Trimming a Spider - Springs

[John Murphy <MurphJB@domain.elided>]

For what it's worth:

    I just glanced at the trimming comments on the front end of
spiders.  I will start with I know very little about 115 chassis
spiders.  I had a '74 Berlina but had not done much in the way of
suspension work prior to its' untimely death.  Anyway, my '66 Duetto has
spacers noted as "SPACER, R.H. spring bracket"                 (p.n.
105.00.21.547.00; 4 req'd.), in the spare parts catalog (Italy, March
1967).  The spacers are inserted below the "A" arm and above the spring
pan.  The purpose is to level the car when containing only the driver.
These spacers lower the right front corner approximately 0.5" and are
themselves between 6 and 8 mm thick.

    A comment on spring replacement, I have found it wise to remove all
shims when replacing springs, especially if you are going to
stiffer/lower systems.  When finished one can then view and measure the
car and decide if shims are necessary to bring the car into the desired
stance.  Failing to do this once and assuming things would just fall
into place I destroyed my drive shaft universal joints when the rear end
was out of spec high even though the springs were 1+" shorter.  The OEM
springs were quite soft and had been shimmed 25 - 30 mm in the rear.
Once all shims had been removed the car now sits level and about 1"
lower than stock with Shankle supersport springs.  By the way, this is
an extremely nice "bang for the buck".  The stability, drivability and
"tossability" of the car are improved well beyond the price of the
springs and installation time (and even the repair of the universal
joints).

John
"66 Duetto
'67 GT Veloce
'86 GTV-6 3.0S

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