hi all, long story short i had a word with the the pro tech guy at stonleigh at the weekend and i liked what i saw, so placed an order! but here is the problem, have i ordered the right thing?.....

after hours of research ive found nothing conclusive as to weather or not you can use 14" shocks instead of 13" with a 1" extension or nothing definitive as to how the extension came about in the first place but here's what i "know"...

it seems that since there are now so many different set-ups of roadsters that the shock choice has been "diluted" a bit from what was first designed and because of the diff cover on the mx5 a few different suspension set-ups on the rear have meant all sorts of different shock choices on the rear (some down to 12" ) so i should state i am trying to keep my suspension set up as close to talons tmxr as possible by changing the diff cover on the rear, so maybe he can shed some light on the subject also?

i bumped into (i stopped and asked ) a nice chap who was holding a steering rack and a set of protech shocks and he was building an mx5 based roadster (like me) and he had a set of 14" shocks all round and advised that i go and talk to the protech guy so i did

it seemed from research id done that 14" shock with a 9" spring would be fine for the rears but since the 13" shocks with the 1" extension used 8" springs using a 14" shock with a 9" spring could cause clearance issuses with various drag link and steering set-ups so here's what i have so far..

ive ordered a set of 14" shocks with 9" 250lb springs for the rears
and a set of 13" shocks with a 1" extension with 350lb 8" springs for the fronts

i am hoping this is the best of both worlds, but the guy at protech is happy to alter my order (if he knows soon enough) to suit if i find out anything different so any help and and advice much appreciated!as im certainly no expert!

Hi,

This page (an the next one) on the Haynes Forum should hopefully give you the answer. Be careful, read all the posts as some are talking about Sierra based Roadster. For the MX5 based Roadster, it looks like there are different setups if it is a Saturn or a Talonmotorsports (TMX chassis).
http://forums.haynes.co.uk/showthread.php?t=13638&page=36& amp;highlight=shocks

I can't help more because I built a Sierra based Haynes Roadster, but if you go ask your question on the Haynes Forum, many guys there have built or are building MX5 based Roadster and will help you finding the right set-up.

The set up you have ordered is for a Sierra based Roadster (it is exactly what I have on my car), and I doubt it can fit an MX5 based Roadster, but I might be wrong.

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Originally posted by subjated
hi all, long story short i had a word with the the pro tech guy at stonleigh at the weekend and i liked what i saw, so placed an order! but here is the problem, have i ordered the right thing?.....

after hours of research ive found nothing conclusive as to weather or not you can use 14" shocks instead of 13" with a 1" extension or nothing definitive as to how the extension came about in the first place but here's what i "know"... Yes, you can use both, but 14" will have more travel than 13" so in my mind slightly better unless you have very stiff springs.
Extension its OK, but extra weight IMHO, so you should use what your installation call for.


i bumped into (i stopped and asked ) a nice chap who was holding a steering rack and a set of protech shocks and he was building an mx5 based roadster (like me) and he had a set of 14" shocks all round and advised that i go and talk to the protech guy so i did

it seemed from research id done that 14" shock with a 9" spring would be fine for the rears but since the 13" shocks with the 1" extension used 8" springs using a 14" shock with a 9" spring could cause clearance issuses with various drag link and steering set-ups so here's what i have so far.. if you have not placed the order, you can Mock Up your shocks with short lengths of PVC pipe of appropriate diameter and cycle your susoension through full travel in all directions. then decide if clearance is OK and order accordingly.


i am hoping this is the best of both worlds, but the guy at protech is happy to alter my order (if he knows soon enough) to suit if i find out anything different so any help and and advice much appreciated!as im certainly no expert!As you may confirm on several threads on this forum, Protech is highly praised and should have no problem in setting you up with the best solution.

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thanks for the replies..
i kind of have placed the order as i got a good deal i dont think they will be the wrong lengths, but im a way off mocking up suspension atm

as for the link you posted voucht, thanks but i still cant see anything conclusive there for what im doing, at least i have a version of both could always swap them around and change the springs?