Bottoming Out Shocks

[Dave Schultz]

Dallas' black Coronet had been launching like shit. Doug Duell was watching him launch -- and said the car was terrible.

Dallas said the car was pulling at launch and at the top end.

Damon looked at the shocks and said they were worn out.

I sent them back to Aldan Eagle to be rebuilt.

Today Aldan calls and says that the shocks had been bottoming out something terrible for some time, blew the valves and bent the shafts. He said the ride height had been set wrong.

I asked for a lesson on setting the ride height up properly (as I was clueless) -- and he said that since these are 16" shocks, that I need to set the length to 14.5"-15" bolt hole to bolt hole with the spanners on the springs -- with the car on the ground. Then I need to get a tie wrap snugly on the shock shaft all of the way down at the shock body, and trim off the end. When the car launches and the shock compresses -- it will leave the tie wrap up on the shaft at maximum compression. You want at 3/4"-1" of shaft left before bottoming out the shock.

[AtomicWedgie]

That is great info

[texoutsider]

Could it be that they maybe blew out THEN bent?..........same way we always set up shocks...
M.

[poppaj]

Sounds like that car needs to be scaled and lined up. Sounds like a trip to Uncle Mark is needed.

[Dave Schultz]

Apr 7, 2011 21:36:56 GMT -5 texoutsider said:

Could it be that they maybe blew out THEN bent?..........same way we always set up shocks...
M.

Possible -- who is to know for sure. Obviously Aldan wants me to know that it was not the fault for the shock -- but mine, as they need to talk me out of a couple hundred bucks to replace the broken parts and rebuild.

The shocks didn't have that many passes on them as the motor got windowed early on and the car sat.

I personally never touched the spring spanders -- and my understanding of mechanics (which could be wrong as I don't know suspensions real well) is that if they loosen (as everything on that car does since it is a pretty hard charging car) it would set the ride height in the opposite direction of bottoming out. (Moving the spanders up compresses and down extends -- right?)

The bottom shock bolts have to be taken out many times to lower the rear end and get the slicks out. I guess it is possible that the ride height adjustment could have been accidentally moved during that over the years.

The important thing is that we learned something -- and now know the concept of ride height at the shocks, what can happen, and what to check.

[fastdiesel]

My first set of coil overs in years, are on the Malibu now. I'll check 'em in Commerce. Neat tip.

Both coil over cars in the past were scaled and set up by someone else. I'm anxious to try the zip tie check.

Malibu's not fast enough to need scaling. With the new back end, it's kinda boring to drive now. No twisted wheelies, and weaving and bobbing down the track. A little bounce when taking off, then a 1/4 mile, "Sunday drive"......every pass.