I'm not sure what the issue is with shock mounts failing, but I guess it's enough of a problem that LG made this video to show that theirs isn't going to give you a problem:
I don't know what people are doing while street driving that would cause a shock mount to fail, but I'm not worried with my stock suspension.
Bob
Aren't coil overs supporting some of the weight of the car on the shock towers instead of where it was designed? The shock towers were designed for shocks, not springs. It should be no surprise that there might be some failures from doing that. I personally wouldn't bother so I'm not directly familiar with that situation. This is just a theory here.
Aren't coil overs supporting some of the weight of the car on the shock towers instead of where it was designed? The shock towers were designed for shocks, not springs. It should be no surprise that there might be some failures from doing that. I personally wouldn't bother so I'm not directly familiar with that situation. This is just a theory here.
I hope that Pfadt has corrected that with the new Delran(sp?) mounts that are on all of the new-style coil overs that they sell. Otherwise you do have me a bit nervous.
Aren't coil overs supporting some of the weight of the car on the shock towers instead of where it was designed? The shock towers were designed for shocks, not springs. It should be no surprise that there might be some failures from doing that. I personally wouldn't bother so I'm not directly familiar with that situation. This is just a theory here.
Yes, you're right - the whole suspension system was designed to work well with the stock leaf springs, and I find they work great on the street and the track.
I'm just an HPDE guy, and the leaf springs work great for me. I guess if I were a W2W racer and looking for every 1/10th of a second I could get that I'd consider anything that might give me that extra edge. But, for the street......
I guess beefing up the mount is one of the things that LG has done with their coilovers - in the video he shows a mount that spreads the forces, and the video shows pretty convincingly that it works well.
I hope that Pfadt has corrected that with the new Delran(sp?) mounts that are on all of the new-style coil overs that they sell. Otherwise you do have me a bit nervous.
My theory comes from some experience in another related area. Back in 1969 a friend of mine had a new Roadrunner. It was popular in those days to jack up the rear of the muscle cars with airbags. He had installed them and kept breaking the shock mount where they were supporting the car. I saw this part first hand as I was asked to weld the broken parts for him. The leaf springs were no longer doing the job. We had to beef up the very thin structure at the top of the airbag to keep it from breaking repeatedly.
I am not at all concerned with this issue because it isn't an issue. GM engineered and sized this aluminum frame to flex within its endurance limits. And everything flexes including steel.
Aluminum frames are NOT suppose to flex at all. Remember that.
There's a thread over in the ZR1 section about this same thing. Some guy is worried that if you use a Z06 or ZR1 as a DD that it's gonna fall apart. Here's my response from over there, and I'd give the same advice to the OP of this thread - don't ever fly in an airplane again if you're worried about aluminum breaking after a few flexes:
Bob
funny how that was my thread and I am in this one too
There's a thread over in the ZR1 section about this same thing. Some guy is worried that if you use a Z06 or ZR1 as a DD that it's gonna fall apart. Here's my response from over there, and I'd give the same advice to the OP of this thread - don't ever fly in an airplane again if you're worried about aluminum breaking after a few flexes:
Bob
But my aluminum Diet Coke can flexes and crumples badly so the Corvette frame must do the same.
Dodge Prowlers were recalled for failing aluminum frames. Really pissed off some of the Prowler guys because dodge replaced the vehicle (no frame repairs), but made no allowance for any mods done (a lot of custom paint worth a lot of $). Aluminum must be engineered correctly to guard against stress risers and cracking. Steel is much more forgiving. Also, when a steel frame begins to fail (due to rust, damage, over stress) it fails gradually, but an aluminum structure will fail all at once.
See...I was just hoping (knowing of course it wouldn't happen) that nobody would say anything unless they had problems with their Z06/ZR1 aluminum frame. That way, there would have been NO RESPONSES. See how that was supposed to work?!
See...I was just hoping (knowing of course it wouldn't happen) that nobody would say anything unless they had problems with their Z06/ZR1 aluminum frame. That way, there would have been NO RESPONSES. See how that was supposed to work?!
Aluminum frames are NOT suppose to flex at all. Remember that.
You are clearly not an engineer. I am. You are wrong. Any part that takes a load (stress) will deflect (strain). Engineering terms for flex. Simple physics. The only thing to debate is how much deflection will occur. I believe GM has sized the frame cross sections internally to take the loads and the resulting strains imposed by the Z06.
__________________
GOLD72
1972 WB Coupe L48/TH400 - Sold
2001 QS Z06 - Sold
2006 VY Z06 - NCM Delivery & Daily Beater!
2007 MR Vert - NCM Delivery & Wife's Car!
This is true, I had my aluminum frame replaced with a glass one and I can still feel some flex. The cool thing is that I can see my fuel lines and torque tube from the side of the car.
Let's see now, there are still DC-3's flying and the wings aren't falling off. So I think my ZO-6's frame will still be here in fine shape long after I'm turned into ashes.
Location: Canonsburg home of Yenko Chevy (gone but not forgotten) Western PA
Quote:
Originally Posted by GOLD72
You are clearly not an engineer. I am. You are wrong. Any part that takes a load (stress) will deflect (strain). Engineering terms for flex. Simple physics. The only thing to debate is how much deflection will occur. I believe GM has sized the frame cross sections internally to take the loads and the resulting strains imposed by the Z06.
