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At what point does it become beneficial to raising the upper strut mounts? Just bought some Founders caster/chamber plates and from what I understand these are already approx. 1" taller than the factory strut mounts. I will be lowering the car using weight jacks as I want to be able to eventually corner balance the car after I'm done with the suspension rebuild. I want the car low but I really don't have know how low I want to go and I don't want to limit the strut travel. My idea is to fabricate a spacer to use under the strut mounts to raise them up another 3/4" to 1". I understand this isn't my idea as I've seen others on this forum do the same thing. I'm attaching a picture of what I'm talking about, I found this this picture on this forum so maybe someone knows whose car this is and they could chime in I'd be interested in what they have to say about using spacers.
Struts, or any damper in general really, have a "center" point, that they then deflect from. The ones for coil-overs are a bit less this way than typical stock ones which are carefully designed in this are to give different jounce and rebound characteristics for smooth ride etc., but still. Ideally, whatever combination of height and dampers you end up with, should put the dampers (struts) at or close to that point, for the specific dampers you choose.
Struts, or any damper in general really, have a "center" point, that they then deflect from. The ones for coil-overs are a bit less this way than typical stock ones which are carefully designed in this are to give different jounce and rebound characteristics for smooth ride etc., but still. Ideally, whatever combination of height and dampers you end up with, should put the dampers (struts) at or close to that point, for the specific dampers you choose.
The plan is to eventually put in a set of Koni's, but for now unfortunately it's Monroe Sensa Trac's……..do they even make those any more?
Koni I think still makes them for our cars. Almost positive Monroe still makes that kind; they have 2 "levels" if you will, the Sensa-Trac is the better one. They had another high-performance line (can't recall the name) but that went away quite some time ago.
A simple way to find out where your car is at in bump travel is to put a ziptie tight around your strut shafts at the very bottom, go for a drive under the conditions you're concerned about, and jack the car up and see where the ziptie ended up. If you're on a-arm mounted bump stops, put some paint or grease on them and see if you're contacting them.
If you need more travel, you can machine spacers for your strut mounts, and/or buy Ground Control's fabricated strut housings which use Koni cartridges. They're said to add "over 1" inch of bump travel and reduce the monster truck droop these cars have when they're in the air. If you're slamming onto the bump stops, you can trim them or switch to strut shaft mounted type. Just make sure you aren't bottoming out the struts.
Koni will warranty their struts unless you're bottoming them out and they find out when you ship them in for inspection. I figured that out the expensive way with my MR2 haha.
The plan is to eventually put in a set of Koni's, but for now unfortunately it's Monroe Sensa Trac's……..do they even make those any more?
For cheap "factory replacement" style dampeners the KYB GR2 stuff is good they are valved stiffer. I used them on my circle track car to set the corners of the car up different because we weren't allowed anything adjustable or labeled for racing/performance, so I researched the different stock replacement style stuff... That is what I threw on for now on the T/A as well. I'm in there this year doing founders strut mounts, cutting springs, all new steering with a pieced together bump steer kit so wanted new dampeners in there, but on a budget after everything else the car has been spoiled with this spring.
Originally Posted by sofakingdom
Koni I think still makes them for our cars. Almost positive Monroe still makes that kind; they have 2 "levels" if you will, the Sensa-Trac is the better one. They had another high-performance line (can't recall the name) but that went away quite some time ago.
They apparently stopped making them unless someone orders a batch, as per a recent thread I saw. Rock Auto no longer carries the Koni stuff for us. But, I'm pretty sure we can still get them through the site sponsor shops.
A simple way to find out where your car is at in bump travel is to put a ziptie tight around your strut shafts at the very bottom, go for a drive under the conditions you're concerned about, and jack the car up and see where the ziptie ended up. If you're on a-arm mounted bump stops, put some paint or grease on them and see if you're contacting them.
If you need more travel, you can machine spacers for your strut mounts, and/or buy Ground Control's fabricated strut housings which use Koni cartridges. They're said to add "over 1" inch of bump travel and reduce the monster truck droop these cars have when they're in the air. If you're slamming onto the bump stops, you can trim them or switch to strut shaft mounted type. Just make sure you aren't bottoming out the struts.
Koni will warranty their struts unless you're bottoming them out and they find out when you ship them in for inspection. I figured that out the expensive way with my MR2 haha.
At what point does it become beneficial to raising the upper strut mounts? Just bought some Founders caster/chamber plates and from what I understand these are already approx. 1" taller than the factory strut mounts. I will be lowering the car using weight jacks as I want to be able to eventually corner balance the car after I'm done with the suspension rebuild. I want the car low but I really don't have know how low I want to go and I don't want to limit the strut travel. My idea is to fabricate a spacer to use under the strut mounts to raise them up another 3/4" to 1". I understand this isn't my idea as I've seen others on this forum do the same thing. I'm attaching a picture of what I'm talking about, I found this this picture on this forum so maybe someone knows whose car this is and they could chime in I'd be interested in what they have to say about using spacers.
I ran a quick and simple metal cable that’s plastic covered from the shock tower to the sway bar mount of the lower control arm (Spohn). I’m running 8 inch tall 1250 pound per inch springs with homemade weight jacks. If I jacked the car up without the limiting cables, for sure the springs would pretty much fall out. Ride height is about 26 - 27 inches depending how I adjust the weight jacks. This works in the rear as well and you can purchase everything from Home Depot or Lowes pretty cheaply.
I ran a quick and simple metal cable that’s plastic covered from the shock tower to the sway bar mount of the lower control arm (Spohn). I’m running 8 inch tall 1250 pound per inch springs with homemade weight jacks. If I jacked the car up without the limiting cables, for sure the springs would pretty much fall out. Ride height is about 26 - 27 inches depending how I adjust the weight jacks. This works in the rear as well and you can purchase everything from Home Depot or Lowes pretty cheaply.
I think the shortest spring I tried that wouldn’t move around when the suspension was in droop was about 10.5 inches tall. I wish a standard 5.5 x 9.5 Afro would work since their easily available. Since the OP has the camber caster plates and spacers they might be able to use a 9.5 tall spring but I still had stock shock mounts when I tried.
01-22-2021, 10:56 AM
