Mgill

iTrader: (4)

Finally got my car road worthy after 8 years. I put the UMI/AFCO coilovers on it and a Midwest Chassis watts link. The ride is bouncy and crappy, I have the coilovers set on the middle setting. My thoughts are thr cars too low and hitting the bumpstops or the dampening isn't set right. Any help here?

Finkledbody

Afcos have 40 clicks total for compression and 40 clicks for rebound.

My fbody is Full weight 3600lbs
going off of memory (but I’ll check my thread or check the car when I get home)
starting from full soft.
I’m using afco 14” springs
300lbs/in front
175lb/in rear
I have mine front set @ 16 compression. 12 rebound
rear set @ 14 compression and 12 rebound

im changing the rear springs to 150lb/in. 175 was to much.

It took some trial and error

must be noted I do not have a watts link setup. So it might be different for you.

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

I only have single adjustable and I set them to 20. I'm going to raise the car more I think I'm hitting the bumpstops. Front springs are 600 rears are 200

lees02WS6

iTrader: (5)

Take the aluminum spacer out from between the rear bump stop, and the frame. It's eating valuable travel. Drive around, see if that helps. Then do either the rebound adjustment, or raising the car. One step at a time as they say.

Cool setup by the way.

Finkledbody

how heavy?
that sounds like a lot of spring. Are you sure ur bottoming out?

you can find out with a zip tie. Put it on the shock go for a drive and see where the zip tie ends up.

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

Yes 600 fronts and 200 rears. It's the UMI/AFCO/Strano kit that UMI used to sell. I took the spacers out, adjusted the height up more and set them to 5 clicks from the softest setting and it rides much better.

gjohnsonws6

iTrader: (12)

Per Ramey at UMI I was told to start with 12 clicks from full tight (rebound). You probably already know the compression is fixed. I’m curious what you find for a soft setting as I haven’t driven mine yet and would love to have a smoother ride when desired if possible.

Watts link settings might play a role in this too and Midwest would certainly help you out with that. There are a few older threads with Midwest Watts users here and another good thread about the UMI afcos that’s can be found while searching with Google which I find easier to use than our search function.

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

I will report back after I get this tuning ironed out, having idle return issues. I've installed 3rd gen rubber bump stops, took out the SLP bump stop spacer, raised the ride height about 1 inch, and set the shocks 5 clicks from the softest setting. The ride seems much better so far but I've only driven it around the block and the roads in my development aren't the smoothest. I think it was just smashing the bump stops.

gjohnsonws6

iTrader: (12)

Lower mounting brackets

00PewterSS

iTrader: (3)

I had UMI/Afco on my car for years. I was running 1100/400 rates for AutoX and the ride wasn't so good, but not bouncy at all. My rears are mounted opposite direction of how you mounted, I don't think they would have cleared if I tried to mount them like that... but that is irrelevant.

What I did learn when I pulled them off my car the front seemed to have no gas charge and no compression damping. It is possible that none of your shocks have any gas charge any longer. That would certainly cause the ride to be bouncy. I would pull a rear off and check by hand that it has gas charge. The shock should extend by itself and resist motion in both directions. One reason they quit making these is because of inconsistent quality, including some shocks shipped with no gas charge at all.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Well I think the biggest lesson here is that yet again full size tapered bump stops should not be run with spacers. I don't know how many times I keep trying to tell people this, and I'm glad the original post maker here was willing to listen.

the biggest reason it was decided to end that project was because of price increases. Early on there was some issue with gas, although that for the most part involved people not knowing or being able to resist screwing around and degassing shocks on their own. Not always there were a couple that came in that didn't have any gas but that was easy to tell and when that happened we gassed them up. Or at least I did anytime I saw it happen as I have the tools to do it.

​​​​​​The next time you read that somebody says the bump stops don't do anything remember this thread. The next time people think little things don't matter or a couple little things together don't add up to a result, remember this thread and pass it along.

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

I was unaware of other treads to take the spacer out with this style bumpstop when posting.

I did read a bunch of threads on the effect of bumpstop and graphs on the effects of the different materials, which is why I went with the rubber third gen ones and scrapped my poly ones. I come from 4x4 jeeps I know the importance of bumpstops although it's a different application lol. Now that I have it setup better it rides nicer although I need to get more miles on it.

The UMI install instructions do state that they are designed to ride on the bumpstop and not to worry if it does.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

If you are sitting on it, that's too low. But yes, regular contact with a *progressive* stop is normal and by design. Note that means GM or OEM like replacement, not the universal rubber or urethane versions.

I understand you might not have known, you aren't alone, about the spacer and how it should only be used on the square OEM SS and WS6 style stops, but honestly we removed those anyway, because of the spike in wheel rate that comes from the square stop AND the fact you hit that sooner with the spacer. Sadly with all the online opinions lots of good information gets lost in the sea of bad. For instance we all know lots of folks say you don't need the rear stops at all, they took them off and it's "fine". So I'm glad you found that out, at least.

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

With the latest settings the car rides much nicer. My local roads are just trash and I'm not used to a car that has all rod ends in the rear suspension so there is alittle more NVH than before. Huge improvements over stock handling wise.

Previous suspension was stock springs and decarbon shocks with 165k miles, tublar lcs and panhard with poly bushings.

Other upgrades: strano sway bars, Detroit speed quick ratio rack.

lees02WS6

iTrader: (5)

@Mgill A bit of an aside, but UMI's rotojoints are a bit quieter than rod ends, and then Johnny Joints (Currie now sells them through their sub-brand RockJock) are quieter still, and they both have the handling advantage of rod ends. Rod ends also don't like street duty.

Johnny Joint draw backs, the tolerances are tight so getting grease into them without disassembly is near impossible, and the pre assembled selections are often not the size you need. Fortunately you can buy the housings and different sized spherical ***** separately. Though they can be hard to assemble without Curie's tool, or a press. Last draw back, they are spendy.

That all said, wouldn't install rod ends in a street used car again if you paid me. If the rod ends ever where you out, but you still want the handling - check out the other spherical type joints.

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

I was looking at the rotojoint umi lca and will probably upgrade to them when funds permit. I can't get rid of them in the watts link though. My other idea is to aquire a c5z06 so yeah.

gjohnsonws6

iTrader: (12)

You can buy the roto joints separately.

wannafbody

iTrader: (2)

I like the founders 3 piece poly bushing rear control arms. The ride like stock but have the ability to flex for more compliance than a traditional 1 piece poly bushing.

lees02WS6

iTrader: (5)

I forgot about those, that's another possibility.