272 replies to this topic

[benw]

Feeling guilty fo teasing you all now. I honestly thought yours will have turned up on Friday or something. Sorry I've been helping my parents move this weekend so I'm 150 miles away from the kit and all my tools right now. I'm dashing back this afternoon to fit them though so they won't have been wasted on me

[craglett]

would you take some pictures of your car if you get a chance?

[benw]

Well, I've got 3 corners on but I had to give up because it got dark and the extension lead for the light won't reach far enough. Oh and I split the finger at the end of one of my latex gloves so my hand got dirty I got home at 4.30 today - later than planned. I thought it would only take a couple of hours but I hadn't banked on losing my 17mm spanner and putting one shock in round the wrong way (Adjuster facing inwards so you can't reach it from the outside). Good news is the installation is dead easy. Unlike every other bolt on my car I've come across, the ones I needed to get at were not seized. There's only two per shock - one at each end. The bottom one on the front shocks is a little difficult to get to because there's another bolt 90 degrees against it so it's tight for space to get the spanner on it. You really need an open ended one because sockets and ring spanners can't fit on. The other tricky thing is that the new shocks have rubber bushes on each end which are a very tight fit in to the jaws of the chassis mounting points. As you slide the shock in the rubber deforms which means the bolt won't fit back through the hole smoothly. I ended up gently hammering most bolts in with a rubber mallet. I would reccomend having a blob of grease handy to lubricate the rubber as you slide it in. Final reccomendation, and it sounds obvious, but make sure you support the lower wishbone before you remove the shock. It will drop down as you remove the bolt otherwise (Especially at the rear where there's no other support). There's obviously no compression left in the spring when the car's jacked up but the suspension arm will fall under it's own weight. The other thing is that my set came without the springs attached. I don't have a spring compressor so I couldn't pre-set the ride height and slide the spring on afterwards which I'd prefer to do. I had to wind the height adjuster all the way down, fit the spring, then wind back up again. It got too tight to adjust by hand after about 30mm of winding so I've had to install them lower than I planned (I think about 350mm). That means the handling will be out until I can get geo'd. Overall I'm happy so far but there is a problem. How do I get to work in the morning?!

[djegiant]

The other thing is that my set came without the springs attached. I don't have a spring compressor so I couldn't pre-set the ride height and slide the spring on afterwards which I'd prefer to do. I had to wind the height adjuster all the way down, fit the spring, then wind back up again. It got too tight to adjust by hand after about 30mm of winding so I've had to install them lower than I planned (I think about 350mm). That means the handling will be out until I can get geo'd.

Uh oh!

You have fitted the springs correctly but to wind them up tight is going to give you a massively increased ride height!

These springs are unlike the standard items in that they have barely any static sag due to the increased spring rate and more linear spring characteristics!

To wind them up tight will give you an increased ride height over standard!

[djegiant]

Feel free to pm me if you need any help Ben!

[benw]

You have fitted the springs correctly but to wind them up tight is going to give you a massively increased ride height!

These springs are unlike the standard items in that they have barely any static sag due to the increased spring rate and more linear spring characteristics!

To wind them up tight will give you an increased ride height over standard!

But I wanted the tractor look!

I only wound it up about an inch from the bottom in the end so I'm safe. Can't accurately meaure the ride heights at the moment because the cars parked on a small ramp on one side (Need to get clearance for the jack to fit under the sill!) but it's about 340mm on one side and 360mm on the other so I rekon it will be about 350mm when it's flat and on all four wheels. Not bad for a lucky guess!

[benw]

By the way, just thought I'd mention that I did manage to get the final one on. Had to get up at 6am to finish the final one in time to go to work at 7!! So far not too bad. Geo is obviously out - it's all 'slimy' in corners but perfectly driveable. Need to get that done asap. Ride is better than before. Much less crashy although it's definately firmer. Ride height is about 450mm so only 10mm or so lower than standard and therefore doesn't look massively different from the outside. That's not my aim in doing this though so I wait for a geo to experience the full depth of Spaxy goodness Nearly forgot - have yours arrives yet guys??

Edited by benw, 08 March 2006 - 03:54 PM.

[craglett]

I have received JohnyB's and my set today. Hooray. I spoke with Chris at Spax and he says the rest of them will be along shortly. I ended up ringing Spax as the springs for the rear shocks had different part numbers than the manual suggests. The part numbers in the manual read A8350P and the springs read A9350P. I wondered if this was right as I was having trouble assembling them without force. Chris has confirmed they are the correct springs and have only been changed within the last few weeks. The front springs assemble on the shocks really easily if you wind the adjusters right down. The rear springs are a bit harder as you have to compress the springs a little (roughly 4 - 5mm). This is done by hand. On first attempt I was having trouble and decided I needed three hands. Once someone helped me, the collar to hold the top of the spring in place located reasonably easily. Chris said he would assemble the rest of the sets at the factory to save us having to do it. I don't know if this is going to spoil anyones fun or not, but at least you know they have been done properly. You could always take them apart and put them back together again if you fancy.

[craglett]

By the way, just thought I'd mention that I did manage to get the final one on. Had to get up at 6am to finish the final one in time to go to work at 7!!

Bloody hell. I would have taken the bus. I don't operate at 6am so I would definately not be up to fitting the rest of a suspension setup at that time.

Ben, you said you had wound up the suspension, did you wind it back down any? Just wondering how much you compressed the spring by.

[LY25MAX]

Did he mention the chances of the rest arriving by the weekend?

[SteveM]

Have spoken with POTN today and they've said we should receive them by Friday.....

[JohnyB]

I have received JohnyB's and my set today. Hooray.

YES!! )

Will you be able to ship them tomorow to me ?

[craglett]

I have received JohnyB's and my set today. Hooray.

YES!! )

Will you be able to ship them tomorow to me ?

You have a PM

[craglett]

Did he mention the chances of the rest arriving by the weekend?

He said all the remaining sets ordered on the group buy were still with him. He didn't mention if they were built or not, sorry. I will keep my fingers crossed for you all that they arrive on Friday. One good thing is that I think they must be sending them direct from Spax so there won't be a delay sending the to POTN first, then to you.

If anyone doesn't get them by the weekend and fancies having a look at them then you are welcome to come round for tea or coffee and fit mine for me (he says with tongue in cheek but half hoping someone will )

[LY25MAX]

Just had a parcel- thats my weekend sorted.

[craglett]

Good news max . I will keep checking on the forum to see how you are getting on. Anyone else got theirs?

[benw]

Ben, you said you had wound up the suspension, did you wind it back down any?  Just wondering how much you compressed the spring by.

To get the spring in I had to wind the height adjuster all the way down. Once the spring was in I wound it back up by about an inch so there is an inch of black thread showing beneath the spring. I measured the amount of adjustment across the front and rear pairs to make sure I had them the same on either side.

By the way, I noticed the part numbers on the springs were different too. I thought about ringing up to check but I was too excited and thought I'd put them on anyway!! I'm glad you confirmed it


EDIT: Winding up by an inch has produced a ride height of about 350mm so you'll need to go higher or lower depending on what you want the final ride height to be. It's much easier to wind up/down whent he shocks are off the car!

Edited by benw, 10 March 2006 - 04:24 PM.

[craglett]

I noticed the manual said nothing about setting the ride height, i.e. winding the collar up by 20mm from the bottom of the thread equates to 10mm drop at the wheel (made up figures obviously as i don't know what i'm taking about). Any idea how to work this out? At the moment I have just wound the collars up enough to take the slack of the springs, the amount I have wound them up is different front and back as the springs and shocks are obviously different lengths. At this point is was basically just going to make sure the rears were both the same and the fronts were both the same and then adjust them on the car. There must be a better way.

[benw]

You're right, there's nothing in the manual like that. Only that it suggests setting the ride height back to standard - not how to go about doing that!! To be honest I don't know what the ratio is or if there's a technical way of doing it properly. I took complete pot luck. I basically got to a certain point and it became difficult to wind the collars any further because I wasn't able to grip the shock hard enough so I resigned to adjusting it better once it was bolted in. In the event I was in such a rush I never got round to doing that - figuring it would be fine so long as each side was matched. I would reccomend setting the collars to an inch off the bottom on the rears and a little less than an inch for the fronts as a start

[JohnyB]

EDIT: Winding up by an inch has produced a ride height of about 350mm so you'll need to go higher or lower depending on what you want the final ride height to be.

350mm from where to where?