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Adjustable shock mounts or fixed?

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richberman

richberman

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While I've got my car at the welder I was wondering people's thoughts on replacing the fixed shock mounts with the adjustable ones. Is it worth modifying this if my car will be a daily driver with an occasional run around a vintage race track? Anyone have experience with the ones AH Spares sells?
thanks,
rich
 
I wish those were readily available when my chassis was *at the welder* (me).

I had dreamed up a similar way to introduce negative camber, but lacked the machinery (and money) to turn out a set of the shock mounts you can buy today.

More than just being able to dial in negative camber (as opposed to the 1* postive stock value) is the ability to match the setting on the left side with the right side; something not possible with the stock setup.

In the end, I chose to rely on eccentric bushes, but those plates would've been better...

bush14a.JPG


bush18a.JPG
 
Rich,
I put the adjustable camber plates on mine. I built my AH for the street and spirited drives in the mountains. If you don't put them on you could use one of the new kits that allow adjustment of camber by, what I think is, offset bushings. I believe Cape Int'l sells them. Either way without some form of adjustment you are locked into the stock 1d pos. camber.. not an ideal setting for your intended occassional track days. I have my adjustable camber plates set at 1/2d neg. and it feels great. You may want to put in a bit more for the track, but I feel the -1/2d is a good compromise for me.

Pictures of the installation are in my project paper on my suspension.
https://www.stevesaustinhealey.com/...suspension-upgrades&catid=2:projects&Itemid=3

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the ones AH Spares sells.

Cheers,
Steve
 
Tom's Import Toys has an alternative that's quite a bit less expensive, and easier to install if your mounts are in good shape:

https://www.tomsimport.com/new/parts/parts.asp?sect=30&new=1

I have no experience with these; we put the adjustable mounts from Kilmartin on our BN2. I don't know if these allow any front-to-back movement, but if so you might be able to get a little caster adjustment as well (Tom can probably tell you). The drawback is these don't have the inside and outside screws for moving the shock.
 
A friend of mine has them on his BT7 and is very happy with them, he explained you could improve the handling alot with these.
Was at a garage meeting 2 weeks ago, the car beign rebuilt there was also having these adjustable plates installed.

DSCF0491.jpg
 
Randy,
What do you think about the Moss (Kilmartin) [ https://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=66015 /], AH Spares [ https://www.ahspares.co.uk/products/productdetail.aspx?GUID=45b68a46-3c70-47b7-b0a4-5eeb3f666bfa /] and Tom's [ https://www.tomsimport.com/new/parts/parts.asp?sect=30&new=1 /] at this point in my project?

<span style="color: #990000">OK, One more choice is [ https://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=75681&SortOrder=1</span>

Do you think this decreases the value of the car since it's "modified"?

Rich
 
Definitely the Kilmartin/Moss ones; easiest to make adjustments on, and the bump stop moves with the shock.

Given how these are virtually unseen, and a useful (as opposed to go-fast) modification, i doubt they would diminish the value. They may even give the car a leg up over a similar car w/out them, should you decide to sell.
 
Randy,
Are the eccentric bushings a pain to set....they are quite a bit less expensive....and no welding...
Since I'll be setting up the suspension upon installation anyhow, I could just set them according to your preference and leave them alone.
thoughts? I'm afraid to get into the "while I'm at it" problem.
rich
 
Mine weren't; I milled a 1-1/16" wrench thin enough to fit between the shock arm and trunion. Loosen the shock link a little bit, and rotate them to the desired setting.

I don't yet know how much, if any, that they're wearing, as they haven't been removed since being installed. So far, no front end noises...

Since yours do not need to be replaced because of bad threads, this is a perfectly acceptable (and reversible) way to go.
 
the bushings are easy to set by eye, but you really don't know what that translates into camber till you put it on an alignment rack. I found mine were 1% different once on an alighnment rack. I think anything that moves is subject to this guessing game.

Jerry
BJ8 with offset bush
BN$ no offset bush- Can't tell them apart and this car has won two autocross events.
 
As far as I can tell from this picture, this installation has slots so the bolts for the shock can slide, but has no slots so that the bump stop can move with the shock. This might be a problem (maybe it's just the photo).
 
Just to update the group on the project - all has gone well and the welding is the only thing left to complete the job. Some useful tips/tricks for those thinking of taking this on - I had some issues with the captive nuts - I can't believe two fell out on their own. I was using the suggested method of applying a BFH to a screw threaded into the nut and it was not budging. I then decided to hit it from the side. This seemed to put all the force into one of the three tack welds rather than distributing across the three and it worked a treat. It was especially useful for the back nuts as hammering down is very difficult due to limited space. The plate from Tom's Import slid right in and I folded the "flap" down in preparation for the weld. If I can squeeze it in today, I may have this project 50% done--if not, it'll be a few weeks as I'm traveling a good bit. I'll update the thread as I make more progress.
 
Good Job Trotti. It's my opinion that if you are building your car for normal road use you don't have to do anything to the stock camber. Remember adjustments can become unadjusted or out of adjustment. If you just like driving your car on the public roads, KEEP IT SIMPLE ! Bye the way, you could have updated your own post about this subject. You having put it here I may never have seen it.
 
We had a set of the Moss Motors adjustable plates installed in our BJ7. There must be a few 'variables' in this as the final range of adjustment was a bit different from the left to the right side (imprecise installation? deformation of the chassis/suspension mounts over the decades; the Dark Side strikes?), but no complaints here. We also installed the trunnion bearing replacement as well while it was apart and converted to the Udo Putzke Bilstein shock kit - memory ain't great, but I think we also went with his polyurethane bushings. The shop that did the work advised that the car was the best riding/handling 3000 that they'd ever had. Doug
 
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