What a difference - original dampers

[NG5]

I've owned my S2 type 54 since 1980, drove it a lot in the early years as it was my daily driver.

In the late 80's it was getting very tired, so spent 2 years rebuilding it. At that time I replaced the original dampers with spax adjustables as even then the original Armstrong ones were no longer available. But I did keep the old dampers 'just in case'.

The car after the rebuild, handled well, but never seemed quite as good as I remembered it, but I put that down to 2 years of not driving it and faulty memory. Since then, it's had GAZ adjustables and the last few years the Protec adjustable dampers from SJ with the matching springs. Over the years I think I've tried just about every adjustment of the settings.

I've actually liked the Protec dampers and springs, certainly better than the GAZ dampers and springs, but…..

A couple of years ago on ebay a pair new, old stock original Armstrong spring damper units for a type 54 came up for sale and I bought them. They then sat on a shelf in my garage until a few days ago when I decided to fit them, even though there was nothing wrong with the protec's….. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

OK on a smooth road and 'normal' bends, there is not a lot of difference, infact the protecs may be slightly more stable, but get the car on to typical UK B and C roads, lumps and bumps, tight corners, od camber and pot holes mid corner and the difference is huge! I felt 30 years younger, the car handles the way I remember it from before I originally rebuilt it, my memory wasn't faulty.

The front end grips better in tight corners, bumps and camber changes mid corner don't bother it, It generates so much more confidence, I found myself entering corners at speeds I haven't done for quite a few years and arrived home after each drive with a massive grin on my face.

OK so what is the point of this post, you are not going to find another set of new original dampers. After looking at them and digging out my very original dampers, I don't think it's the actual damper that is the issue, I'm reasonably convinced it's the bump rubbers. On all the aftermarket dampers the bump rubbers are small and hard and never reached in normal driving. The originals are long, soft and progressive. At normal ride height there is only about 1/2" of bump movement on the damper before reaching the bump rubber, that's about 1" of wheel movement. From then on the bump rubber is in compression generating a crude rising rate suspension, which the handles the tight bends and bumps.

After a quick google, progressive bump rubbers are available, I think my next move may be to try fitting some to the protec's to see the effect, these originals won't last forever. Sadly I've no way of testing the rubber hardness etc, so it will be trial and error.

Here is a pic of one of the new ones, and one of my original showing the shape and length of the bump rubber.

[NG5]

Ha,

As soon as I say they no longer exist someone lists an original on ebay! But it's a single rear damper and I don't think they are as critical as the front's. Interesting to see that they have a long bump rubber but not shaped like on the fronts. (I never kept my original rears). Here's the photo from ebay showing the rear bump rubber.

[andyj007]

interesting thanks..my originak shocks are shot....  car wallows and generally now feels unsafe at speed.. your posyt is given me some woryy about getting new shocks... althioujgh they cantg be as bad as the  originaks i have still have fitted 

[NG5]

Andy,

I wouldn't worry too much, non of the aftermarket dampers I've tried over the years have been bad, it's just that the original design are so much better!

If you are still on the original 50 year old dampers I would imagine that any new damper must be an improvement! 

I must admit I nearly didn't buy the set off ebay despite them never having been used, I thought given their probable age they were highly likely to be useless. How wrong could I be.

If yours are still the original dampers you could possibly reuse the bump rubbers on the new dampers if the new ones have a removable top which some have. The bump rubbers on my very original dampers are harder than the newer ones due to age, but not by a massive amount.