dblissett
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| posted on 2/2/04 at 08:56 PM |
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how much droop do you have?
now i have your attention
i am just about to sort out the front wish bones
but because my chasis is a 442
i think i will have to move my suspension brackets also my shocks are 14 1/2 inch long open so how for past horizontal should the bottom wish bones be
in full droop
ps why o why did i make this thing none standard somone shoot me
cheers dave
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JoelP
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| posted on 2/2/04 at 09:14 PM |
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when i did mine, i connected the bones to the hub and chassis, and let it hang at full droop. i then lifted it half an inch and welded the shocker
brackets in, so that the shocker will stop droop rather than the lower ball joint reaching full lean. i then used the adjustable spring seat to
correct ride height. i only had about 4 or 5 inches full travel to play with anyway.
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 2/2/04 at 10:11 PM |
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I worked on the basis that I wanted about 50mm droop and at least 75mm compression at the wheel.
suspension is a complex issue, but in my simple world, I thought that the phsics of equal an opposite applied, and allowed for a decent amount of
droop into potholes.
put another way, the suspension is compressed about 50mm at the wheel as its lowered off the jack. At this point the lower 'bones are approx
level.
dont commit yourself to a final shocker mounting position until the car has the engine in and is fairly much 'at weight'.
one thing to watch tho is the transit top joint. It limits the amount of travel you can get before it limits. This is especially the case with sierra
hubs as the top joint is tilted. If you look at MK 'bones you will see the top joint is angled to compensate. Make sure that the top joint is
free to rotate all the way thro the steering angles and doesnt also bottom at the extremes - caused by excenticity of the top mounting joint angle.
hope that makes sense.
I ended up doing my whole front suspension twice.
atb
steve
[Edited on 2/2/04 by stephen_gusterson]
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craig1410
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| posted on 2/2/04 at 11:27 PM |
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Hi,
Just to add another approach:
I took the recommended ride length of the dampers I was using (GTS Tuning dampers) and made up pieces of steel tubing drilled to give this length
between bolt centres. Note that optimum ride height is not necessarily in the middle of the full stroke.
I then bolted this tubing up to the wishbone and shocker upper mount and set the front lower wishbones to optimum ride height making sure that this
didn't leave my sump or chassis lower rails too close to the ground. I then tack welded the upper bracket in place where it hit the chassis rail
before checking that I had left enough spring clearance around the upper wishbone.
To figure out optimum ride height you need to set your lower wishbone at an angle such that the suspension pivot centres and lower balljoint centre
(centre of ball that it) are level. This will usually leave the wishbone itself sloping slightly upwards towards the chassis. Hopefully your top
wishbone will be sloping slightly downwards towards the chassis at the same time.
As the other guys said, make sure that there are no clearance issues and that all the balljoints can articulate in all required directions without
binding up. Easiest way to do this is to remove the spring, fit the damper and lift it and turn it in all directions. You might want to determine the
best position and length for your flexible brake hoses at the same time.
HTH,
Craig.
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Surrey Dave
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| posted on 3/2/04 at 07:35 AM |
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Droop..........
When I built mine i made dummy shocks as above, the length between the centres being egual to 1/3 shock absorber stroke, as I was advised the car
should sit at 1/3 compression when at ride hieght allowing another 2/3 travel when loaded, especially as the last 1/3 is on the rubber bump stops with
my AVO shocks, this has proved OK except my rear shocks where a little short on travel so I had to up the rear springs more to stop being impaled on
my own haemorroids!
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dblissett
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| posted on 3/2/04 at 09:36 PM |
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shocks travel
so it seems the best way is to assemble the front wish bones top and bottom check what the full movment is
then go for 1/3 compressed when the bottom wish bone is near to level
in my case this seems to work out as
1 1/2 compressed and another 3 inches of further travel as my shocks have 4 1/2" of travel without bump stops
this should all be tack welded because if its anything like my back end it will take me at least 3 or 4 attempts before i am happy
oh and i am using cortina uprights
thanks for your help dave blissett
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craig1410
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| posted on 4/2/04 at 01:02 AM |
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Dave,
Bloody 'ell 4.5 inches of travel !! Mine only have 2 inches of travel... What did you get them off, a pickup truck! Only kidding 
Your assessment seems fair, my dampers are 12" at full droop, 11.25" at ride height and 10" at full bump which more or less matches
your 1/3 to 2/3 estimate.
Cheers,
Craig.
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 4/2/04 at 09:16 AM |
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my shocks have about 4 ins of travel total - the swept movement at the wheel looks more like 8 inches, with shocker and no spring - cant compress it
with a spring over that distance. the car will likely bottom before the spring does
atb
steve
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dblissett
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| posted on 4/2/04 at 07:52 PM |
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shocks
my shocks are a set of spax adjustables that were for a mini all four were new and i pay'd £80 for them
hows that for locost
i have had to turn up my own spring bases in stainless though
cheers dave
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chrisg
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| posted on 4/2/04 at 10:28 PM |
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Mine are mini/spax ones ane someone gave them to me
so I win!
LOL
Cheers
Chris
Note to all: I really don't know when to leave well alone. I tried to get clever with the mods, then when they gave me a lifeline to see the
error of my ways, I tried to incite more trouble via u2u. So now I'm banned, never to return again. They should have done it years ago!
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dblissett
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| posted on 5/2/04 at 07:47 PM |
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you win
it costs more if your billy no mates
i just make sure our machine shop are my mates it saves a small fortune
cheers dave
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