TVR Parts Drop Links

[ChimpOnGas]

Hi guys, I'm researching drop links and more and more I find myself agreeing with this statement from Simon....

Sardonicus said:

Rose joints have no place on a road car IMO every one I have come into contact with as been worn/play inc dust booted ones and I am not just on about TVR cars you cannot have any movement in these things without noise and I am not willing to put up with that rattling and why would I? I don't mind harder less compliment suspension but don't do rattles just my cents worth I cant see rose joints having no benefit whatsoever over ball-jointed links (i.e Civic/Accord kit) neither have give like the stock rubber ones.

I have Leven rose jointed links and they made a massive improvement when I first fitted them, but I'm about to embark on a project to completely eliminate all my suspension noises and leaking rear dampers aside I'm pretty sure some of them are coming from my Leven links, so I'm now tentatively looking into alternatives to rose joints.

Has anyone tried the TVR Parts drop links?





Racetech now seem to offer the same thing too....



Are these really just Honda drop links sold at a big mark up?

I'm happy to look at the cheaper Honda drop link solution but only if someone can reassure me with a link to where I can buy exactly the right ones, I need be 100% sure they will fit perfectly first time with no messing about. If there's any fitment uncertainty at all then paying a bit more at a TVR parts specialist to be sure I'm getting the right part that fits & works properly would probably be a my preferred option.

Who's using this type of drop link on their Chimaera and how are you getting on with them?

Do they really eliminate those annoying drop link related noises?

Thanks, Dave.

[s3c chris]

Interesting thread!

I have just bought a set of these drop links from TVR parts. They have not arrived yet though....
Interestingly after looking at the various options for my last car I did indeed buy a set of the Honda drop links as suggested on these forums.

When they arrived it was obvious that no way would they fit my car so I sold them on ebay!

More often than not I am beginning to realise that you are better off with the "correct" parts. A little extra expense maybe but at least you know they should fit without any hassle and if they don't at least you have some recourse with the supplier. You can hardly say to the local motor factors that the Honda parts won't fit a TVR!

Just my thoughts for what they are worth! Incidentally if you are a club member there is a discount from TVR parts too....

Regards Chris.

[ClassiChimi]

^^^^^^^ this.
I've got the Race Rech ones on the front,
Fitted very easily and no apparent problems with them yet. I got them when at the Griff growl earlier in the summer and they've probably done 2000 miles since,, and I regularly have to go over speed bumps so they get a hammering!

I'll take a look at them and use a pry bar to see if there's any play in the joints Dave. I'll take an upto date pic too.

[ClassiChimi]

The problem is I'm still getting a clunk / grind from the r/h side from somewhere, I think it's play in the upper steering arm joint but I can't be sure that's causing the noise, it's got a small amount of play but doesn't effect steering and doesn't make noise when turning, but if I yank the steering bar it's a similar clunk!

If you can get rid of the suspension creaks and groans Dave I'll be very pleased to hear about it,,, that's a great great project to really hone onto
I'm going to try Poly bushes etc next,

The thing is I've been running without a rear ARB and its very quiet,,, hmmm !

[ChimpOnGas]

Thanks Alun

In the below post Andy (BoostedChim) talks of BluePrint ADH28507 & ADH28506 Honda Accord 1998-03 links fitting the front of his 1997 car perfectly, which does make me think they should work on my very late 1996 Chimaera too....

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Right at the bottom of the post there's further talk that Mk4 Mondeo rear drop links may well fit the rear of a Chimaera? A bit of researching reveals the Mk4 Mondeo links are 180mm in length, so I'll be having a measure up tomorrow when I whip my rear Gaz Gold Pros off in preparation for the rebuild work I've booked them in for at the Gaz factory next week.

I am super cautious about these non-standard parts but it's hard to ignore the price difference, I stand to spend £130 for the full set of four links from Racetech Direct or just £50 for quality German made alternatives from Febi Bilstein.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351588553131

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351588580801



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311492643294



It's hard not to be tempted when it's £50 vs £130, the difference of £80 actually pays for the rebuilding of my rear dampers. With this in mind the alternatives idea deserves to be investigated further...

What I might do is buy one of each of the above and see if they fit, the EBay vendor offers a 30 day return policy which means the most I'll ever lose is the return postage if they don't work out.

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Saturday 10th September 23:59

[ClassiChimi]

Yep, buy one of each and compare
I might be wrong but the German ones are really nice but a bit light weight, hopefully not because they look the part.

I've got the strengthening bars to add to rear wishbones to do yet which will include rears,,

My view is becoming, they have to be very tough to handle the diversity put at them.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed when I do look at my Race Tech fronts they are holding up, I did visually look at them recently and they still look new and exactly as they were fitted, ball position etc, so I felt exonerated for paying the price.

If they last for say two to three years with regular use I'd be happy.
The suspension is so stiff and solid yet even on soft settings has a similar sudden movement shocking when hitting sudden road changes that they have to be strong and very solidly built to handle it.

I once thought I felt things from the seat of my pants pretty good,, no rear ARB for months and I totally forget it's not on the car

Don't get me wrong though,, it needs the anti roll bars and drop links working because when I found myself pushing the loud peddle for about 15 seconds,,,,,,, get my drift earlier today and into what now became a tight right hander I soon reminded myself it wasn't on the car,,, it felt loose.
Any other time it's not something I notice

I'm hoping this long experiment will result in me raving about how much better the car is with a rear ARB FITTED

Good luck mate with getting your car rolling smooth as silk,
I'd really like to try some real quality shocks, I'd like a variable Spring on the rears, hardening progressively.

Sportmotive have come up with the fantastic chassis, has this helped to dispel some of the suspension issues and made it a better ride, it looks the monkeys banans's but can anyone who's been in a car fitted with the billet hubs etc confirm if it's better at the alround stuff. It's a very important part of the cars make up if you ask me!

My problem is simple,,,,,
Soft settings are nice for road and wheel compliance and slow speed driving, hit the throttle and it's a bucking bronko,

I want soft that can turn hard as it loads up so I don't bottom out the shocks when going a bit faster, I can't be having race settings rattling the car away just for those odd moments where I need it stiff!! Does my nut in, I change damper settings based on what day it is

But some days I get caught out, and get spirited and a soft Tvr is like a semi trained mountain horse, you better be strong is all I'll say

Drop links,, oh yeah, been driving most the day,, my ears are still ringing,,

Race Tech fronts they seem to be the biz so far

[Belle427]

I went back to standard from rose jointed as I felt they were starting to get noisy. I bought the Tvr parts links in question as I knew they would fit and I wanted my car back on the road Asap.
I had already wasted money on the civic fronts which didn't fit, and the mondo mk3 rears which sheared off in less than a week!
Perhaps we could all contribute a couple of quid towards the accord links for someone to try and confirm they fit 100% when they do the job.

Edited by Belle427 on Sunday 11th September 08:45

Edited by Belle427 on Sunday 11th September 08:51

[ChimpOnGas]

ClassiChimi said:

Good luck mate with getting your car rolling smooth as silk,
I'd really like to try some real quality shocks, I'd like a variable Spring on the rears, hardening progressively.

This is where I'm at, I've even started looking at Intrax suspension which is expensive but meant to be the mutt's nuts, for about £500 less I could buy Dom's Nitron comfort kit but both options represent a big outlay with no real guarantees I'll achieve what I'm looking for... which is a great handling TVR with a nice compliant ride over our shocking UK roads where surface quality just seems to get worse and worse every year.

When I converted the car to LPG I rather foolishly did nothing with the rear spring rates, the conversion adds roughly 50kg over the rear axle which I discovered actually has a positive effect on the car's handing & traction but I soon found out the 325lb rear springs needed uprating in line with the extra weight. I fitted a 400lb set which totally solved the problem but it was probably done bit too late to save the rear dampers.

The car now has 400lb springs on all four corners which actually works way better than I ever imagined it would, but while I was still running the lighter 325lb rear spring rates the Gaz Gold Pro did suffer a few rather dramatic bottoming out events which properly put them through their paces and eventually resulted in the N/S rear damper blowing its seals. I knew this before I set out on my summer Euro tour but the fully laden two week 1,800 mile run around France finished the weeping damper off good and proper and it's now knocking like a man buried alive.

For now I've decided to work with what I have and get the fundamentals sorted rather than throw a heap of cash at fancy set of Intrax suspension even though I'm still super tempted by it. When I discovered Gaz will rebuild my rear dampers as a pair for just £80 all in including carriage I decided to take this option and spend my money on things like more road orientated drop links, new metalastic wishbone bushes, top/bottom steering joints, new track rod ends ect ect, I'll then finish it all off with a proper full geometry adjustment over at Topcats Racing.

My thinking is this should all make a big improvement in itself, I can then add the Intrax kit Warren is offering me sometime next year, TBH it makes no sense to fit expensive coil overs to a suspension and steering system that has other fundamental wear issues so these elements have to be my initial points of focus.

Perhaps I'm getting old, perhaps what I want from the car is changing, but mostly I just think it's down to the fact I've developed 'Ol Gasbag's' low speed engine characteristics to levels of smoothness I never thought possible. The lack of suspension refinement I was once happy to accept now shouts out at me as I trickle through town in 4th at 25mph on the merest whiff of throttle with the engine purring at 1,500rpm, this effortless progress means the banging & crashing ride quality is now starting to spoil my enjoyment of the car.

I know the car will never have the compliant ride of a Lotus Evora but surely a Chimaera can be made a lot better than it is? Let me get my fundamental points of wear all sorted first and I'll see where I can develop it from there...

The custom built (to my car) high end but road focussed set up being proposed to me by the highly regarded team at Intrax suspension is definitely on the wish list. If Intrax is good enough for the Areal Atom and is the suspension manufacturer choice of Radical and many others, perhaps Intrax have the expertise to make the finest handling Chimaera that's also nice and compliant to drive over Britain's appalling road surfaces, they're certainly doing their best to convince me they can.

Watch this space folks

[s p a c e m a n]

As mine is still in bits....

110mm and 140mm overall lengths

[s p a c e m a n]

When I had a browse last week the mk3 and mk4 mondeo drop links looked to be the same shape but different lengths, the mk4 ones looking considerably longer. I think daz or whoever fitted them used mk3, which would probably closer if the mk4 are 180mm.

Edited by s p a c e m a n on Sunday 11th September 10:36

[s p a c e m a n]

Oh yeah and just to throw these into the mix, anyone used them??

[Discopotatoes]

s p a c e m a n said:

Oh yeah and just to throw these into the mix, anyone used them??

I've just bought a set of fronts as my Steve Heath ones were seized

[SILICONEKID345HP]

Im still running Steve Heath ones front and rear with no problems at all .

After poly bushing front and rear I have no creeks , bangs or squeaks .

Rhe rear drop links look like they are bending the cross member .

[sparkythecat]

Belle427 said:

I went back to standard from rose jointed as I felt they were starting to get noisy. I bought the Tvr parts links in question as I knew they would fit and I wanted my car back on the road Asap.
I had already wasted money on the civic fronts which didn't fit, and the mondo mk3 rears which sheared off in less than a week!
Perhaps we could all contribute a couple of quid towards the accord links for someone to try and confirm they fit 100% when they do the job.

I put a pair of Accord drop links on the front of my 98 Chimaera last week. They just bolted on easily as a straight swap for the worn Steve Heath ones. Since then, I've done 200 miles of spirited driving on A and B roads without any drama.

[sapper]

Discopotatoes said:

I've just bought a set of fronts as my Steve Heath ones were seized

I fitted these recently, they seem to be good quality.

[Loubaruch]

Dave,

I replaced my Steve Heath rose jointed front drop links last year as the MOT guy suggested there was some play. On removal they were completely knackered. Wondered where the odd noises came from.

Fitted the TVR Parts uprated front links about 1000 miles ago, and they are fine so far, just done 400 miles today to Loton Park, no rattles or bangs and handlefine ( within my limits!)

[900T-R]

ChimpOnGas said:

The custom built (to my car) high end but road focussed set up being proposed to me by the highly regarded team at Intrax suspension is definitely on the wish list. If Intrax is good enough for the Areal Atom and is the suspension manufacturer choice of Radical and many others, perhaps Intrax have the expertise to make the finest handling Chimaera that's also nice and compliant to drive over Britain's appalling road surfaces,

Mine probably is right there (it was the subject of a tech feature I did for a trade magazine where Intrax did a full assessment and set up back in 2008), but truth be told I needed the expensive Anti-Roll Control option upgrade to get the high speed stability and turn-in response to go with the smoothness, progressiveness and strong traction the dampers (using lowish spring rates) afforded. Total cost: the best part of four grand - but in fairness it did totally transform the feel of the car from 'a bit iffy' to 'drive it anywhere with a big grin'.

[ChimpOnGas]

900T-R said:

ChimpOnGas said:

The custom built (to my car) high end but road focussed set up being proposed to me by the highly regarded team at Intrax suspension is definitely on the wish list. If Intrax is good enough for the Areal Atom and is the suspension manufacturer choice of Radical and many others, perhaps Intrax have the expertise to make the finest handling Chimaera that's also nice and compliant to drive over Britain's appalling road surfaces,

Mine probably is right there (it was the subject of a tech feature I did for a trade magazine where Intrax did a full assessment and set up back in 2008), but truth be told I needed the expensive Anti-Roll Control option upgrade to get the high speed stability and turn-in response to go with the smoothness, progressiveness and strong traction the dampers (using lowish spring rates) afforded. Total cost: the best part of four grand - but in fairness it did totally transform the feel of the car from 'a bit iffy' to 'drive it anywhere with a big grin'.

I know Eric, I really really want Intrax on my car as I'm sure I'll love it, but there's always something more important in my life to spend £4,000 on. Topcats Racing have worked with Intrax in the past and Warren is on first name terms with Henk Thuis, last time I was at Topcats Warren put a call into Henk to discuss my road only requirement and it was suggested the best recipe for my specific requirements needn't include the expensive anti-roll control option.

There was talk of £1,700, perhaps £2k fitted including a full geometry set up which is probably about £500 more than if I gave the car to Dom at Powers Performance and asked him for the same using his Nitron comfort kit.

http://www.powersperformance.co.uk/store/slug/nitr...

TBH I doubt I'll ever spend £4k on my car's suspension, it's not a question having the money it's more that it's an amount I simply can't justify to myself no matter how good the results might be. To my way of thinking there's no getting away from it (and don't take this the wrong way) spending £4k on Chimaera suspension it a bit nuts, so back in the real world the question I'm asking myself is will spending £2k on having Intrax suspension fitted to my Chimaera be worth £500 more than Dom's Nitron comfort kit?

While I'm trying to find an answer to the Intrax vs Nitron question I need to be honest with myself about where I'm at right now, and the answer is I have some serious wear in my current set up that urgently needs addressing so I can continue to use and enjoy the car in comfort and safety. It makes way more sense to me to sort out the fundamental issues before spending a fortune on a set of fancy coil overs?

To put this into perspective, here's my N/S rear Gaz Gold Pro I removed yesterday.





And here's my Leven rose jointed ARB drop links after six years of hard use...



The rubber boots have split allowing water in and trapping it around the rose joint causing corrosion, as the corroded rose joint moves about itself rapid wear is inevitable. With the links on the bench I took a short video which I'll share along with some more photos once I've got them off my phone, suffice to say they are totally shot.

With my rear Gaz Gold Pros rebuilt and a set of the OEM type drop links fitted I'm hoping for some good improvements for a minimal outlay, I can then look at addressing the slight vagueness from the front end which I suspect will demand new track rod ends and new top & bottom joints as a minimum, so my immediate objective is to get all the fundamentals sorted at a reasonable cost before laying £1,500 - £2,000 on the table for fancy coil overs only to then discover everything else on the steering and suspension is worn out.

[900T-R]

ChimpOnGas said:

To my way of thinking there's no getting away from it (and don't take this the wrong way) spending £4k on Chimaera suspension it a bit nuts

My take on it: if you're on a budget improving a Griff or Chim, spend it all on suspension. If your budget is larger, spend some more on suspension. If your budget is larger than the cost of the best available suspension, then you might want to start spending on other stuff...

The basic limitation on these cars is that you have a light car on a smallish footprint (especially wheelbase) with limited suspension travel and a bendy chassis. It needs all the help it can get and simply stiffening things up will serve to highlight the issues.

The basic Intrax kit was great in that the car now drove over potholes instead of falling into them, felt much more composed on less than billiard table smooth roads, had much stronger and more consistent traction and wouldn't swing its a**e about at the slightest provocation. All good. But the basic issues of the car feeling unstable in fast bends (like the ones joining motorways) and the turn-in response being a bit soft and imprecise still stood. It was only when the ARC kit was fitted that I felt the limitations of the chassis were transcended to a degree, taking the car to a new level - which is something brake, engine & management upgrades don't really do.

[ChimpOnGas]

900T-R said:

ChimpOnGas said:

To my way of thinking there's no getting away from it (and don't take this the wrong way) spending £4k on Chimaera suspension it a bit nuts

My take on it: if you're on a budget improving a Griff or Chim, spend it all on suspension. If your budget is larger, spend some more on suspension. If your budget is larger than the cost of the best available suspension, then you might want to start spending on other stuff...

The basic limitation on these cars is that you have a light car on a smallish footprint (especially wheelbase) with limited suspension travel and a bendy chassis. It needs all the help it can get and simply stiffening things up will serve to highlight the issues.

The basic Intrax kit was great in that the car now drove over potholes instead of falling into them, felt much more composed on less than billiard table smooth roads, had much stronger and more consistent traction and wouldn't swing its a**e about at the slightest provocation. All good. But the basic issues of the car feeling unstable in fast bends (like the ones joining motorways) and the turn-in response being a bit soft and imprecise still stood. It was only when the ARC kit was fitted that I felt the limitations of the chassis were transcended to a degree, taking the car to a new level - which is something brake, engine & management upgrades don't really do.

No one is disagreeing with you Eric, but £4k on a set of coil overs for a Chimaera

Really?? £4k!!!

I like spending money on my TVR and I'm sure spending £4k on a lovely set of the best Intrax suspension will transform my car, but can I spend £1,500 - £2,000 and get 90% of the way there? I suspect I can, now take another look at what just came off my car, one very blown Gaz Gold pro and a set of totally shot drop links, don't tell me I need to go spending £4k to enjoy a massive improvement on what I have now

Back to reality, it's time for me to get the suspension working properly before I go dreaming about fancy Intrax kit..

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Monday 12th September 10:40