Griff - adjusting shock settings.

[Tegriffic]

I currently have Avo's in the Griff set half way abouts all round. The car doesn't feel super solid around bends and I'm thinking I might want to be trying to set up the dampers a bit, if anything the rear feels too soft. What is the best method to follow, should I be looking to work back from hard to soft or the other way round (given that I think mid way already feels soft to me). Am I better adjusting them uniformly at front and back or am i better setting the rear a little harder. I'd appreciate any comments from anyone who has gone through the process themselves. Any views on fitting an anti roll bar also. Thanks.

[mongoose]

Just increase one end at a time.I'd start with the front,then,when youve got to the point that any more feels too harsh,start on the rear.You should need a lot less on the rear,as this is where you feel it through the seat of your pants.A bit softer at the rear gives a comfortable ride,and better grip.As firm as you like at the front,gives you a more responsive turn in,initially.
When all's said and done,it's all abour personal preference.I like mine as firm as i can at the front,cant get enough of the sensitive turn in but it has to be soft at the rear for grip and a comfortable ride.

[Seasider]

What springs Shawn?

Originals will be very different to AVO or others!!

Mine are AVO 375lbft Front, 300lbft Rear. Shocks set from hard 2 clicks front & 6 clicks Rear (from memory).

It's firm but not tooth rattling (even though different supplier thought the car was very firm but this was only from him leaning on it a very experienced TVR race driver thought it was set perfectly )

[GreenV8S]

I recommend a different approach!

Adjust all four corners up and down together. This affects the bump, roll and pitch rates. Once you have found the optimum like this, adjust the back up and the front down (and vice versa) until you have found the new optimum. This changes the front/rear distribution while keeping the total bump and roll damping constant. Having optimised this, change them all up and down until you have found the new optimum bum and roll rates. And so on, making (hopefully) smaller and smaller changes until every change you try makes things worse.

Also the best way to find an optimum is to start from two extremes and work towards the center. So for example if you have 20 settings then try 1 and try 20. If 1 feels better then compare 1 and 19. If 1 still feels better compare 1 and 18. And so on until you can't tell the difference between the two choices - the optimum is then half way between them. Hope that makes sense, it's much easier to explain with the aid of a beer mat!

[Seasider]

GreenV8S said:

Hope that makes sense, it's much easier to explain with the aid of a beer mat!

Before or after drinking the beer

[TeGriffic]

Have no idea what springs are on there and the invoice from Austec lists them only as "150000 front" and "150002 rear".

[Seasider]

TeGriffic said:

Have no idea what springs are on there and the invoice from Austec lists them only as "150000 front" and "150002 rear".

Ring them and ask Sorry

The rating on AVO springs is stamped on top which can be seen when you turn the spring/mounting plate


Will see what i'm up to this weekend but it might cost alot of


Best bet would be to call them and find out what rating anyway...

[GarryM]

With 20 or more 'clicks' on each damper, you've got a lot of combinations to try out! Let us know in about a year when you've tried them all!

I've played around with the settings on my Nitrons quite a bit on road and on track. I have harder springs on the front so started with a few clicks harder on the front. I then adjusted both front and rear equally by say 4 or 5 clicks (ie enough to make a very obvious difference). Driving on a fairly normal B road, I then found a setting that felt "right". I then tried increasing (and then decreasing) the difference between front and rear to see if I could get it to feel better. Finally I did some test drives on some very smooth dual carriageways and then some really bumpy back roads to see whether the settings were a good compromise.

In my case, I've ended up with very soft settings on road but then I have quite a few bumpy roads near me. I also have 400lb front springs which don't really need very stiff damping - just enough to keep them under control.

On track I started with my road settings and just kept winding them up - and it just got better and better! At Donnington I ended up on as stiff as they would go front and back. On other less smooth circuits I knock the rears back a bit. If it's damp, I soften them up significantly. Hope this helps a little.