1982 County Station Wagon- Odd Rear Spring Set Up
I have recently aquired a 1982 County Stn. Wagon with Parabolic leaf springs. The fronts appear normal parabolics . AT the rear the front shackels remain but the leaf springs end just behind the rear axle and have rear coils fitted. The rears are the odd thing and I wondered if anyone has come across this type of setup. The remaining part of the rear leaf extends behind the axle and has a cup for the coil to locate & clip into and their is an upper coil locator bracket which is quite a heavily built item. The two sides are linked with what appears to be an anti tramp bar linking the two top coil spring brackets. There is no rear leaf shackel on the chassis. Front and rear have PRO dampers fitted.

I have never come across this set up as my previous 109 had leaf springs all round. The ride is a bit bouncy at the rear and the rear seems to sit a but lower. Unfortunatelt the wheels have heary extra traction noisy tyres on and these tend to transmit most if not every road undulation and hole.

The Landy is in for a French Control Technique on Friday and is currently MOT'd but I may be questioned about the rear set up and wanted to be armed with any info. available.

Thanks for any help

Mike
PS Passed French control on suspension but see my THREAD ON EMISSIONS

sounds weird! some pictures would be ace though!
does it look like a home build?

Sounds like someone has tried their own version of a conversion to coil springs by using the front half of a leaf type spring as a locating arm and popped a coil on top as the spring medium . I have seen a similar set up on a trailer in Oz by someone with a rangerover who was trying to make his off road trailer which originally had leaf springs try and last a trip behind the rangerover without falling to bits, I told him he needed to slow down , the RR could handle the speed on corrugations but the trailer could not . BTW it didnt work

doobie said:

sounds weird! some pictures would be ace though!
does it look like a home build?

Click to expand...

No not a home build as the top of the springs are correctly mounted in Brackets and a, I asssume, anti tramp or torsi bar fitted across the rear top to top. The lower part of the springs are correctly located in cups and secured. The rear shackels for the original leaf springs have been removed. It passed the MOT and I will attempt to post some pick. RIde wise it is a bit softer but tends t jump about a bit on rough ground. I imagine articulation is increased considerably. The strappings are retained.

Is this an early 90" or an 88"? That will be a place to start to hazard at what has been done to it!

Sounds like a really odd setup! Perhaps extra springs at the back to accommodate heavy load - hence it being pretty stiff at the back. Or a project that didn't quite get finished. Who knows!

I remember seeing that set up reviewed/advertised years ago, but have no idea who it was.
Seemed an odd idea to coil the back, and leave the front on leaves.

It's an 88" of 1982 County spec. am quite pleased with the ride having had a 1980 LWB before which was a bit harsh. It pased it's French MOT so can't be too much of a bodge up. The top brackets are fabricated professionaly so I suspect it could have been a proper conversion. I will get some pics posted for everyone to see as I have never seen it before but can recall experiments shown in various Landrover Magazines and this may wekk have been one. What is odd I suppose is the retention of full leaf springs on the front and a combination of half leaf springs and coils on the rear. Seems quite unique and takes plenty of weight.

there was a lad from cheshire that developed this set up for rear springs. he was a young kid that was in uni somewhere. i seem to remember he came from a wealthy family and he was on an engineering course. his first set up was on a light green 109 station wagon, and i know he sold a few units to different people via is family website. i remember him showing it to me when i went to collect some bits he was selling on ebay, but im ****ed if i can remember his name.

Well the car came from Glasgow but the owner was something to do with young people and adventure trips. HE had the car for a few years but I think it has had only two or 3 owners from new. I will do a separate posting asking for any infomation and giving the reg number,XWK 733 X PERHAPS A PAST OWNER IS ON THE FORUM/

It will need a good set of s/absorbers suitable for coil suspension as leaf spring s/abs will not be valved correctly . The coils are doing all the load carrying as the half leafs are only there for location reasons. HTSH

It has Pro Comp Shock all round. Not sure of the Model, I think 2000 or 3000 if that means anything... They are fat and have rubber boots at the bottom. I got very little info from the seller but it all seems more than adequate .