AVO settins question

[poorpeet]

I've just been crawling about under the car to have a good look at the chassis. While there I noticed I have a pair of newish AVO dampers with what I assume to be original red springs
The painted sections of the dampers are black which I think means they are the later type.
The reason for this post is that there seems to be more preload one side. I can see 5 1/2 threads showing one side & 7 and a bit the other.
Could this be ok or has some one been fiddling? Also could anyone explain the damper adjustment. Do you wind it to min then come back 'X' clicks or is there another way?
Any advice would be appreciated.

[spend]

That must have been setup for a dedicated donut eater! I'm 70 kilo & found that 1/2 turn higher on drivers side was about right. When adjusting the ride height its easier to turn damping fully anticlockwise (- damping) and bounce car to settle then check the measurement again (I always lifted car to adjust spring platforms). When you're happy set the damping rate to what you require.

Settings are dependant upon the springs, so most people will say different things.

Keep a diary of what you set ride height & damping rate, carry on fine tuning until you are happy.

HTH, Dave

PS Just get Joolz Nitrons for Xmas - wish I'd never bothered with the AVO's......

[GreenV8S]

The spring seats should be identical on the two sides. Perhaps they weren't locked and one of them has gradually slipped. Two turns difference is enough to make a big difference to the corner weights and is going to make it a lot more twitchy under heavy braking. For adjusting the damper settings, it's recommended to wind them up to fully hard and then back them off to the desired setting. Some people prefer to back them off to fully soft and then wind them on instead, and this isn't fundamentally wrong, but with cheap dampers like AVOs often aren't identical. The adjustment is far more sensitive at the hard end of the range so if in doubt it's best to set them relative to the fully hard position.

Edited to add: don't bother trying to adjust the ride height so the body looks the same height on both sides. The bodies are not symmetrical from side to side to start with so any levelling must be done based on chassis measurements, plus it is pointless unless you are working on an absolutely flat surface. Your average bit of road is nowhere near flat enough.

>> Edited by GreenV8S on Sunday 17th October 20:29

[poorpeet]

Thanks for the advice. The collars appear to be locked in place with grub screws so it look as if it was set like that by design rather than accident.