on September 10, 2010, 9:09 pm Daze wrote:

Well I was slightly disappointed. when I first mocked up my suspension I used an OEM set of shocks and coils. I was thinking the KYBs would be quite a bit stiffer so I was anxious to see how they would effect ride height and suspension stiffness. I got my coils mounted up on the KYBs and got them under the car and there was only about 1/4" difference in ride height, and when I pulled on the car to test the suspension firmness, there was little to no difference between the side with KYBs and the side with OEM shocks. I am assuming the KYBs will be much stiffer at highway speeds, but at normal ride height there was little to no increase in stiffness, bummer.

I am so glad that tyrellracing pointed out that I need to consider the weight of a half full fuel tank when setting my ride height. a half full tank makes about 1/2" difference and a full tank makes about 3/4" difference. there was enough change that I moved my upper shock mounts outboard by one location. This had the benefit of making the suspension stiffer and made the car sit about right when the "tank was full" but when I took the 100# of weights out the ride height was way to much. I think I am going to have to raise my crossbar by about 3/4" I have the room to do it, so it should not be a big deal. I would really like to get my shocks a little more vertical to get a little more stiffness so I may tweak things further. I might also add some shims to both ends of the coil springs. As long as I don't add to much the coils should still seat fine, but by adding the shims force the spring to be a little further compressed and effectively stiffen the spring.

All in all it was a good day. I finished the mock up and then blew it all apart so that I can start modifying things. once I do that I will mock it all up again... this is fun