Cali,68,L-79

In my 4th month of owning these coil-over shocks I'm still trying to get them right, and before you ask yes I've been in communication with Speed Direct (SD)over this.



Problem is the springs are too stout, they say 250-350in/lb rate I say no way maybe 350-450 in/ lbs any slight adjustment of the collar results in a huge ride height increase. This is the height I want 26.5"


I cut the coils 3 months ago as directed by S.D. by 1 coil and reinstalled and got the 26.5" shown above but over time the the springs got loose to the point I clank clank over every bump. Today I pushed heater hose over the top of the spring to counter this


And raised the collar 3 turns.


It took care of the clank clank noise but resulted in 28"/28.5" so I lowered the collars 2 turns and the noise is slight but the best I got was 26.5"L/ 27"R. If I lower the right a 1/2 turn the spring is loose and I get the noise. If I entertain taking the A-arms apart all over again (4 hours) to cut 1/2 coil on the left that leaves me with a spring with 4 coils and it already drives like a city trash truck. Mrs. Cali hates the harsh ride and the settings are on almost the softest settings. With 4 months experience I have enough experience with these to say the AFCO racing shock setup is fantastic but the $%#& QA1 springs (all parts made by different companies and sold together as a kit by Speed Direct) are not designed for a sports car. Maybe a 10 ton truck but by no means do they allow ride height adjustablilty as advertised, well they are adjustable only one way UP )

I have a couple options;

1. cut even more of the QA1 spring coils and hopefully achieve the delicately fine balance between height and spring looseness BUT be forced to live with such a harsh ride it may rip the welds right off my A-arms.
2. live with the 26.5"/ 27" height difference and the now muffled clank clank still with harch ride.
3. poopie can the entire set up. Go back to stock type i.e. reinstall the old springs (cut 1.75 coil to get 26.5" height and buy new KYB shocks.

I'm almost 100% sure they sent me the BB springs by mistake. S.D. I'm not slighting you. I honestly believe QA1 put BB springs in a SB box and sent it to you. No way you would know. BTW Dave Meyers Corvette who works on my car says those are definetly not small block coil over springs and he installs coil-overs all the time for 20 some years.



[Modified by Cali,68,L-79, 4:56 PM 7/4/2004]

Schmucker

Maybe some of the springs offered by QA1 for GM A-bodies would work on this setup. They are the same semi-coilover style. You'd have to see if they were the same size on the top and everything. Maybe you'd have better luck with those. I'm please with the ride height with my full coilovers. I can't get the clank clank noise you are referring to because the springs had to be compressed to get the tops on. The solution to your problem I would think would be softer springs that can be set high enough so that the suspension extends downward before the shock can fully extend.

1979toy

Find out your spring rate and contact a racing supply shop.

Didn't notice that your springs were semi-coil over. I have to agree with the QA1 suggestion above.


[Modified by 1979toy, 11:40 PM 7/3/2004]

Pete79L82

If the spring is loose then you are riding on the bump stops and that is a very what dangerous situation. No matter what spring you put in, in order to be at 26.5" you will still be on the bump stops. The only cure for this is to replace the shocks with the correct length body. This is not a problem with the spring or shock, but a problem with the wrong components being used.

LFZ

Cali, IMO, i say get some VBP springs...cut to fit, and buy some Bilsteins...KYBs are junk from my experience. I got 26" fender height, rides rough with poly bushings, big sway bar, and cut springs, but I have to admit, its tight.

Desertdawg

I was sure leaning towards going coilover, after reading this, I'm not as impressed with it now.
Please keep us posted as to what you end up doing.

mrvette

Some time ago I got into a discussion with Norval about his coil/over setup, and since to ME, it's nearly the same as the stock setup in form and function, I asked him what was the advantage, and he replied the biggest thing he found was it made the front end much easier to take apart and put together in another configuration......

somehow I fail to see it as a wise move for most of us,.....

Norval is a damn smart fellow, and loves to tinker so for him, yeh.....

I"m sure there had to be some racer's edge there too, but in reality???

GENE

Cali,68,L-79

Dawg if I had to do it over again I wouldn't. I would have spent 20 minutes installing some KYB or Blinsteins for under $200 versus 4 plus months on these http://www.speeddirect.com/index.aspx?nodeID=70 at $950.

Fevre

Might just yank em and sell now, should cover the cost of the new springs and shocks, you will be happy and the new owner can see if they can make em work. I choose not to add up the cost of all the things I bought that sounded good but didn't pan out.

Cali,68,L-79

That's the direction I'm heading. the original springs are sitting in the garage and I may have them powdercoated next week while I hunt for "stock type shocks". What a waste of time.

Cali,68,L-79

Well just took another 1/2 turn tighter on the collars and going out for a cruise to settle the springs out and see what height versus clank clank I get.

Cali,68,L-79

ttt

more pics.

Twin_Turbo

schmucker, the setup you mention is actually from Carrera but QA1 bought them, their set is for GM a bodies and other GM cars but the corvette is not listed, however I suspect no one tried it and it should work fairly similar to the speed direct kit. the one major advantage I see in their kit is the vastly superior lower mounting system..

As for calis problem, I agree with pete, if you hear a clunking nise from the spring it HAS to be the spring bouncing because there's no load on it. This indeed is dangerous. The problem with the kit and the reason you can't lower the ride height is because the cross pin sits above the control arm, you need to have it down lower so the collar adjustment does have effect. Also, with the cross pin lower you wouldn't have had to cut coils off the setup to lower the car.

mrvette, there are some advantages to the coil overs like ride height adjustability of each corner independant of others, easy servicability, large selection of valving & springs which are then easily changed, looks (very important).

Mike Smith

Cali -

We are in the same boat. The only difference is I bought the nonadjustable shocks and my springs are for BB cars.

I agree with your comment that the adjustability is all upward.

I bought these units because I did not want to spend hours disassembling and reassembling the front end, cutting and recutting the coils to get ride height just where I wanted.

Having spent last winter completely rebuilding the front end, I'm not in any mood to crawl back under my car to begin taking it apart in the July SC heat. But when I do decide to tackle this job, I will first pursue a fourth option: I will contact QA1 and provide them with the stock number of the coil spring included with the SD kit and ask what they have available in a shorter spring. Hopefully they can help me out and I'll only have to disassemble the front end one time.

Before I bought and installed these units, I read here about your need to cut coils, so my problem wasn't totally unexpected. One of things I did in anticipation of a problem was to retain the QA1 box with the stock number. QA1 makes a lot of different sizes of springs and I've got to think there is a better one for each of us.

By the way, the BB spring in the SD kit carries QA1 stock number 806990013163 and the label is marked 11-365/465. Hope this helps you determine if you got the BB spring in error.

Good luck!

norvalwilhelm

Some time ago I got into a discussion with Norval about his coil/over setup, and since to ME, it's nearly the same as the stock setup in form and function, I asked him what was the advantage, and he replied the biggest thing he found was it made the front end much easier to take apart and put together in another configuration

Gene I originally went to coil overs all around for the ease of taking the front end apart or taking the trialing arms off, Twin turbo actually talked me into it. It requires alot of cutting/welding/fabricating if you want to do it right. I spent most of the winter making attempt after attempt to get it just right. The back was the hardest with 7 different attempts before I was happy.
The front went right the very first time but again it was alot of cutting and welding and making the parts.
Since then I have done many test and bought over $1000 worth of springs. The nice part is I can remove the complete shock/spring, change the spring and put it back in about 10 minutes and that includes removing and reinstalling the tire. Height adjustment is just turning a wrench/ a coilover wrench.
So while I really recommend true coilovers they are too much work for most people.
Double click to enlarge




[Modified by norvalwilhelm, 8:13 PM 7/4/2004]

Schmucker

What springs (length and rate) did you finally end up with on the front? I've got 10" 350lb/in right now and it's all the way down on the shock. But I might change to a firmer, short spring. But then when I have all those aluminum engine parts and remove all the worthless parts from the engine bay over time it'll rise up on me.

AlwaysWave

I'd expect SD to be bending over backwards to solve this.

Schmucker

I wouldn't have even put it on the market if it didn't allow the vehicle to be lowered greatly.

Twin_Turbo

it was to be expected, I've said before that the mounting point is shabby, not only from a strength standpoint (I'm still not convinced it is safe like that) but also from a height perspective. I see the shock eye cross shaft is now located ABOVE the arm, making it a bit safer than the intitial mounting below it and only relying on the bolt strength (although the metal is pretty thin there still, wouldn't be surprised to see it shear) but this makes the problem even worse since the shock eye is not located even higher.

Just look at where the threads start on the shock in relationship to the lower arm. It's obvious that the ride height will be a problem and I too feel it should have been tested before marketing. Perhaps THAT's the reason why carrera didn't offer their kit for the vette, although their conversion obviously fits the lower control arm and the top is just a mushroom bushing type deal, like we see here.

What's the collapsed & extended (or stroke) length on those shocks? they look awfully short to me.

If you look at Norval's pics you will see he has a proper mount below the control arm that's lower than the one on the shark bite kit, he will not have a problem setting the proper ride height.





[Modified by Twin_Turbo, 1:23 PM 7/5/2004]

The Dude

Personally I never could figure out why SD assembled a "kit" from different manufacturers: AFCO shocks; QA1 springs.

AFCO manufactures springs, too.