

MY GTC WITH POWER STEERING, Girling Decarbon damper (possibly the originals!).
When putting the damper/spring unit back on, bottom bolt into bottom bracket first, I found it a bit difficult to get the top bolt through the bracket and into the damper bush then difficult to get it all the way through and out to put nut on. I was apprehensive that I might damage the thread. Once in I tried jacking up the suspension to take weight on damper/spring to get to normal position so I could torque tighten all bush nuts/bolts. The damper/spring would not compress so I feared that somehow the damper rod had maybe become bent and was sticking so would not go into body.
I had taken the spring off the damper to clean and paint the damper and spring. While taking it all off again I noticed that the top damper bush eye looked very slightly out of alignment with damper body centre line (C/L). I had previously noticed this when putting back on but thought nothing of it as all had been working ok previously. Closer inspection with a set square and ruler confirmed there was a very slight miss-alignment. The bottom eye also seemed to be also not in alignment. Top one slightly clockwise and bottom one slightly ant-clock. A half inch rod through each of the damper eye bushes showed that indeed on one side the rods were closer than on the other side. I twisted one eye through 180 degrees and the rods now became parallel and the damper top bolt went in much easier and on jacking up, the spring/damper unit compressed till taking the full weight of the car.
I removed the damper unit again to further inspect and on putting a straight edge against the top chassis bracket front face this aligned about halfway back from the bracket front face of the bottom damper bracket. The bottom wishbones/trunnions/damper bracket all fitted and tightened in place.
With the bottom wishbone brackets in the power steering position (offset bolts to the rear) the wishbones and thus bottom of the damper are 3/4 inches further forward compared with the non power steering. Since the top brackets are welded to the chassis then in one or other of the power/non power positions means the bolts in parallel damper eyes are not going to be parallel with bracket eyes. Was it standard that the damper eyes had complimentary twists to get the bolts parallel again (assuming the chassis for power/non power steering were the same with the top brackets only ever welded in one position??
I do have the spacers in their correct position on the inside of the brackets top and bottom and the bushes are the correct 1 1/8 inches wide.
How do modern replacement dampers cope with this offset? I have only previously dealt with new dampers on a non power GTE.
I don't like the idea that there is a side load put in the damper rod if the eyes are not slightly offset.
Dennis