R500 suspension on a 1992?

[CTrickle]

Hi all,

Me with another question!

A couple of years ago I bought a set of R500 dampers and springs from a chap I was getting some wheels from.

Now I'm looking at fitting them but they are about an inch longer (see picture) than the original ones, will they fit or is this because the R500 has wide track?



Any advice welcome!

Thanks
Ed,

[rubystone]

The one in the left is adjustable...and thus I assume is the R500 one? Mine didn't have red springs though fwiw.

[sfaulds]

A 92 chassis has different pickup points - they wont fit.

[CTrickle]

That's a shame!

Any advice on where to find some adjustable suspension that will fit my imperial (not wide track) suspension?

Trying to avoid buying from Caterham...

Cheers
Ed.

[pikeyboy]

CTrickle said:

That's a shame!

Any advice on where to find some adjustable suspension that will fit my imperial (not wide track) suspension?

Trying to avoid buying from Caterham...

Cheers
Ed.

you can buy some sleeves from Caterham that go over the top of your existing dampers turning them into adjustable platforms.

[V7SLR]

They'll fit of you go to widetrack and don't use the shock extenders that are usually part of the widetrack kit. You might need to fit them upside down because the clearance is slightly better.

[CTrickle]

Hi all,

Are these shocks for a wide track? I posted them for sale and have had feed back that perhaps they are not for a 'wide track' car because they don't have extenders on.... if this is the case are they for the later metric narrow track cars...?

I'm a bit lost and really don't want to sell something that is not going to fit.

When I bought these I'm sure the guy had them from and R500, would that have been narrow track? Therefore the reason I ended up with them maybe because he converted it to wide track race car?...

Any help massively appreciated.

Thanks
Ed.

[upsidedownmark]

I understand the comments on this thread correctly, they're for a narrow track car, BUT over time caterham have used different pickup points on the arms/chassis resulting in your 92 requiring a different length shock to the car they came off (which I guess was more recent).

[Smitters]

CTrickle said:

That's a shame!

Any advice on where to find some adjustable suspension that will fit my imperial (not wide track) suspension?

Trying to avoid buying from Caterham...

Cheers
Ed.

It's all budget dependent of course, but I have a 96 imperial chassis and after a chat with Simon at Meteor, went with one way Nitrons. They are adjustable at the platform and also in the damping character via a click adjuster, depending on what you mean by adjustable. I also looked at refreshing my existing Bilsteins and fitting new springs, or fitting aftermarket platform adjustable, damping non-adjustable (via clicks) springs and dampers. In the end, the desire to have my cake and eat it led me to Nitrons. And poverty.

[V7SLR]

CTrickle said:

Hi all,

Are these shocks for a wide track? I posted them for sale and have had feed back that perhaps they are not for a 'wide track' car because they don't have extenders on.... if this is the case are they for the later metric narrow track cars...?

I'm a bit lost and really don't want to sell something that is not going to fit.

When I bought these I'm sure the guy had them from and R500, would that have been narrow track? Therefore the reason I ended up with them maybe because he converted it to wide track race car?...

Any help massively appreciated.

Thanks
Ed.

The pickup points were changed 1996 onwards. A post '96 shock is around an inch or so longer than pre '96. Likewise a shock destined for widetrack needs around an extra inch as well, whether being fitted pre or post '96, hence the use of the extenders.

Therefore ...

Pre '96 cars need the shorter pre '96 shocks, widetrack gets the extension piece.
Post '96 cars need the longer post '96 shocks, again widetrack gets the extension piece.

The anomaly is that the widetrack extender is pretty close in length to the difference between the pre '96 and post '96 shocks, it's therefore possible to fit post '96 shocks (without widetrack extenders) to a pre '96 car that has widetrack wishbones. I've done this but had to fit them upside down to get clearance.

All R500 shocks are post '96 ... therefore to fit them to a pre '96 car you'd need to be widetrack and not use the widetrack extenders.

Hope this makes sense!

[DanMalkin]

Simple solution is, remove the adjustable collar from the R500 ones, plus springs- and fit them to your old shocks.
You'll need to compress the springs on your old shocks to remove the top collar, then pull the spring off. The bottom collar I recall is retained with a C clip. Do same with R500 shocks and slide adjustable collar over your damper. You'll need to adjust the C clip into one of the grooves in the damper body to suit the spring length and adjustment to set ride height. However it's all simple work to do..

[DanMalkin]

Simple solution is, remove the adjustable collar from the R500 ones, plus springs- and fit them to your old shocks.
You'll need to compress the springs on your old shocks to remove the top collar, then pull the spring off. The bottom collar I recall is retained with a C clip. Do same with R500 shocks and slide adjustable collar over your damper. You'll need to adjust the C clip into one of the grooves in the damper body to suit the spring length and adjustment to set ride height. However it's all simple work to do..

[SimonRogers]

If you can measure the eye to eye lengths on both I will tell you what they will fit on.

In short though a Narrow Post 96 damper will also fit a wide pre 96.
Wide Post 96 only fits post 96.
Narrow Pre 96 is only ever a narrow pre 96.

This does not take any account of spacers that can be added or removed.

[Farlig]

CTrickle said:

Hi all,

Me with another question!

A couple of years ago I bought a set of R500 dampers and springs from a chap I was getting some wheels from.

Now I'm looking at fitting them but they are about an inch longer (see picture) than the original ones, will they fit or is this because the R500 has wide track?

Any advice welcome!

Thanks
Ed,

PM sent