Spring Saddles

On a lot of classic front suspension designs the coil spring does not sit on the control arm. It sits in a spring saddle, and that saddle is also the pivot the arm swings on.

One component doing two jobs, carrying the full corner weight of the car while pivoting through every millimetre of suspension travel. It is not surprising that it wears, and it is why spring saddles are one of the more commonly replaced items on these cars.

Seat and Pivot in One Component

Most suspensions separate these functions. The spring sits in a perch or on an insulator, and the arm pivots on a bushing somewhere else entirely.

The spring saddle design combines them. The coil spring seats into the saddle, which transmits that load into the lower arm, and the same assembly carries the pivot pin the arm rotates around. Every bump the car goes over moves that pivot under the full weight of the front corner.

Resellers sometimes list these as a front coil spring perch or a spring seat, and you will see the terms used interchangeably. They all refer to the same part on these applications.

Because the saddle sets where the spring seats, its condition affects more than noise. A worn saddle lets the arm move where it should pivot, which shifts the geometry, changes ride height fractionally and puts the alignment somewhere other than where it was set.

Why the Original Design Needed Greasing

The factory saddle used a pivot that required periodic greasing to survive.

That was reasonable in an era when cars were greased at every service, and it is a problem now. Almost nobody greases anything anymore, and on a car that spends most of its life parked in a shed between drives, the pivot dries out, corrodes and seizes.

A seized pivot does not simply stop moving. It forces the arm to flex around the binding point, wears the pin oval, and puts load into the saddle housing in a direction it was never meant to take. By the time it makes a noise, there is usually more than one part involved.

That is the failure these saddles are designed around.

Grease Free, and What That Changes

Our spring saddle assembly uses a grease free pivot pin in a robust housing, so there is no service interval to forget and nothing to seize because it was not maintained.

The material formulation resists oil, grease, ozone and weathering, which matters on a car that sits for long periods and on one that lives outside. The bonded design is built for the high load bearing this position sees, since the saddle is carrying the corner weight rather than simply locating something.

The housing carries a protective E-coat finish, which acts as a hard skin considerably tougher than conventional paint and resists corrosion in a position that sits low, exposed and directly in the path of everything the front wheel throws at it.

For a car that gets driven occasionally rather than daily, removing the greasing requirement is the single most useful change you can make to this part.

Signs Your Spring Saddles Are Worn

• A clunk or knock from the front over bumps and driveways at low speed
• Steering that feels vague or wanders, with no obvious fault elsewhere
• A creak or groan from the front when turning at low speed or on full lock
• An alignment that will not hold spec between services
• Uneven or unexplained front tyre wear
• Visible play at the lower arm pivot when levered by hand
• A pivot that will not move freely, or shows signs of having seized
• Corrosion, cracking or distortion visible at the saddle housing
• Any restoration or front end rebuild where the originals have never been replaced

On a car that has been off the road or stored for a long period, assume the pivot has suffered even if nothing is obviously broken. Corrosion does its work whether the car is being driven or not.

Fitting

The front spring has to come out to change a spring saddle, which makes this a job that demands respect. A compressed coil holds a serious amount of stored energy and a compressor slipping is genuinely dangerous, so if you are not properly set up this belongs with a workshop.

Do both sides. These wear at the same rate because they have carried the same loads for the same years, and a fresh saddle on one side against a seized one on the other leaves the front end behaving differently left to right.

While the spring is out, look at everything else that is only accessible at this point. The lower arm bushings, the ball joint and the shock mount are all considerably easier to reach now than they will be again, and the labour to get here is most of the cost of doing any of them.

Torque the pivot fasteners with the car on its wheels at ride height rather than hanging on the hoist, so nothing is clamped in a position the suspension never returns to.

Get a wheel alignment afterwards. Changing a spring saddle changes where the arm pivots, which changes camber and caster, and on a car of this age it is worth having the whole front end measured rather than assumed.

Find Spring Saddles for Your Vehicle

Spring saddles live in our suspension springs range.

Select your vehicle to see the spring saddle assemblies available for it. These are covered by our lifetime warranty on bushing kits, along with a fitment guarantee and 30 day returns.