work with the above part-numbers but they decided that I could use G452-dampers.
Ordered a pair of those (they're adjustable) and they fitted nicely apart from the fact that the fitting for the springs is 57mm wide.
As my springs were made 55 mm inner diameter I cut off 2mm from the inside of the springs (at both ends) to make them fit.
Made up dust covers for the dampers from silicone-tubes.

The car seems to sit nicely don't know if it will be ready to race but racing isn't my first aim.
We'll have to see what the car does after a long trip. Repair december 2003.

Added 01/08/2005...Attention: The Spaxes made driving much easyer, lots of vibrations disappeared; with the Spaxes fitted the car had almost NO trouble anymore when it ran into a bump or a hole with one front wheel only. It behaved much better although I had let the dampers on their "softest" position. Recently been driving around with original but old dampers from one of Jacques' Sabras and the car started wobbling again. We learned that the front dampers of the sabra must be hard to drive comfortably.

Why did I put on Jacques dampers? The rod of my left damper broke off (had done some 2000km).
Not clear why it broke:
Could be I tightened the bolts of the upper fixing point too tight, thus locking the outer eye of the damper and forcing it to take all the play forced by the flailing-arm going up and down with the rod itself.
Could be I should order dampers with a greater "outer eye": the original dampers have a lot more of rubber between the inner fixing bush and the outer rim.
Could be the rupture was caused by the fact that the former owner of my car had the lower fixing bolt welded to the flailing arm in an incorrect angle, this can only be sorted out in comparing different Sabras with very precise measurements. The extra rubber of the original dampers could have taken this play easily.
Could be that a damper should be able to take these small movements and there has been a construction error in this one (why didn't the right one brake off: it's done 250 km extra (one fourth extra)?
Could be a combination of the above. Anyway I'll stay with the spaxes, and if one of them brakes again next year I'll try for more rubber between inner and outer bush.

rear spring: part #200199
overall length :    270mm
overall width :     75mm
inside width   :     55mm
thickness of steel: 10mm
Number of windings ( flatted windings top and bottom included) :14
Shock absorber (rear): extended max length : 390mm
length (compressed) : 295mm
Distance from bottom of large circular plate till centre of hole of attachment ring : 35mm
from centre of attachment ring till outer part of the ring (this includes a metal bush, rubber and outer ring): 18mm

Hi Jef, I found a low budget solution to replacement front shocks.
I bought a pair of SACHS 5334 shock (old Jaguar rears) absorbers.
I cut both loops (bushing mounts) off 1 of the original Girlings. [I wanted to keep 1 original intact].
Then I sliced the lower loop on the NEW shock and welded the old shock loop onto it, to achieve the correct length.
The SACHS shock was 3/4" short on the lower end, but the other dimensions were very close.
I wanted to use the original upper metal dust boot to properly align the spring but the upper spring stop diameter radius was about 3/16" too large.
The shock would not fit in a lathe, so I trimmed a large washer and tack welded it to the underside of the stop to hold the dust boot in place.
For the lower bushing I used a polyurethane (hourglass style) bushing from   "ENERGY SUSPENSION"  [hyperflex] part # 9.8107 with a bronze sleeve from a local hardware supply to fit the 1/2" diameter mounting bolt.
I believe it will fit perfectly, I hope it will perform properly but will not know until the car is roadworthy.
See the attached pictures. The original is on the left side of the 1st. photo.