Suspension Rake Angle
 

G'Day Friends
There is a bit of a special at the moment on King Springs from Oz for the XJS on Ebay, I have being looking at suspension springs for a while as I know I have a broken front one, only 1/3 up the bottom first coil. But I want a little more from my car, I don’t like it sits flat and when gassed up the front end rises like a poorly trimmed boat and has a flotation feel. I realise the original springs have a lot to be desired and didn’t really last that long.
The other problem I have is steep driveways and no matter who much angle you put it too, I always seem to scrape the ass end on exitting or returning.

I have heard good things about King Springs and as mentioned are at a good price at present, I sent them an Email asking for the correct spring No's and what I was planning on.
I am thinking of getting the lowered front springs and using standard height rear springs. My thinking the front will remain same height as now as they are pretty sagged and the back will jack up to give me more rake and clearance for driveway manoeuvres. I Received this back from King Springs.
Now I’m not sure if its too much? Or what a lot of rake is a bad thing or good thing? What do you think? I personally hate cars that sag in the bum and point upwards, but can you go too far the opposite, Standard is meant to be factory height, lowered is apparently 1.25" lower.
Thanks
Thanks

Here are a couple of pics of mine. Stock front springs with packing spacers removed and HD standard ride height Lovells on the rear. If it ends up too low at the front you can always add spacers under the springs.

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/...pskypcglu2.jpg

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8vpa0bhm.jpg

Hi Warren
Yours looks good, I never thought about the spacers till you just mentioned them, I can always put one in if need to be to bring the rake angle down.
I measured From guards to centre of tyres and yes there is 30mm difference from front to back, so having them the same distance might not be so bad. Still uncertain, I read on the forum where somebody had used the same lowered spring but the height was greater than what they started with.

Warren being reading your motor rebuild, very nice. If you left it a littler later I could have helped you out with my CNC mill, Its not quite ready but will be soon.

One thing I did not mention earlier, is that the old TH400 will be scrapped and replaced by a T5 at the same time the twin thermo fan conversion will happen with removal of Air Pump and a bit of garbage at the front, I assume maybe there might be a loss of 50Kg from the front end, This might make the standard springs run up a bit high, maybe?

Yes it will.

I removed ALL the metal panels behind the front bar and replaced the TH400 with a 4L60e, and it's about 45kg lighter now. With the spacers removed my car now sits at the same height as it was originally with them.

To lower the front of the car you can add a spacer between the spring pan and lower wishbone. I will need to do this as my car is sitting a bit high at the front.

This pic is before I modified it.