Nitrons....Whey hey....

[lig]

Hi Chaps,

Taking delivery this week and hopefully fitting this weekend. Going to fit myself and then if need be get the beast corner weighted.

Any fitting advice, pitfalls, anything gratefully received.....

Cheers,
Lig.

[victormeldrew]

Dunno if they've changed, but I have some early Nitrons which I had intended to fit myself, but the springs were too narrow for my spring compressor to get a grip so I ended up getting them fitted by a dealer.

[sotonS2]

I assume they are adjustable platforms - they shouldn't need a compressor, just wind the springs up with a 'C' spanner.

[johno]

Standard C spanners won't work as the Nitrons collar's have round holes rather than square, they are 6.1mm in diameer and therefore like most I use a 6mm drill covered in a rag ....

Try to arm yourself before hand as it makes life a lot easier ....

[sotonS2]

Ah, assumed they would be the same as Spax / AVO etc.

[GreenV8S]

Your mileage may vary, but I find it's easy to grab hold of the spring with both hands and turn it to wind the spring seat up and down.

[starmist]

The proper C spanner is about £8.00 from Joospeed. The springs come fitted. I am in the process of fitting mine as we speak.

Getting the old ones off will be your headache, depending on how long it's been since the bolts were last undone. All suspension bolts are 3/4" hex (19mm).

At the rear, the top mount is shared with the wishbone. After undoing the nut, you will need to pull the bolt out half way to get the shock off. The bottom mount is partially hidden behind the hub carrier. You may find it easier to remove the disc first, although it's sometimes a pain getting the caliper off.

Fronts are easier as they do not share their mountings with the wishbones. Top mounting is a doddle - can be done from under the bonnet, the lower one is a real pain as the bolt sits inside the wishbone and you can't get a decent swing with the spanner.

I decided to change the bushes and refurb the suspension whilst I was there, and so far it's taken me 7 weeks (I was on holiday for two though).

[lig]

Hi Starmist,

thanks for the info, i will try and get hold of the c spanner, when you say change the bushes I assume you mean the wishbone ones? Am i right in thinking that the nitrons come ready to go on, I wont have to buy any new bushes or use any from the existing shocks?

Cheers,
Lig.

[joospeed]

If you've bought the std Nitron kit make *absolutely* sure that you don't run it lower than std. I'm seeing roughly a car a fortnight through Joospeed correcting basic geometry issues and by far the biggest problem is running the car too low. Most places seem to throw them at the car and send it out.

I have a griff in today that's back in for bespoke nitrons as the std kit isn't what he needs. The kit had been fited elsewhere, had been raised up twice because of tyre fuoling / ride issues but was still too low when i first saw the car, it was virtually undriveable buoncing off the bump stops at every opportunity. God knows how low the car was when the kit was first fitted

Std Nitron kit is designed to be used at or very close to std ride height, don't vary it by more than a half inch or so - as you're fitting it yourself you cna make sure that it's right first time .

[lig]

Cheers Joolz,

It will be the 'standard' kit, I have taken a few measurements (at different times) on level roads and they are pretty consistant and I will set the nitrons to the same height. The rear drivers side is about 1.5cm heigher than the passenger and i would expect this to be lower but I guess this could be the chassis or the body that is out?? So I will stick to the same settings.

When this is set, I assume i will just play with the damping and leave the ride height. i.e when i do hillclimbs trackdays etc??

Lig.

[HarryW]

joospeed said:

If you've bought the std Nitron kit make *absolutely* sure that you don't run it lower than std. I'm seeing roughly a car a fortnight through Joospeed correcting basic geometry issues and by far the biggest problem is running the car too low. Most places seem to throw them at the car and send it out. .....

Knew I should have brought the V8S to the cerb RR day the other weekend for you to have a blat in .
Joolz daft question but the are the V8S nitrons 'standard' or not, as whilst it is a 10 fold improvement on the shite that came off, I'm still not totally happy .
What you have just said might be it. The car is running a lot lower than standard to get away form the 4x4 look of the S, should I reset it be back to standard(ish) height, if so what is it

Harry

[joospeed]

I thought your kit was slightly short bodies so you could run it lower anyway? cant rememebr to be honest, but just try raising it and find out! lol

[nztrev]

I thought with my limited laymans knowledge,that adjusting the ride height give or take a little,is a big no no as when the wishbones no longer run paralell with the road it comprimises the geometery/ride.
Isnt this why road to racers, if lowering the car change the pick up points?

[HarryW]

joospeed said:

I thought your kit was slightly short bodies so you could run it lower anyway? cant rememebr to be honest, but just try raising it and find out! lol

Yes come to think of it they are short stroke, as developed by PeterH.
Petter what was the optimal ride height they were designed for .
Not trying to give the impression they don't work, they do very well. I just know there is further improvement to be had .

Harry

[victormeldrew]

sotonS2 said:

I assume they are adjustable platforms - they shouldn't need a compressor, just wind the springs up with a 'C' spanner.

Maybe they come assembled now .... when I got mine the springs and bodies were separate and the springs needed fitting. Hence the need to compress the springs!

I ain't stupid you know.

[GreenV8S]

HarryW said:

Peter what was the optimal ride height they were designed for .

They were designed to allow me to run high rate springs 25mm or so lower than standard (I don't remember the exact dimensions off the top of my head). There are various pros and cons of running lower so don't just assume that lower is better, but one issue with running lower is the lack of ground clearance. I am running very stiff springs so I can get away with this. I also made sure the bump stops were set up right so it can't actually bottom out. But the combination of lowered spring seats and stiff springs means that the springs can become unloaded at full droop. This is seriously bad news so Guy built me some dampers with reduced droop travel to prevent it. I assume you had yours built to the same spec (10mm shorter than normal at the front from memory).

[HarryW]

GreenV8S said:

HarryW said: Peter what was the optimal ride height they were designed for . They were designed to allow me to run high rate springs 25mm or so lower than standard (I don't remember the exact dimensions off the top of my head). There are various pros and cons of running lower so don't just assume that lower is better, but one issue with running lower is the lack of ground clearance. I am running very stiff springs so I can get away with this. I also made sure the bump stops were set up right so it can't actually bottom out. But the combination of lowered spring seats and stiff springs means that the springs can become unloaded at full droop. This is seriously bad news so Guy built me some dampers with reduced droop travel to prevent it. I assume you had yours built to the same spec (10mm shorter than normal at the front from memory).

Front slightly shoerter than the rear ones, same spec slightly less spring rate at 475/375, but still inside the valving range of the damper adjustment.
Have played a lot with the adjustable rate but not the height.
So if I start again on the height at V8S standard minus 25mm I should be at a better point, perhaps . Can't remember what the standard height was though to begin with 140mm rings a bell, but could (likely) be wrong.

Harry

[GreenV8S]

HarryW said:

So if I start again on the height at V8S standard minus 25mm I should be at a better point, perhaps

There's no easy answer because I don't know what your priorities are. You may not want your car to handle like mine!

In general I would be cautious about taking bits of my setup in isolation, it works as a package to produce the handling I want (as best I can anyway). Just because I run front ride height X, doesn't mean that X is inherently right or wrong, it just suits my setup.

I went lower at the front because I wanted to introduce a nose-down attitude for aerodynamic reasons and because I wanted to increase the camber correction in roll. This complements my setup which has generous roll stiffness and relatively large amounts of negative camber, the handling isn't perfect but is fairly neutral under most conditions within my available power, which is what I am aiming for.

[steve-V8s]

So what do we think the standard Griff ride height is ? By the way if you don't have a "C" spanner a 6mm drill bit will do the job.

[barbon]

I hope it wont take several weeks to fit them as its my garage your using !!!