Northy
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| posted on 17/5/05 at 07:32 PM |
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"Dead" feeling rear suspension
The suspension on the rear of my car just feels dead, I can't think of another way to describe it. It doesn't seem to be absorbing the
bumps very well at all. And if I hit a big bump at speed, it really takes my confidence away to push it.
I've got Gas shocks, fitted with 180lb springs. I think i've got about 10 clicks from fully soft on the dampers, but not sure.
How many clicks does anyone think would be a good starting point? And now they're on the car, which way do you turn them to get them fully
soft?
Any other advice would also be nice. I'm planning on having the wheels all tracked up soon, but don't think thats making it feel
"dead". 
Cheers
Graham
Website under construction. Help greatfully received as I don't really know what I'm doing! 
"If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?"
Built 2L 8 Valve Vx Powered Avon
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scoobyis2cool
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| posted on 17/5/05 at 07:44 PM |
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As far as I know it's common practice to turn the adjuster fully anti-clockwise to make it fully soft.
It might be worth setting yours back to fully soft and going for a drive around some local roads, then bring it back and add a few clicks, then go out
around the same route to see if feels any better.
Also check to see if you have independent adjustment for bump and rebound. If you have then you may have only adjusted the bump setting and not the
rebound, which could cause some strange things to happen.
Hope that helps a bit,
Pete
PS Have you always had them set to about 10 clicks? You're supposed to drive the first 100 miles or so with them set to fully soft to get them
bedded in properly, might be worth doing this if you haven't done already.
[Edited on 17/5/05 by scoobyis2cool]
It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care...
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Northy
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| posted on 17/5/05 at 07:48 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by scoobyis2cool
PS Have you always had them set to about 10 clicks? You're supposed to drive the first 100 miles or so with them set to fully soft to get them
bedded in properly, might be worth doing this if you haven't done already.
Never heard that one before!  No, set them to about 6 I think when I fitted them. Fiddled with them last year, but can't remember really now.
Graham
Website under construction. Help greatfully received as I don't really know what I'm doing!
"If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?"
Built 2L 8 Valve Vx Powered Avon
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britishtrident
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| posted on 17/5/05 at 07:58 PM |
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start soft -- Adjust untill you no longer fel an improvement then turn it back a couple of clicks I'll be surprised if you need more than 5
clicks.
If the car is over damped it feels fine until it suddenly flies off the road.
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zilspeed
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| posted on 17/5/05 at 09:08 PM |
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10 clicks is probably too hard for a mirror smooth race track. On the public road, it'll be enough to chuck you off the road.
start at full soft and add a click or perhaps two at a time.
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bob
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| posted on 17/5/05 at 09:16 PM |
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I started at 5 clicks but the car was like a big old silver cross pram,i'm on 12 clicks up out of the 36 with 18Lb air pressure in the tyres and
20 threads up on the ride height.
All seems much better now on the public roads,i'm not bothered about the track so i'll stick at this.)h and the springs are 175Lb's
and the shockes are gazmatic.
Graham
Have you checked for movement in the upper and lower wishbones,i've heard of some people not having the correct size tube supplied with the
bushes and the squeeze of the bolt siezing the bone.
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Avoneer
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| posted on 17/5/05 at 10:30 PM |
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10 clicks killed my arse end!
Try 4 or 5 - much nicer and smoother ride and you can still slip 'n' slide.
Pat...
No trees were killed in the sending of this message.
However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
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NS Dev
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| posted on 18/5/05 at 07:05 AM |
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Just to agree with the above, all the advice is pretty much dead right, start on no clicks and work up from there.
The rear of my (rear engined) grasser has 200 lb springs and 20" AVO shocks set to around 4 clicks, if that gives a clue as to how little you
need. The suspension should feel damped and not "dead" when you shove the rear of the car downwards.
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zilspeed
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| posted on 18/5/05 at 08:25 AM |
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When we were at Kames on Saturday, we noticed that Colibriman's MK Indy rolled as it slid - it was very obvious when watching it from the back.
Added two clicks to the back dampers and put a tiny bit more neg camber on at the back. Just to help the tread to present itself to the road a bit
more fully. Colin reports that the car was transormed and felt much more secure afterwards.
Tiny incremental changes can make a huge difference - especially on very light cars which can be hugely influenced by the road surface.
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andyace
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| posted on 18/5/05 at 12:10 PM |
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Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean when you refer to 'clicks' ?
Number of threads ?
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NS Dev
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| posted on 18/5/05 at 12:55 PM |
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no, clicks as in clicks of the damper adjustment knob, not spring seat adjustment.
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Northy
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| posted on 18/5/05 at 04:44 PM |
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Cheers guys,
Is it fully anti-clockwise for 0 clicks then?
Graham
Website under construction. Help greatfully received as I don't really know what I'm doing!
"If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?"
Built 2L 8 Valve Vx Powered Avon
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scoobyis2cool
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| posted on 18/5/05 at 06:49 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Northy
Cheers guys,
Is it fully anti-clockwise for 0 clicks then?
Yep
It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care...
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DarrenW
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| posted on 20/5/05 at 10:23 AM |
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I have also heard of people overtightening the suspension bolts and locking it up. What is the accepted best practice for tightening the bolts (what
torque?).
Is the torque dependant on size of bolts? Mine are M12's, fully independant wishbones right round.
I have also heard of boy racers setting front adjustable shocks too high, go ointo tight corner at speed (roundabout etc) and have no steering coupled
with wheels bouncing off the ground (chronic understeer and major loss of traction!!!) Start low and adjust as necessary. You then have some
adjustment left for late when the shocks get worn. Also prolonged shock life as you wont be knocking hell out of them.
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NS Dev
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| posted on 20/5/05 at 10:38 AM |
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The bolts need to be tight!! The problem is when they are tightened with the bushes at a greatly different angle to the angles normally encountered
during driving. If this is done, the bush gets twisted badly and can restrict movement, though it usually just trashes the bush!
Having said that, the above only applies the rubber bushes, polurethane or nylon ones pivot on their centre tubes and there is a slight running
clearance between the faces of the bracket, set by the fact that the centre tube is longer than the installed bush by a small amount. Polybushes (as
long as they fit correctly) can normally be tightened up at any angle, as they rotate freely anyway.
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 20/5/05 at 10:40 AM |
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My son's friend rolled his Caterham because the rear shocks were on fully hard settings. Came round a corner in the wet, hit a bump, lost
adhesion, slid into the kerb and flipped it. Fortunately he had a full roll-cage and walked away unharmed.
When Caterham fixed it up they told him about the 'race-track settings' and set them back to almost fully-soft - he found it a lot sweeter
to drive!
DJ
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Northy
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| posted on 20/5/05 at 10:40 AM |
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Poly bushes here! 
Graham
Website under construction. Help greatfully received as I don't really know what I'm doing!
"If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?"
Built 2L 8 Valve Vx Powered Avon
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