Ride quality is something we take very seriously here at Bugeyeguys. If a Bugeye comes to us, and during subsequent test drives we feel something “off” in the suspension, we will investigate to determine the cause of the issue. We did just such an investigation earlier this week on a Bugeye we are preparing to ship to Oregon. The rear suspension had an overly harsh quality to it, making the ride unpleasant. What could cause this?
A harsh ride coming from the rear suspension can be due to a number of things. The rear lever shocks could be worn or leaking (click here if you need new rear lever shocks) or the “dog bone” connecting links could have failed (click here if you need new shock “dog bones”). Both of these had just been replaced, so the next most likely culprit was the rear springs. Upon inspection, we discovered they were worn out.
The springs you see in the photo at top do not visually look particularly bad, especially when removed from the car. However, after 60 years of work in this Bugeye’s suspension system, they had lost a lot of their spring rate. They looked almost completely flat when the car was at rest on the ground, a typical sign of a worn leaf spring.
Bugeye Sprites use what is called a “quarter elliptical” leaf spring, so named because its shape forms a quarter of an ellipse (oval). In addition to wearing out, due to their design, over time these springs begin to “fan out” and collect dirt and rust between their leaves, leading to broken springs. In the video below, we show several different examples of these “fanned out” leaf springs, as well as some other components used in the installation of Bugeye quarter-elliptical rear suspensions:
The fix for a set of worn or broken original leaf springs is to replace them. The rear springs currently available for Bugeyes are an uprated spring with thicker leaves (and fewer of them), which helps with the ride quality but in doing so raises the rear ride height of the car, which doesn’t look very visually appealing.
In order to remedy this, we have developed a system that uses lowering wedges of varying sizes to lower the rear ride height of your Bugeye without sacrificing ride quality, We offer a kit that includes two new rear springs, lowering wedges, and longer rear u-bolts to secure the whole assembly in place. Each Bugeye tends to need different size wedges; some require five degree, some use six degree wedges, and on rare occasions, some cars may need more degrees added to them to level out the ride height. Click on the photo below to order your kit today!
