Having bearings fitted between hub and spring is a good thing, you have probably felt that the steering feels lighter... yes? But the 20mm increase you see is probably what you perceive as raising your ride height however your picture shows a perfect ride height as far as I can see from wheel to wheel arch/body. there has been a lot of theories about springs and rebound springs in particular, Yes the variable rate springs fitted by SSL do offer something extra in that it can lesson the hardness of the initial compression response of the springs allowing a bobbly surface to feel much more comfortable on our current roads and of course you can adjust the spring overall load to suit your driving style, especially useful if you track day your car or like to drive it in two differing styles etc.
Over recent years many had their cars rebound springs changed in load rating and shortening and theories abounded as to the car at rest and how the rebound spring should behave. I am not going to talk about this here as frankly in my opinion it was all mostly rubbish but I will say this; the main and rebound spring on sliding pillar suspension were designed to work in unison providing the damping effect that this early suspension design needed and the matched load rating of each spring is rated to achieve this. SSL is a good system offering variables, many love it, some hate it! Rutherford is similar yet it sticks to the main principles of the original Morgan suspension. If you are starting to doubt your your choice of going with the Rutherford system then consider this...... Rutherford were the first to convert the rear end to telescopic shock absorbers ... yes well before Morgan followed suit, yet Rutherford managed to get the mounting plane direction of the top and bottom shock mounts to work so that the rotational action input from the rear suspension when working was not fighting each other yet Morgan failed to do this and at 90' out of plane it manages to destroy damper mounts and dampers..... worse still they never corrected this failing right up until the classic ceased production!
I personally set my car up as well as I can within the parameters that the original fitment allows and am satisfied with what it returns for me. Too many people are chasing something that the car will never be and are often throwing things at it to sort a problem that is very sortable within the standard car yet rather than taking this approach are talked into something akin to the kings new clothes. I guess what I'm saying is before you look for the Wonderfull solution to something you think need to be sorted out make sure your car is functioning as it is supposed too and only then is it time to make changes that the car can't possibly achieve without them.
