Clubsport Supension Droop!
Discussion
Can anyone tell me the installed length of Clubsport dampers, with the car on its wheels at nominal ride height?
My car's up on stands now, so I have no way of measuring installed length, till its standing on it's feet again in the Spring.
The reason I'm asking is that I'm planning to have my old dampers rebuilt by Avo, and they can install 'droop limiters' of any required size in the damper during the rebuild - I want to make sure I don't specify limiters so thick, that they put too much preload in the springs.
Ho-Ho-Ho!
Laurence
My car's up on stands now, so I have no way of measuring installed length, till its standing on it's feet again in the Spring.
The reason I'm asking is that I'm planning to have my old dampers rebuilt by Avo, and they can install 'droop limiters' of any required size in the damper during the rebuild - I want to make sure I don't specify limiters so thick, that they put too much preload in the springs.
Ho-Ho-Ho!
Laurence
On my one we set them all the same and set the ride height at each corner, but had terrible understeer and uneven tyre wear.
Finaly got the corner weights measured and they were WAY OFF, needed many turns on one diagonal to set the corner weights even. This improved the handling greatly.
I recommend not relying on spring length, or ride height but get the corner weights correct.
Finaly got the corner weights measured and they were WAY OFF, needed many turns on one diagonal to set the corner weights even. This improved the handling greatly.
I recommend not relying on spring length, or ride height but get the corner weights correct.
Guys - thanks for input.
I did a basic calc for the rear suspension (which doesn't have the Nik-Link suspension and is therefore easier to work out):
Assuming a car with all-up-weight (inc. driver and fuel) of about 570 kgf (1257 lbf), with 40:60 front:rear static weight split (a guess!), and an unsprung weight on each of the rear corners of 35 lbf (another guess!), then sprung weight on each rear wheel will be approx 342 lbf. The spring:wheel motion ratio at the rear is something like 0.75:1.0 (very approx!). So, the static load on the spring will be 342/0.75 = 456 lbf. If we assume the use of 450 lbf/in rear springs, then, assuming no preload in the spring, we'd require about one inch of deflection to produce the static load of 456 lbf. Adding this one inch to Rob's 310mm (12.2" ) installed length, and we get 13.2" between centres for an unloaded damper with zero spring preload. As my dampers, unloaded, are 13.5" long, I'd need 0.3" internal droop limiters fitted, just to avoid the spring unseating itself when I jack the car up.
Anyone else done this sort of calc. and come to the same conclusion?
Give it some thought at 3PM Christmas day when everyone else is listening to the Queen
I did a basic calc for the rear suspension (which doesn't have the Nik-Link suspension and is therefore easier to work out):
Assuming a car with all-up-weight (inc. driver and fuel) of about 570 kgf (1257 lbf), with 40:60 front:rear static weight split (a guess!), and an unsprung weight on each of the rear corners of 35 lbf (another guess!), then sprung weight on each rear wheel will be approx 342 lbf. The spring:wheel motion ratio at the rear is something like 0.75:1.0 (very approx!). So, the static load on the spring will be 342/0.75 = 456 lbf. If we assume the use of 450 lbf/in rear springs, then, assuming no preload in the spring, we'd require about one inch of deflection to produce the static load of 456 lbf. Adding this one inch to Rob's 310mm (12.2" ) installed length, and we get 13.2" between centres for an unloaded damper with zero spring preload. As my dampers, unloaded, are 13.5" long, I'd need 0.3" internal droop limiters fitted, just to avoid the spring unseating itself when I jack the car up.
Anyone else done this sort of calc. and come to the same conclusion?
Give it some thought at 3PM Christmas day when everyone else is listening to the Queen
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