2c Berlina Rear Springs

[Brian Hilton]

Hi,
Can anyone help please, I need to know how to tell the difference between the rear springs for my 2c Berlina & Coupe Rear Springs.

I would also appreciate any measurements that may be important.

After a trip from the Uk to Portugal & back with quite a bit of luggage in 2004, I've noticed that she is beginning to squat at the rear, I have an offer of a pair of new rear springs but the seller isn't 100% sure if they are Berlina, although he believes they are. I obviously don't want to purchase them if they are incorrect. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Another query is how easy are they to fit & what other parts would I need to fit them?

Brian Hilton

[Huib]

Both the berlina and the coupe have 6 leaves. The steel has the same cross section.

The top leaf and the 2nd leaf (counting from the top) have the same or at least nearly the same length.
The difference is in the 3rd leaf which is a lot shorter on the coupe than the 3rd leaf on the berlina. The other leaves are also somewhat shorter.

Said in another way, the leaves on the berlina seem to be more evenly spaced while on the coupe there is a large jump between #2 and #3 which makes any spring manufacturer scratch his head.

Also the berlina leaves have more curvature. 138mm versus 120mm on the coupe. The berlina springs are dimensioned to carry 50 kg per spring more than the coupe springs.

If your new springs are near to your place, you can compare the leaves #3. Otherwise you have to ask the seller to measure the length of #3 or the difference between #2 and #3 at let's say the rear end of the spring and compare it with your springs.

[william]

The Coupe springs seem to weak to cope with ralley use. they collapse and cause the wheels (if tiresize is over 165 wide) to hit the wheelarches before the end of travelpads are reached. Would it be a good idea to fit a set of retempered berlina springs? The free curvature of 138mm for the berlina springs can be reset to about 107 (hf and zagato) mm to get a slightly lower but more firm suspension. The method used by the works to fit a leaf on top upside down seems nice if you will replace spingsets after every ralley but not for us. Hobby users with limited spares. Retempered berlina springs seems like a lasting formula.
Please respond to this brainwave

[Huib]

I use retempered berlina rear springs on my S1 coupes which have 165/80R13 tires on 5,5J13 rims. Works very well. They allow me to carry 100 bottles of wine in the boot when returning from Italy and there is indeed less interference between tires and wheel arches. However, you still need a hard limiter to prevent the tires hitting the wheel arches under all circumstances such as severe bumps or broken springs. I do this by lenghtening the bump stop. Cut it in half, insert M10 studs in both halfs and screw a piece of POM between te two rubber halfs.

[P. de R. Leclercq]

Well, the Fanalone that I prepared for Rallying in 2002 has completed 19 rallies.

The front spring began to sag so I replaced it with one from a S1 1.3S; this has been a great success.
The rears springs have the additional inverted leaf. They have given no trouble at all.

Paul