Question for those with AVO dampers

[Kitchski]

Just checking out my old dampers and wondering whether to fork out on GG/Pros, or whether to get the AVOs refurbished, and suddenly noticed the rear springs are wound down to the bottom of the thread (so minimum height & pre-load)
The car didn't sit especially low, and it was hard to tell if the springs felt right as one of the dampers was totally shot, so it bounced all over the place anyway!
Has anyone else got some AVOs fitted, and if so, where abouts is your bottom spring cup set to? If I decide to get the AVOs refurbished to save some pennies, I want to make sure I've got the right dampers fitted!

Cheers!

[gizzardio]

Hi there

Just done work on my rear dampers and springs so I should be able to help a bit. I had my 2 rear shocks refurbished - they are AVO PG719 I believe. I ordered 2 new springs too which were stiffer than the ones I removed so this obviously had an effect on ride height, i.e. the car sat up as a result. I ordered 2x9" 300lb/ft springs for the rear and had to crank the spring seat down about 15mm from previous setting to get the car sitting back to the height I started at.

The ones I took off were both shorter (8.5") maybe as a result of being permanently reduced from original 9" as a result of wear and 275lb/ft. I'd say that configuration made the dimension of start of spring seat thread to the underside of the seat itself about 45mm.

By the way, AVO did each shock for £25, turned them round posted back to me in 2 days and I bought the uprated spherical bushes in place of the rubber ones which I was advised to do on this forum and the guys at AVO for the TVR. Bushes were about £60 for 4 (2 per shock) and springs about £25 each.

Hope that helps.

[Kitchski]

Thanks for the input. Looks like something's going on with mine then, as the rears were wound right the way down, yet the car wasn't on its arse. Maybe the springs are too beefy? I'll investigate, cheers!

[tvrgit]

Bear in mind also that the lower mounting point on the swing arm wasn't in the same place on the S1 or S2 or S3 - if you take the shocks and springs off an S1 and put them straight onto an S3, the ride height will be different. I think AVO only do one damper for all S models, so for the same ride height, the lower cup will be in a different place depending on which S model it is, and IIRC when I had AVOs on my S3C, you do run out of adjustment with standard length springs. Shorter springs (same load rating) are the answer.

[Kitchski]

tvrgit said:

Bear in mind also that the lower mounting point on the swing arm wasn't in the same place on the S1 or S2 or S3 - if you take the shocks and springs off an S1 and put them straight onto an S3, the ride height will be different. I think AVO only do one damper for all S models, so for the same ride height, the lower cup will be in a different place depending on which S model it is, and IIRC when I had AVOs on my S3C, you do run out of adjustment with standard length springs. Shorter springs (same load rating) are the answer.

Aha! I'd completely forgotten that! You're probably right, it's an S1 trailing arm, which (unless I'm mistaken) has the mount in the highest place (though I confess I thought the S1 and S2 arms where identical - they certainly look it!) But yes, that would explain it, thanks!