10-4!

 

if you find the link, i would like it as well. ill need them for the fronts and dont know this andy guy lol.

anyway. i came home to the GC koni sleeves. so i set the perches based on my measurements (not exact but close enough for now).

rears: fine. no problems at all with the GC top hats. there is about 3/4"-1" of free space between the spring and top hat, even with the shocks being shortened and having extended hats. i would like to have the spring tight on both perches but this is an improvement.

fronts: GC tophats def arent gonna work. the shaft doesnt even come through the top hat enough to get a nut on. the spring would have to be compressed like 1.5" thats just not gonna happen. or lower the front another 1.5" which also isnt gonna happen. so ill have to go with a normal height top hat.

 

http://www.kingmotorsports.com/p-845...-set-of-4.aspx

Why it's so hard to find them is beyond me!

 

Cool thanks.

 

good info guys. i havent heard alot of knocking from the a arms to the shock towers except for driving to and from the track on bad parts of the interstate. i will certainly check visually to see if there is signs of contact. contact might as be limited from the tire rubbing the inside of the body also.

but i didnt think about extended top hats with already shortend damper shafts. i will look into those s2 units. thanks.

 

I'd just like to point out that however many pounds of preload you put into spring is also when the suspension runs out of droop travel as weight is transferred off of it in a corner. Let's say you preload the spring 1", using auto-x's numbers. That's 500lbs, which is equivalent to 340lbs at the wheel. If the front corner weight is 740lbs, as soon as you transfer 400lbs off of that corner, the shock is fully extended. On a perfectly smooth track, further weight transfered off this wheel would just compress the corner it's being transfered to, i.e., on formula cars with zero droop front, as weight is transfered back during accel, the front aero stays where it's at. However, with bumpy tracks, once full extension is reached the load on the tire will wildly fluctuate from zero (being in air) to 340lbs or more. In theory, if you can lift a tire at max lateral g's, you shouldn't have any preload unless you have other reasons to limit droop (such as increasing bump travel). Interesting that once full droop has been reached, further compression of the other side lowers the c.g. of the car.

Seems like having just enough bump travel, and leaving the rest for droop (until springs unseat), is sound advice.

 

I never/rarely experience it on track.

There is one turn (a bit of a compression zone along with a bump in the track) where it used to happen, but hasn't happened since i moved from the spss3 valves 8041s to the 3011s.

And i have a fairly low ride height, of 4.5" to the jacking point up front.

 

yea, i think i am going to go with the stock top hats up front. i wanted an aftermarket like skunk2, but its really just wasted money when i can do the same thing with stock. ill just replace the rubber with ES poly.

even with the stock top hat, ill have some preload. probably in the 2-300lb range. i also mounted up the fronts without the spring to check the bump stops. seems the length the bump stops that comes with the spss3s are pretty good. the bump stops make contact right before the upper arm would hit the shock tower. so i didnt cut them at all. leaves me with a little over 2" of compression travel at the shock. sound about right?

 

In theory it is ok to have a little preload on the springs. Normally when one wheel is extended the other is not, so the sway bar pulls up on that wheel and the shock doesn't actually extend out all the way. Only problem is that it will be a PITA to adjust ride height and corner balance with all that preload on.

If I recall, Koni's have about 3/4" of thread sticking over the top hat, so you can buy yourself some extra droop travel with a sleeve to move the shaft downwards, or just move your tophat downwards with a spacer or something.

In retrospect, you should have asked Koni to remove a droop limiter from inside the shock body.

 

are you also using the gc extended top hats?

 

No, I'm using a race mount that keeps the spring off of the chassis. But I do run adjustable uca which are longer then stock....

These are old, the rub marks on the upper wheel well are from when it was a street car. But i still run these upper mounts.

 

Those are nice mounts. Spherical ball? Custom made? Or does someone make these?

 

Correct, Spherical in a thread/weight jacking center section.

Ground Control makes them, but they don't have the center sections right now. They are being made. $400 for a set (2)

 

yea i just saw that GC had some, but looks like they are extended like their normal top hats. would be OK for the rears on my setup.

they look a little different on their website. or are those different than the ones you have?

 

different, they don't advertise them. And a lot of people have said that when they call and ask for them they say they don't exists..

If you want a pair i can let you know when they get the parts in.

 

thanks. it was more curiosity at this point. maybe something for the future.