JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

What brand and model of tire do you have? Try dropping the rear pressure to 28psi.

Also, the stock shocks are pure junk. They contribute a lot to the harsh ride.

my01ws6

iTrader: (16)

I have BFGoodrich Gforce Sport....ordered new front tires on Friday as well...so that should help a little bit

alright Ill try that....tomorrow Im going to remove the spacers and see if it helps any....then I will see if I can find some z28 bumpstops....change them out....then I will get some new shocks...and if it still rides like **** I will buy some new springs....

My turbo kit Im piecing together is sucking all my money up......LoL thats why Im not looking forward to redoing the suspension, cause I figure that will add up to around $1k or so....

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Unless they have a stiffer sidewall. Are the new ones Gforce Sports as well? Tirerack shows them to ride fairly smooth so it's probably not a tire problem causing the harshness.

I remember when I had the stock 16" Goodyear GSC's. Man were they stiff. Every little bump would shake the whole car. I was actually afraid about going to 17's as the ride would probably be rougher. To my surprise, it was a lot smoother.

Then when I installed the new shocks and stiffer springs I was worried it would get rougher again, but it actually was smoother still. This was with my Koni SA shocks on full soft. I had to firm up the shocks to get back to the ride quality I had with just the 17" tires. So now my ride is firm, but not harsh and I have tons of performance over the old stock setup.

If you actually have the money, I would get the GC coilover kit for the front ($250 or so and you choose the spring rate you want in 50lb increments. Strano sells them). This will let you fine tune the front ride height to the Nth degree. You can go as low as you want until you start scraping things and then raise it back up like 1/4". With regular drop springs you never know for sure what the drop will be.

Koni SA shocks ($250ea front, $150ea rear I think) are really nice because you can control the damping. You can make it softer or firmer to suit what you like.

Then for the rear spring, just get some stockers and cut one coil. It will drop you and increase the spring rate to about 135lb/in which is good. That's exactly what I did and I have no regrets.

Here's my current ride height on 26" front fender lip and 26 1/4" rear.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...A/315GSD3a.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...wCalipers3.jpg

When I first installed the suspension stuff I tried it out much lower, like 25" front and rear. It looked awesome, but rode bad.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../jasonww21.jpg

With these parts you'll never need to swap them out for anything else.

my01ws6

iTrader: (16)

my rear is the same height as yours except my front is about 3/4" lower maybe a TAD bit more....

Also just so you know....I will be getting AR Rebels....17x9 in the front and 18x10 in the rear I dont know if this will be a problem or not....but just wanted to check on it....I am on my stock 17's right now....

You wouldnt happed to have any pics of the side would you? side on the setup your running now?

Yes thats what the new tires are....

I do have a question....if I go that setup....GC's in the front and stock w/ 1 coil cut in the rear and koni all around could I lower my front to about 25 1/8" and still have a good ride?

.

wabmorgan

JasonWW your car has an awesome stance!!!!!!!

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Here are 3 side pics.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...isecarpic2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...wCalipers2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...SideView1b.jpg

If you set the front that low you will be riding on the bumpstop and that will feel very harsh. There is only one way change this. You have to modify the shock or the shock mounts. By far the easiest way to do it is to have the front shocks shortened. There is whats called a "motion ratio" on the front springs and shocks of these cars. It is 1.7 For every inch the shock compresses the tire will move 1.7 inches. So they are not directly related. Keep this in mind.

If you have your front shocks shortened say 2 inches, you will gain 3.4" of suspension travel. The plastic liner above the front tire can flex up some, but eventually you will rub against the metal fender area. It can be tweaked and rolled to allow the tire to tuck really high into the wheel well. Then you can limit the suspension travel by using packers on the shock rod, they are 1/8" thick plastic spacers with a split in them that will cause you to hit your bumpstop sooner. You can see them in the pic below:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ront15copy.jpg

That will do the trick.

Also, it's possible the QA1's are shorter than stock.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Thanks.
I can give it whatever stance I want. I just think this one is nice to my eyes.

Frankly the ride height is just right for me. It doesn't scrape on hardly anything, but the ride could be better. I know if the front had maybe another inch of travel it would smoothen out the ride some. A couple years ago I was working with several guys to find a way to increase the front suspension travel. Shortening the shocks is the easiest as you just pay your money and bolt them on. The only problem is if you need to replace a shock, you have to have the new one shortened as well and it's not cheap to do.

What made sense to me was modifying either the top or the bottom shock mounts. If I could move the top mount up one inch or the lower mount down one inch that would give me 1.7" of extra travel. At the same time, all of these mods would reduce the wheel dropping down 1.7" as well, but that's OK as it can drop way too much as is.

The upper mount has more promise in my eyes. I could do away with the complicated setup the factory uses (I can explain why it's designed the way it is if you want to know) and basically use a rubber mount just like on the bottom of the front shock or even like the top of the rear shocks. Having the GC setup opens up a lot of neat ideas. If your into racing a rod end can be used and will get rid of the slop, but may also transmit more NVH to the cabin.

Here's one of my ideas using a mount found on the rear upper shock mounts.



The wiggly gray piece at the top is a piece of plate steel. It is what bolts to the car under the A-arm mount. The center of it will need to be cut out as well. This particular arraingment is unique in that I moved the Koni hat above the spring for easy adjustment. The 2 rubber bushings would handle the front weight of the car, so I'm not sure how big I should make them. A larger diameter will give them extra stregnth. A poly bushing on the bottom is also a choice.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

I could also weld a shock mount onto the Koni hat like this:



Then cut a simple mount out of plate steel and weld it to the upper A-arm mount. I would probably weld in studs instead of using bolts. It would look like this.



As you can see there is over an inch that the shock mounts higher. The big rubber bushing should ride well as well as allow the tilt needed for when the suspension compresses and extends.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

It would be kind of similar to these custom rod ended pieces:



They allow the shock to mount much higher, but my rubber bushings would help the ride quality.

my01ws6

iTrader: (16)

intresting....are there any spring and shock combos that will put me as close to what I want? The setup you have is PERFECT in the rear....what if I cut 1 coil off the spring in the front?

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

No.

If you want the front real low and the ride smooth you'll have to physically alter the suspension parameters. IE, shorten the shock or alter the upper or lower shock mounts. Unless that is done you will be riding on the bumpstops.

Why don't you lift your front and cut away that black dust boot on the shock so you can actually see the bumpstop. Then lower the car and see how much travel you have. It's not hard to do.

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the factory bumpstop does limit usefull travel about 3/4" in comparison to aftermarket shocks.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Here's some info on where to get new rear bumpstops. Part numbers and such.
http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=9442

my01ws6

iTrader: (16)

What exactly does that mean?

Thanks for the info!!

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

It means the factory set up thew shocks and bumpstops conservatively. You can mod the rear bumpstops to gain 3/4"-1" more travel and when you swap the front shocks out you will have different bumpstops up there and they will automatically give you about 3/4" more compression travel up front.

Here is my bumpstop thread
https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspension-brakes/249607-bumpstop-spring-rates-inside.html

Here is my thread on the stock suspension travel specs.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...23#post6741923

They are a dry read without cool diagrams and such, but the info is there.

Carlos01SS

iTrader: (4)

My God, this thread is 8 pages long now???

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

It depends on how many threads are shown per page. This is page 4 for me.

I'm kinda going on and on here and hopefully some folks can learn some new things.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Here's a better idea.



Then make a simple mount on the upper A-arm to bolt it to. This would give you way more suspension travel than you would need plus make it very easy to adjust the shock.
It's very similar to the coilover pic I posted above, but with a rubber bushing to maintain a nice ride.

my01ws6

iTrader: (16)

Yeah man I REALLY appreciate all this GREAT info!! Have you ever done that stuff in the pics your showing me?

Also how do you gain that extra suspension travel in the rear? change bumpstop and remove spacer or what?

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

The modded shock mounts in post 67, 68 and 77 are just some Photoshops of different ideas I had. Did you mean some other pics?

It's kind of a secret as most people don't know this. Under certain circumstances it's OK to extract that extra rear suspension travel. First, you have to know at what point your rear shocks will bottom out.

Here are the Koni SA rears:


Whatever shock you have, compress them all the way and mark them on the shaft. Now measure how high up the axle can move assumming you compress the bumpstop to it's halfway point. Will the shocks allow you to compress them an extra inch?.

Typically these bumpstops:


can be cut down some and then re-tapered. If you have plenty of shock travel before it bottoms out, then your good to go. Keep in mind, if you sometimes carry several people or heavy objects it may not be a good idea to modify the bumpstops. I don't carry heavy stuff in the back, so it's no big deal for me.

The key is to make sure you will never compress the shock more than it's supposed to. Since I'm running a 315 rear tire I removed my factory bumpstops completely and made new ones on the shock. As you can see in this pic:


I was very carefull, measured everything and made sure the bumpstop I used will fully compress before the shock reaches it's limits. This protects the shock from damage.

About the maximum extra travel you can get from the rear axle is about one inch. At that point you start to hit the exhaust, so don't try to go for more than that.

Even something as small as 1/2" extra travel in the rear can really help. You will also need to make sure your springs are fairly strong and you have good shocks. Both of those things will also help keep you off the bumpstops and make your ride smoother.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

I'm seriously looking into these shock mount ideas again. Last time I messed with them was in 04. I'm just now switching to 19's and low profile tires and I really don't want to pinch a tire or something. So if I can mod the shock mount to gain extra travel up front it will help protect my tires as well as smoothen out the ride. So this would be perfect for me.