Gaz Shock Settings

[V8 Animal]

Ordered myself a set of Gaz Golds hope to fit them this sunday weather permitting.
Can someone give me a starting guide for set up heights and clicks please.
PPC has given me some starting points but any more help would be appreciated.
Thanks for any advice.
V8 Animal

[Chimtastic]

The guys at PPC are well tuned in to damper settings and I woudl start with the settings they have recomended then stiffen up a click at a time depending on what the car is doing. Stiffer at the back makes the front more pointy - softer at the back with more grip can lead to understeer. Bit of a suck it and see Im afriad.

[Ab Shocks]

I'm now recomendinding that you wind the shocks up to full hard which is clockwise facing the adjuster.
On the front I would then go back 30 clicks and on the rear wind back 24 clicks.
On ride height I would not have hardly any pre-load on the front shocks and wind up the rears as far as you can by hand once on the car. Give me a bell if you are not sure about this.

[V8 Animal]

Thanks for the advice guys.
Blimey how many clicks are there?
PS can't wait to fit them replacing 12 year old bilsteins.
Paul

[Ab Shocks]

V8 Animal said:

Thanks for the advice guys.
Blimey how many clicks are there?
PS can't wait to fit them replacing 12 year old bilsteins.
Paul

42

[V8 Animal]

Ab Shocks said:

I'm now recommending that you wind the shocks up to full hard which is clockwise facing the adjuster.
On the front I would then go back 30 clicks and on the rear wind back 24 clicks.
On ride height I would not have hardly any pre-load on the front shocks and wind up the rears as far as you can by hand once on the car. Give me a bell if you are not sure about this.

Ive gone back into my history and found this.
An update on my earlier post regarding springs i have not tried Dereks advice but i will do now.
My springs are tensioned up beyond that advice.
V8 Animal

[scotty_d]

V8 Animal are you changeing them yourself? i too have just started removing my 10 year old bilsteins to replace with standard GAZ. the old ones dont like coming out just to give you a heads up i have been having fun for the past few days got 2 out so far

[V8 Animal]

scotty_d said:

V8 Animal are you changeing them yourself? i too have just started removing my 10 year old bilsteins to replace with standard GAZ. the old ones dont like coming out just to give you a heads up i have been having fun for the past few days got 2 out so far

I replaced them in april.
Didn't have too much problems bottom fronts were fun IIRC
Replace the bolts and copperslip everything but i guess you worked out the last bit.
Leave the nuts on loosely when bashing out the bolts and keep turning the bolts will help with the bushes as they get stuck.
HTH

[bigdods]

V8 Animal said:

Ab Shocks said:

I'm now recommending that you wind the shocks up to full hard which is clockwise facing the adjuster.
On the front I would then go back 30 clicks and on the rear wind back 24 clicks.
On ride height I would not have hardly any pre-load on the front shocks and wind up the rears as far as you can by hand once on the car. Give me a bell if you are not sure about this.

Ive gone back into my history and found this.
An update on my earlier post regarding springs i have not tried Dereks advice but i will do now.
My springs are tensioned up beyond that advice.
V8 Animal

..by trial and error I seem to have a similar ish setting which give me the right balance of comfort vs handling. Im currently running 11 clicks on the front (so thats 31 back from hard do they really have 42 clicks !) and 15 clicks rear (so thats 27 clicks from hard). Its still not *quite* right but very close.

I'll be going out to wind up to full hard then working back following this post to see if that makes the final little improvement I am after.

[V8 Animal]

I am running 12/18 as dereks advice but not the ride height which i now feel is my problem.
Even if GreenV8S doesn't agree about preload i am going to back off the springs to what is stated i really don't have any problems with the shocks apart from that.
I refuse to believe that there st on hindsight i should of had these fitted by a dealer instead of doing it myself i would have had more of a comeback.
Doesn't anyone believe my theory that the springs are wound up too much?
V8 Animal

[KarlR]

Ive had Gaz Golds fitted for some time now and I have found the need to go above the recommended settings - just two soft otherwise. This is driving a lot on undulating roads though. Currently at 18 from Soft on the back and 22 from Soft on the front and still seems fidgety on roads, particulary M'ways. Does it make a big difference winding back from hard rather than winding up from soft??? Going to go to 25 from soft on Front, and 20 on back - when the roads dry out!

[trackcar]

V8 Animal said:

I am running 12/18 as dereks advice but not the ride height which i now feel is my problem.
Even if GreenV8S doesn't agree about preload i am going to back off the springs to what is stated i really don't have any problems with the shocks apart from that.
I refuse to believe that there st on hindsight i should of had these fitted by a dealer instead of doing it myself i would have had more of a comeback.
Doesn't anyone believe my theory that the springs are wound up too much?
V8 Animal

the ride height will make very little difference. When you raise the car (assuming you are not running out of damper stroke) you are not compressing the spring or increasing its rate or anything else. Similarly when you lower the car you are not lengthening the spring, decreasing its rate or anything else (note there are some mechanical leverage effects which are changing but the effect is slight). If you lower the car so the bump stops come into play that will then alter how the car feels of course, but if you're working within the normal range of the damper movement then small changes to ride height per se have no effect. I would argue that any change you get is purely placebo / wishful thinking.

Edited by trackcar on Wednesday 10th December 23:45

[spend]

Unless everyones springs are the same strength, the damper settings (even if GAZ are manufactured & valved uniformly) will not be the same.

If you feel it is too 'bouncy' try using stiffer springs whilst being harder to compress they also rebound far less You'd have to find out how stiff you can go with GAZ springwise, dampers can only control upto a given poundage. Many prefer to lose a little 'comfort' in preference to pogo'ing

I would also iterate that when you adjust the dampers its better to run them up & down the full range of settings to keep them free, and ensure you are counting from the full extent rather than some seized up mid-point

[Pupp]

trackcar said:

V8 Animal said:

I am running 12/18 as dereks advice but not the ride height which i now feel is my problem.
Even if GreenV8S doesn't agree about preload i am going to back off the springs to what is stated i really don't have any problems with the shocks apart from that.
I refuse to believe that there st on hindsight i should of had these fitted by a dealer instead of doing it myself i would have had more of a comeback.
Doesn't anyone believe my theory that the springs are wound up too much?
V8 Animal

the ride height will make very little difference. When you raise the car (assuming you are not running out of damper stroke) you are not compressing the spring or increasing its rate or anything else. Similarly when you lower the car you are not lengthening the spring, decreasing its rate or anything else (note there are some mechanical leverage effects which are changing but the effect is slight). If you lower the car so the bump stops come into play that will then alter how the car feels of course, but if you're working within the normal range of the damper movement then small changes to ride height per se have no effect. I would argue that any change you get is purely placebo / wishful thinking.

Edited by trackcar on Wednesday 10th December 23:45

Not sure this is correct Joo... By raising the platforms (assuming the spring is not hanging on the unloaded unit with freespace above), you are indeed compressing the spring and whilst this will not affect its rate in any way, it does increase preload, hence the effective resistance to further compression as the unit then strokes will be higher. Changing preload moves the response curve of the spring in relation to damper position but does not change shape of the curve itself (although it might alter the effective 'angle' of it )

[bobfather]

Pupp said:

Not sure this is correct Joo... By raising the platforms (assuming the spring is not hanging on the unloaded unit with freespace above), you are indeed compressing the spring and whilst this will not affect its rate in any way, it does increase preload, hence the effective resistance to further compression as the unit then strokes will be higher. Changing preload moves the response curve of the spring in relation to damper position but does not change shape of the curve itself (although it might alter the effective 'angle' of it )

I'm confused, perthaps there's something I don't understand here. As I see it, as long as there is free movement the compression of the spring (length of the spring under compression) remains the same irrespective of the position of the adjustable spring platform. What does change when ride height is increased without realignment is the alignment itself. The wishbones are uneven and so the alignment has to changes as their relative static alignment to the chassis changes. I'm not sure how much effect this has but the camber must be affected.

[Pupp]

bobfather said:

Pupp said:

Not sure this is correct Joo... By raising the platforms (assuming the spring is not hanging on the unloaded unit with freespace above), you are indeed compressing the spring and whilst this will not affect its rate in any way, it does increase preload, hence the effective resistance to further compression as the unit then strokes will be higher. Changing preload moves the response curve of the spring in relation to damper position but does not change shape of the curve itself (although it might alter the effective 'angle' of it )

I'm confused, perthaps there's something I don't understand here. As I see it, as long as there is free movement the compression of the spring (length of the spring under compression) remains the same irrespective of the position of the adjustable spring platform. What does change when ride height is increased without realignment is the alignment itself. The wishbones are uneven and so the alignment has to changes as their relative static alignment to the chassis changes. I'm not sure how much effect this has but the camber must be affected.

The geometery certainly does alter, and that's one of the many variables that makes setting up suspension the art it is (and the potential for getting it spectacularly wrong so high).

On the spring compression bit, think of it this way.... with the spring sat there unloaded, it takes so many pounds to compress it a given distance. This is its rate; it then takes so many more pounds in addition to compress it the same distance again. On a linear spring, this won't make any/that much difference in terms of effective resistance to further deflection (save the thing will become coil bound earlier) although it does increase the forces the damper has to control (especially on rebound), but on a progressive one, you are advancing the rising rate of resistance to further compression 'earlier' in the stroke too. Big respect to guys who unravel all this and tune the different effects.

[GreenV8S]

Pupp said:

On the spring compression bit, think of it this way.... with the spring sat there unloaded, it takes so many pounds to compress it a given distance. This is its rate; it then takes so many more pounds in addition to compress it the same distance again. On a linear spring, this won't make any/that much difference in terms of effective resistance to further deflection (save the thing will become coil bound earlier) although it does increase the forces the damper has to control (especially on rebound), but on a progressive one, you are advancing the rising rate of resistance to further compression 'earlier' in the stroke too. Big respect to guys who unravel all this and tune the different effects.

I think you are misunderstanding how this works. As long as the suspension doesn't hit the bump or droop stops the spring length when the vehicle is on its wheels is only determined by the vehicle weight. Winding the spring seats up and down doesn't affect the load on the springs in use, and doesn't change their length, and doesn't move you onto a different part of the 'rising rate' curve. All it does is make the body sit higher relative to the springs. And as long as you aren't hitting the bump or droop stops, the most significant effects will be on the suspension geometry (large) and aerodynamic loads (very small at any speed you're likely to achieve on public roads).

[V8 Animal]

OK I give in looks like i was talking bks.
Good debate though.

[spend]

V8 Animal said:

OK I give in looks like i was talking bks.
Good debate though.

1 down, 1 to go

[V8 Animal]

Did'nt say i got two dave