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Crisis

Jedi Hopeful
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I recently replaced my springs with the lowered/stiffer variety and wanted to ask some questions regarding my observations while driving the new set-up.
I may be crazy but rather than being tighter, the car feels "bouncier". Especially in the rear. I have new stock shocks in the front and the original lever arms in the rear. I didn't go with the heavy duty rebuild for the rear shocks rather I just cleaned them up and replaced the oil with a heavy fork oil.
My question is; is the increase in bounce expected because the stiffer springs aren't controlled by a stiffer shock? Is the stiffer shock required when going with a stiffer spring?
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Since the shock absorbers main job is to control the spring, you may be on the right track to answering your own question.

Its also possible that you still have some air in your shocks. How did you got about switching the fluid?
 
Remember the story of the Goldylocks and the Three Bears? Springs follow the same basic story.

A spring that is too soft lets a car wallow around. When you go over a bump with soft springs the wheel goes up over the bump, squeezing the soft spring. Because the spring is too soft, the wheel keeps on going up after the bump, and then goes down as the whole car goes down. The car feels very soft on the bump, but wallows coming off the bump.

A spring that is too hard bounces the car around. When you go over the bump with hard springs the wheel goes up over the bump, but since the spring is real stiff, it doesn't compress. The whole car rises going up over the bump now. The car feels very jaring hitting the bump, and skitters around because the suspension isn't moving enough.

A spring that is just right lets the wheel rise up as it hits the bump without lifting the car much, and without having the wheel fly up into the air after the bump. A fine balancing game indeed!

Now the shock. In a perfect world the shock will dampen the motion just right. With a very soft spring the shock really has to work to catch that flying wheel. With a very hard spring the shock barely moves.

So it's quite possible that with stiffer springs your car now skitters around.
 
swift6 said:
Since the shock absorbers main job is to control the spring, you may be on the right track to answering your own question.

Its also possible that you still have some air in your shocks. How did you got about switching the fluid?
Click to expand...

Curious here Shawn,
When I reworked my shocks, I worked the air out with the lever arm
but I left a small air space just under the filler bolt. Is this
procedure correct? or should the shock be filled to overflowing?

thanks,

d
 
Regarding filling the shocks, I left the shocks in a vice for a day and everytime I went by I gave it another shot of fluid from a syringe. That, interspersed with moving the arm up and down seemed to allow it to fill. Everytime I thought it was full-it would take a little more.
I don't know if I'd call it skittering, but the perhaps the best way to describe it is when I push down hard on the rear bumber the car will continue to bounce maybe 3 or 4 times. The front doesn't do that-maybe 1 or 2 bounces. Hope that describes the problem better?
 
That is classic symptom of a bad shock. Or, you probably don't have all the air out. When you push down on the rear, it should do as the front is doing.
 
Crisis, your shocks should damp the bouncing in 1-2 oscillations, both front and rear. So, yeah, it sounds like your rear shocks aren't damping enough anymore.

Scott
 
Stiffer springs do require stiffer shocks, but unless your springs are hugely stiff, "3-4 bounces" says "bad shocks" to me rather than just mis-matched.

Dale, some air space is necessary. The oil gets hot in normal operation and expands. Without some air space, the resulting pressure will force oil past the seal, possibly damaging it.
 
Thanks Randall! I kinda figured an expansion area
might be needed. FWIW: my 100% rebuilt rear suspension
now produces one rebound when the bumper is pushed down.

thanks as always,

Crisis- As I recall; jerky or gritty feeling during hand
moving the lever arm is an indication of a bad shock.
Mine were both very smooth action.

d
 
I had the same experience after installing Goodparts springs on my TR6. The rear end bounced and bottomed out a lot. Not a problem after installing the tubular shock conversion.
I noticed a major difference immediately and wasn't sure I would like the change. After driving it for 2 years, I won't go back.
 
Dale, Randall answered your question just as I would have.

Crisis, it seems that you either have some bad valves in those shocks, could just be plain worn out regardless of the weight of oil you put in, or you still have air in there. Seems to be a consensus... but those have been wrong before. :wink:
 
You might find this useful. As an aside,when I drained and refilled mine(on the bench) I added oil thru part #11. the valve components are under spring pressure. They won't jump out, but keep track of the order which 2 or 3 parts come out.. The shocks fill faster thru the valve compartment. Work the lever as you did but it doesn't take long to fill that way.
You'll feel the resistance building as you work the lever and the shock fills.
See:
https://home.comcast.net/~rhodes/shock.html or https://home.comcast.net/~rhodes/index.html
Tried twice to activate the linc, you might have to type it , sorry.
 
poolboy said:
You might find this useful. As an aside,when I drained and refilled mine(on the bench) I added oil thru part #11. the valve components are under spring pressure. They won't jump out, but keep track of the order which 2 or 3 parts come out.. The shocks fill faster thru the valve compartment. Work the lever as you did but it doesn't take long to fill that way.
You'll feel the resistance building as you work the lever and the shock fills.
See:
https://home.comcast.net/~rhodes/shock.html or https://home.comcast.net/~rhodes/index.html
Tried twice to activate the linc, you might have to type it , sorry.
Click to expand...
Shock link one
Shock Link two
 
Thanks, Safari. send me a mail and tell me what you did. Thanks again,pal.
 
DougF,
Did you find that the 1" lowering actually turned out to be about 3"? I really can't drive my car now and am going back to the stock springs. At the front, the frame is only 3" from the ground. At the back it is 4.5" from the ground. Impossible to drive like that, around here anyway. Tires rub, and I hit a dip at 30 mph the other day and I thought I'd driven the radiator protector plate through the fan. What have you found with the lowered/stiffer springs?
Crisis
 
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