Suspension rebuilding improvement

[Crazy Dave]

So Whitey, I know the event was wet but did you get much of an idea if the car felt better after the shocks got rebuilt. Does the slow degradation of performance show up with the rebuild. Thinking how far I will let mine go before I rebuild them.

Cheers Dave

[Crazy Dave]

Bump

Whitey, so do you feel the difference after getting the suspension rebuilt, now that you have had 2 events, one wet and one dry.

[Whitey]

Hi Dave,
sorry missed this post previously,

I've changed several things since the rebuild of the struts. I had high speed bump increased to stop them bottoming out and killing the bearings in the strut tops. This was based on the big spring rate i was running.

I also carried out a little survey and found that i was running higher spring rates in the front than anyone else. So i have reduced the rate a from 50nM/mm to 40 nM/mm (285 lb/in to 228 lb/in) and maybe undid a bit of the high speed bump change.

What spring rates are you running? You can PM me if it's a secret;)

I don't think your struts are valved the same as mine were, as Shab had them changed when he owned the them.

To answer the question, based on all the above, It seemed a bit taily (sp?) at Narooma, However I had a bit of rear brake bias. At Taree it is was more stable at higher speed. I am still getting used to carrying the extra speed around corners.

[Crazy Dave]

I will jack the car up over the weekend and post my spring rates. I think the end of this year if I can round up the money I will send them in for some TLC as one of them performs dismally on the shock machine (and that was 12 months ago when I was setting up for Taree last year). I don't know how many would struggle on the machine now, although by feel they don't seem to have deteriorated to me, but I couldn't pick the one that was working at 25% either. I suppose none of them work as effectively when you are going sideways (I am still smiling after the fun roads on the weekends, gee it was fun driving the little beast again and finishing a rally, especially some of the drifting 100 plus kph bends - come on Bega)

[Crazy Dave]

Reading back over this I already had the signs that I needed to rebuild but didn't and nearly totalled the car in being to cheap. From now on whenever they deteriorate a bit it will be time for a rebuild as finding out a shock is dead in the middle of a rally proves dangerous. Now to try to work out whether they need setting at a different rate or not. Does anyone know how to determine what settings to set a shock at. Is there any good websites or does anyone know the specs that should be used. I still haven't looked at my spring rate yet but will hopefully have them all out of the car by the weekend.

[ernysp76]

Dave check out this article first:

http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=273

A lot of what Glen & JC are talking about makes sense when you read some of this stuff as well. The important thing is to know what your car is or isn't doing now and this will give you and idea of why you'll find the info on the link will help answer some of this. Also if you do a search on Carroll Smith it brings up some ecellent sites based on his work.

[Crazy Dave]

I did look at that and has some very good info, but not what I am after really as it is focussed more at track, not rally (although there are many similarities but some differences) and rear wheel drive from what I can see. Now that I have to rebuild my shocks, should I stiffen them or not, should I change spring rates (hopefully not as that will cost more money), should I change the rebound or bounce rate etc.

My car handles alright to me, but it doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference to have a dead shock (only lost an extra 2 sec a km thereabouts but didn't feel much different except for some wicked spins that I thought was just me but made sense in the end) so I am not very good at diagnosing handling. Maybe I need to get the shocks rebuilt to an average setting and take the car somewhere to get a front wheel drive expert to drive it and then let me know what I should do with wheel alignment, but it is too late then to change shock settings as that will probably be an every second year thing, or maybe annual thing at best. My times are alright as I seem to be about a second a km of the pace at the moment, but with Glenn and Paul getting ready to go quicker, I will probably need about 2 seconds a km or better.

[Crazy Dave]

Sorry I never got back to this Whitey but my spring rates are still 50 (285lb) in the front and 20 (114 I guess) in the rear.

[Crazy Dave]

Oh and shocks have now been rebuilt. Need to try to find some bearings for the strut tops as they are stuffed and don't seem to be available locally, but keen to get the car out at Coffs and see if it makes a difference at all. Still pondering wheel alignment settings but probably stick close to what I have run with minor adjustment again.

Front 0.5 mm toe out, -1 deg camber and some positive castor
Rear 1.5 mm toe in, -1.5 deg camber and some positive castor.

[Andrei]

Rear 1.5 mm toe in, -1.5 deg camber and some positive castor.

:confused:
excel with 4 wheel steering?

[Crazy Dave]

oops my secrets out or maybe too much copy and paste:mad:

[Crazy Dave]

Can't decide whether or not to remove the anti roll bar, particularly the one in the front, especially as Coffs is such a nice smooth and fast run that traction shouldn't be an issue. Sending me crazy:crazy: , but if I don't do it now then I might not for a while so maybe better to do so, if I get the time and the rain stops as car is outside on stands (well on bricks and bits of wood etc:spank: ). I have finally removed the seat belts so no easy option now Matty, its harnesses all the way.