Marles varamatic steering box

[Glyn Ruck]

Indeed!

[Robbo911]

An update on the steering box/subframe situation. I've finally found the time to dismantle everything and just about to send off to the powder coaters.

I've only just realised (apart from the fact that I'm obviously not very observant!) that the Marles subframe has what I assume to be packing rings (C11874 or C11874/1) in the turrets. The subframe I took out seems not to have them. I was planning to reuse the springs I had (as they seemed to be fine and may even be better than an aftermarket option). One of the existing springs I have seems not to have any colour coding, the other seems to have a lightish blue colour.

I see from the parts catalogue that blue is not one of the options, so I can't tell whether it is suggested that a packing ring is needed or not. The car seemed to have the correct ride height before so I guess one approach would be to take the packing rings out of the Marles subframe and reuse my existing springs.

Before I did anything I thought I'd ask if anyone has encountered a similar problem or has any knowledge on this topic?

Many thanks

[Robbo911]

Pictures of the subframe, first is of Marles subframe, second old subframe

[Robbo911]

Sorry for confusion - the pics have been swapped round. One on the top is the original s/f, bottom the Marles one.

[cass3958]

I think I am right in saying that the packing rings in the spring turrets were put on the drivers side so when the drivers weight was sat in the car the small packing ring evened out the suspension height. Mine had packing rings when I dismantled the car but I failed to note which ones went where so when I rebuilt the car I did not bother putting them back in and I have not had any problems with ride heights.

[Glyn Ruck]

I had all my spring rates reset by the original manufacturer for SA built cars. I have no packing pieces & ride height is perfect side to side. All they did was make up for various spring rate variances.

[Robbo911]

Thanks both. Feels like the best thing to do is to discard the packing rings and use my existing springs with my replacement subframe. I believe the replacement came out of a 420 so maybe that has something to do with why there were packing rings in both turrets - maybe the ride height needed to be higher. Of course, there's always the possibility of a bodge in the 50+ years the 420 was on the road!

[Orlando St.R]

Yes, my own front spring journey has been a bit of a nightmare, which started when I assumed the original springs would need replacing after 50 years. Not so! But I only discovered that after fitting new replacements which gave a ride height that was too low. Anyway, long story short, I too ended up with used 420 springs which also had pale blue markings. I had them tested by Leda in Lincoln and they both had 250lb/in spring rate, which I believe to be factory spec. I used a 1/8in packing ring on the right hand (driver's) side only. I think mine is still a little low at the front, but I'll live with it for now.

WP_20170616_001 420 stoneleigh mar 2017 spring.jpg (2.28 MiB) Viewed 1460 times

PXL_20230319_125619721.jpg (2.92 MiB) Viewed 1460 times

[Robbo911]

Thanks. Interesting you have also come across some springs with pale blue markings. I imagine that mine must have been replaced over the years (one of them has no visible marking and one has pale blue) but they seemed to be fine prior to dismantling so I will stick with them for now. Great colour for an S type by the way!

[Robbo911]

Hi All. Been struggling to find the time to put the subframe back together and in the car, but now finally on the home straight. All pretty much done except for connecting up the steering box to the pump. Now I have a varamatic box, the connections on the box are different from the Burman and I have been struggling to find someone to make up hoses for me. A complicating factor is that the box I have is out of a 420, which has the connectors on top rather than what I think would be standard on the S type varamatic application where they appear to be at the bottom. The return being low pressure is not really a problem but the high pressure side is a bit more important critical.

Anyhow my question is: does anyone know what size of fitting the high pressure side of the varamatic box uses? Is it UNF, and if so, what size? From visiting a hose supplier it doesn't seem to be metric (not really a surprise), nor is it BSP. Not the end of the world if no-one knows, it is a good excuse to get a thread gauge - you can never have too many tools...

Thanks