Front Coil Over Conversion
 

Ran into a clearance problem with the Torsion bars as we worked to address the 327 a prior owner dropped into my E-Type. To address the problem they cut out much of the support for the Torsion bars and the result wasn't even remotely safe. So pulling the Torsion bars and putting in Coil overs. That should give me a better ride and allow me to more easily adjust ride height. Question is will the upper supports and lower A-Arms handle the load? Kind of surprised I haven't been able to find anyone else that has done this, it is a far more common conversion on older American cars. Anyway here is the fitment picture.

Got the shocks and springs from Speedway racing: Eibach springs 1000.188.0325 (EIB-10001880325) pro shocks ASB/SR5ABP (PFI-ASBSR5ABP) (Speedway parts numbers are in parentheses)

For 30 years I wanted to do that BUT everyone says the frames are not strong enough AND it's an aid to the torsion bars not a replacement
gtjoey1314

The lower arms are forgings so your probably OK there, but that top mount doesn't look "long-life" to me. OK for occasional use and definitely not for track days. You might think about beefing it up around that top mount.

Agreed and that is in plan. A steel plate on the bottom should spread out the load enough I think (welded or bolted).

If you carefully fabricated two plates from 12 gage steel to go each side of the existing shock mounts, and those plates extended down to the bottom of the "picture frame" with perhaps 3 bolts at the lower end in critical pickup points and mounted the 1/2" top shock/spring through the newly fabricated plates and existing mounts, you would be carrying the weight of the car much the same way as originally done by Jag.

Ummm . . . thinking out loud here but based on competition experience many years ago . . . I thought the whole point of the torsion bars on the E-Type was that the sprung vs unsprung stresses were carried from suspension to body back near the firewall (tub being fairly stiff in FHC form) rather than up front where you have mounted your coil-overs. Of course, vertical and lateral loads are still carried by the front of the tubular "space frame" but now you are asking it to handle all the asymmetric twisting loads as well.

Of necessity, this tubular section was already imperfect with neither top, bottom nor radiator opening triangulated . . . and even worse on the V12 where the tubular side rails were spread even further apart but with no increase in height.

I certainly wish you well with your project . . . innovative, but I don't think unique . . . 2 of the earliest Group 44 E's had a similar custom setup I think, but I haven't seen it repeated since, nor on any of the current modsports E-Type rigs. Not suggesting they ran into torsional problems - I just don't know. Please keep us posted . . . either way, this could be really exciting.

Best wishes,
:icon_beerchug:
Ken

No shit, hopefully not too exciting...

Went and looked at the car (engine is now running whee!!!). I think the twisting loads were always up front thanks to the anti-sway bar which I've beefed up considerably. The old shocks likely had to be able to hold up much of the weight anyway and take considerably more given how the bumps drive the load to the upper shock mounts. One thing that is concerning is that new rack seems to move quite a bit on the new mounts. I didn't notice the old rack moving that much. May have to ditch the rubber mounts and go to something more solid. Anyone else know if rack movement (about 1/2") is normal?

The rack mounts are rubber metalastic fittings they keep the rack in place and at the same time allow no road vibrations to get through. Most XKE suppliers have a semi solid mounts for your rack & pinion, I have them and they are great, giving a more positive feel to the steering and still absorbing road vibrations.

Thanks, I'll look for those mounts. I think part of the problem was steering when the car wasn't moving which was moving the rack a lot. Once it is moving the rack isn't under as much stress and movement is negligible. Eventually I'll likely go to electric power steering (XKS Unlimited has a kit). But I appreciate the pointer.