lowering the front - coilover shocks

[Roflhat]

Hi,

My upper torsion arms are touching the coil over shocks, I think I need to lower the front to reduce the angle that the torsion arms are at.

The shocks are wound up all the way and they are still touching

Should I remove a coil from the shocks? or should I remove torsion leaves from the beam? (Ball joint front end)
I might have to lower the back as well to keep the height right.

Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks!

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Is there a reason you have them in the first place or were they on the car when you got it?

Coil over shocks are meant to augment the torsion bars and give additional springing/lift (front or rear). To remove splines is defeating the reason for having the coils-overs in the first place.

If you want the car lower only then there are several ways to do it, one being to 86 the coil overs (if you really don't need them for some other reason) and get some good shocks/dampeners. Good shocks, and I mean good shocks, can really make a car ride and handle so much better; the shocks in the coil-overs usually aren't that good to start with.

If you are working on making it handle only then we can go from there.

Lee

[Roflhat]

Hi,
thanks for the reply. I'm trying to get the car to handle the best it can, I bought them a couple of years ago, not knowing that there were better shocks out there.

I've got dropped spindles on the front and the back has been dropped roughly 2", although I think the coilovers lift the car up some.

Would you recommend I sell/trade them and get different shocks? If so, what's best?

Cheers

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Yes, coil overs will lift the car some to a lot.

Shocks are often a matter of opinion or personal preference. Out of the box stores shocks even their best are often OEM quality or not much better. Really good shock can cost $100 per corner and up. I hate to recommend brands myself as what is good for me may not be good for you; maybe someone else will recommend brands but I just don't feel comfortable about it.

Lee

[Roflhat]

Thanks again,

What kind of gas shocks should i use? I know, brands.... how are KYB's?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I've ran KYBs on the street, silvers in front (gas tank moved to the rear and no steel VW body) and whits on the rear. I guess they are OK; I run off-road mostly now and the silver colored ones were just not enough and the white ones were OK until I really needed them. Off-road experiences don't really qualify me towards giving advice for a street only toy.

Lee

[Roflhat]

I don't mind having a harsh ride, handling is my main goal. Anyone else got suggestions?

[Chris V]

The KYB GR2's are a fair, entry-level, sporty-feeling shock. Bilsteins and Koni's also hold high regard. For more sporty racing coil-overs (I'm assuming you have Chinese EMPI's or the like) many go with QA-1 (old Carrera).

If you do make a change to the front suspension - you will change your caster (self centering steering) without making an equal change to the rear axle.

SWAY-A-WAY makes 15/20% stiffer, replacement torsion leaves too.

The dropped spindles are often a problem with wheel selection </=15", have you already chosen your rims? Smaller/lighter rims are fairly common in aggressive setups when braking demands aren't high enough to warrant something bigger/heavier.

OEM 'Ghia spindle w/13" rim vs CB spindle w/16" alloy rim:

[Roflhat]

Thanks Chris V,
I'll try and get a hold of some KYB's then I think.

I've got dropped spindles, and I've fitted 1 set of caster shims too.
The wheels will be 5.5" stock style wheels by Lemmertz, 15"

[Ol'fogasaurus]

If you are also looking for handling performance, also look into sway bars front and rear plus anti-wheel hop bars (aka truss bars, Kaffer bars or like the $$$ [big buck] bars that Mendola sellshttp://www.mendeolasuspension.com/the-stiffy-- ... ystem.html to keep the rear transaxle arms from bouncing up and down (I posted the Stiffy just to show you the extreme). Remember that all Kaffer/truss bars are not the same so look hard at them and consider everything that is shown in what you are looking at.

Lee

[Roflhat]

I was looking into getting one of them, I think it can wait though, I've only got a stock 1300 (for now).

I want to get all the suspension/braking upgrades done before going for a bigger engine, even if it's only a 1600/1641 with performance parts.