Gaz Nickel Adjustment - settings suggestions

[Jon Brown]

I know of few of you chaps run these, as I now had mine refurbed by gaz I have no idea how many clicks On the adjustment I was running.

I measured the height before I sent them off so I’m happy with the springs at approximately 21.5cm, although this no looks a little lower on the front than I remember

I set them to 18 clicks each thinking that’s roughly what they were but I’ve been bouncing all the way down the road. Tried a some more clicks and seems undrivable.

Any suggestions?

[SILICONEKID 357HP]

You waisted your money .

[Jon Brown]

SILICONEKID 357HP said:

You waisted your money .

That was helpful thanks

[Belle427]

I run golds but I think I’m on 10 rear and 8 front, that’s with 20 clicks in total.
Set them half way and do some testing, a long task but everyone’s tastes are different.

[Jon Brown]

Great thanks, just needed some where to start from

[Belle427]

I’m sure I read it’s better to keep the rear slightly firmer.

[phillpot]

Belle427 said:

I’m sure I read it’s better to keep the rear slightly firmer.

Who doesn't like a firm rear end! ...

[Belle427]

[Jon Brown]

This is still an on-going saga, I spoke with GAZ earlier this week as before I had them refurbed they were nice and soft and quite comfortable on bumpy roads but stiff enough for a track day and some spirited b road driving.

Now drives the worst its even been and I cant work it out. Bit of background, I have done the following recently:

- New ball joints
- New outriggers
- New top rear wishbones
- New lower drivers wishbones
- New bushes for above wishbones
- Full Camber and wheel alignment (by specialist)
- Refurb of GAZ Nickel shocks

Despite the above its terrible and now have a car that is undrivable. The drivers rear specifically seems to bounce like never before and it almost seems like it has the wrong spring on the drivers rear as no matter how I change the clicks they just don't seem right.

Will be out there on Thursday with a digital vernier to measure the spring thickness I think!

Anyone have any suggestions or some spare shocks lying around they want to sell me?

[Belle427]

Was the above work listed carried out before or after the refurbishment?

[Jon Brown]

Belle427 said:

Was the above work listed carried out before or after the refurbishment?

It was at the same time, I sent the shocks off whilst the car was in pieces

[Belle427]

I would check the springs but cant really think what else would have gone wrong.
How many clicks do the shocks have?
I wanted to put mine back to standard but the cost is just under £1000 but i believe its money well spent as i dont use it on a track.
I hate having to faff about with ride height and shock adjustments.
This seller is highly regarded here.

https://www.m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=blackdowna...

[phazed]

Hi John. Are you sure you have put the fronts on the front and the rear is on the rear?

I would start by setting all the damper adjusters to halfway and increase the fronts by 2/4 clicks .
The front should always be stiffer than the rear. Try that and if the front feels okay and the rear is bouncing about in and out the potholes, slacken off the damper adjusters two clicks at a time.

A couple of years ago, I bought a set of the new Nitrons. It didn't matter how I adjusted them, the car just bounced around our terrible roads dangerously. In the end I return them for a full refund as they were only good on a smooth track service but completely useless for the road.

It is possible Gaz revalvled your dampers and the set up now does not suit the car.

[ChimpOnGas]

Belle427 said:

I would check the springs but cant really think what else would have gone wrong.
How many clicks do the shocks have?
I wanted to put mine back to standard but the cost is just under £1000 but i believe its money well spent as i dont use it on a track.
I hate having to faff about with ride height and shock adjustments.
This seller is highly regarded here.

https://www.m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=blackdowna...

^^This^^

I've been down the Gaz route (Gaz Gold Pros), and what I can tell you is while it will cost you £1,000 to upgrade your TVR to set of Ben Lang's Mk4 spec Bilsteins they will absolutely transform the car. My Chimaera's handling is now by far the best it's ever been and by a significant margin, the car is now very confidence inspiring to drive swiftly but somehow the Bilsteins manage this while delivering sublime ride quality you would never think possible from a TVR.



I recently spent a spirited driving weekend in Wales with a mate who has a Porsche (968) Boxster S, we attacked some of the best driving roads in the UK including the Evo Triangle and my TVR held off the mid engined Boxster no problem at all. We switched cars throughout the day and I actually spent more time driving my mates Boxster than I did my TVR, my Porsche owning mate who has very little experience driving my Chimaera came away hugely impressed and with a big grin on his face.

At the end of the day we reviewed each other's car over a few pints and a curry, we agreed the Boxster had better turn in and the steering loaded up better in corners than the TVR, the Porsche was the easier car to just get in and drive fast if you've never driven one before while the TVR demanded a little more 'learning'.

However, my mate who is a professional driver (RAF Driving instructor) and has owned a fleet of classic Italian motorcycles for the last 25 years (Laverda Jotas x 2, Ducati 900ss' x 3, Ducati 916 ec ect) described the process of 'learning the TVR' as way more involving and rewarding than peddling the Porsche, ultimately the two cars while totally different were actually very well matched for pace on the roads we evaluated them on.

But the take away comment from my mate was this.... "What really surprised me about your TVR Dave was just how good the ride quality is, the car handles brilliantly but it also rides like a Bentley". Praise indeed from a Boxster owner, someone who also knows how to drive quickly and safely on pure driving roads, someone with years of motorcycling experience which more than anything else serves to properly hone your road craft.

The truth is it's all in a proper geometry setup by Matt Smith who races a Chimaera, fit OEM TVR metalastic suspension bushes, new steering joints, Mondeo/Accord drop links, polly ARB bushes...... and most importantly my Mk4 Tuscan 'S' spec Bilsteins!

If my mate had driven the car on my old Gaz Gold Pros I guarantee he would never have made the above comments because quite honestly the car banged and crashed over broken surfaces and would skip about changing line fractionally on every bend, this had the absolute opposite effect of the confidence giving and infinitely superior damped mono tube Bilsteins I now run.



I wanted to create the best handling TVR for real world road driving, my TVR is not a track car so I did not want a track day setup but I do expect the car to be rapid while offering the best ride quality I can achieve, it's a cake & eat it expectation. Yes a set of Mk4 Bilsteins will set you back £1,000, but your TVR is a proper driver's car that's there to give you a true connected feeling and pure driving pleasure, so it'll be the best £1,000 you spend on your Chimaera by far

There's nothing wimpy or un-macho about well damped suspension that delivers fine handling with excellent ride quality, because the truth is it'll give you a far faster car than a hard as nails track day hero setup when using your TVR in anger in the real world on real world road surfaces.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

When you've added the Bilsteins I recommend spending another £500 on the Brembo four pot 324mm brake conversion and you'll have yourself a proper fast car you can also use every day in complete comfort.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Also keep in mind on the kind of winding A/B roads your TVR was made for adding more power than my 250hp/260ft/lbs is unlikely to make for a significantly faster car, however anything you can do to improve braking and handling will make a huge difference to your pace and driving pleasure.

£1,500 spent on brakes and suspension is worth way way more pace and driving pleasure than the same £1,500 spent on trying to increase the horsepower of a Rover V8 engined TVR..... fact!

[900T-R]

While I agree that the Gaz' are comparatively pretty hopeless, the fact remains that the car wasn't undriveable according to the OP before and now it is. The OP also seems to have nailed the problem down to the driver side rear corner. A reasonable course of action would be to check the rear and particularly the right hand side carefully for some sort of assembly mistake, and if nothing of the kind is found, to remove both rear spring/damper units and send them out to be checked over and again.

[Jon Brown]

Thanks chaps, as always some excellent help!!:

Belle427 - They have 20 clicks both front and back and like you I don't like the adjustment either.

Phazed - I will give that a bash after I have checked a few other bits but I did check with Gaz to make sure I have them the right way round although they could have told me incorrectly and the shocks are in the right places. I feel like I need to triple check this now, can someone confirm which one is which?

Although the revalving is a possible its also possible that they put one of the springs on the wrong way round. Gaz told me the thickness of the springs are slightly different so I will check tomorrow with a vernier gauge.

ChimpOnGas - As it happens I was on the phone to Ben Lang yesterday afternoon asking about the options he does as I read such positive reviews previously. This is certainly an option that I am considering and sell the rebuilt Gaz items on to some who is more track focused.

My brother has a 986 Boxster S and over the last few years we have also done plenty of trips round the EVO triangle and I have driven his car plenty of times. I'd agree with your comments as he couldn't get away from me although my ride certainly isn't Bentley like but it was okay before. This is certainly pushing me down the Bilsten route.

I'd love the car to be a better tourer and I would probably go back to using it most days as that's what I really want, I have considered Porsche's on and off but they are quite dull in comparison, with no theatre or real sense of occasion.

900T-R - You are right, I did check the rear suspension to make sure it was altogether correct and also had the tracking set. Gaz suggested it could be a faulty adjuster as it does seem unnecessarily tight to turn as I have to take the wheel off rather then stick my arm below and round with the wheel on.

If anyone in the South East has the Ben Lang Bilstens and would take me for a drive that would be really helpful

thanks again guys, I'll let you know how I get on.

[Belle427]

Looking back over the years at previous posts there seems to be a 50/50 split in people’s opinions on the gaz setup.
I too would like to drive a bilstein enabled car as I feel it might change how I feel about the ride quality and not make me want to buy a Porsche!

[Jon Brown]

Belle427 said:

Looking back over the years at previous posts there seems to be a 50/50 split in people’s opinions on the gaz setup.
I too would like to drive a bilstein enabled car as I feel it might change how I feel about the ride quality and not make me want to buy a Porsche!

Your clearly having the same thoughts as me, I was never convinced about the Gaz shocks when I got them, although they were secondhand to me. I don't understand the logic of having a metal bush, the Nickels I have aren't even rose jointed.

[ChimpOnGas]

To be fair to Gaz my GGP experience wasn't terrible, I blame myself for making the wrong choice for what I wanted, you live and learn as they say.

However, for all their adjustability I never did find the sweet spot with the things, I ended up admitting to myself that sweet spot I searched for would never come from the Gaz products at which point I switched back to Billies (the new Mk4 Billies) and never looked back.

I've made some good choices improving my TVR but I've made some bad ones too that are now corrected, if I had my time again I would go straight to Ben Lang for Bilsteins and straight to a AP racing clutch too. Changing from GGPs to Billies and a Helix clutch for an AP unit are two of the best things I've done to improve the driving experience of my Chimaera and correct my earlier bad choices.

Add the Brembo brake upgrade, LED headlights & PIAA driving lights, XJS Recaro seats, the Canems dual fuel engine management system and of course the 45-50 petrol cost equivalent mpg it gives.... and the car is significantly better in every respect than it was when new.

Maintaining a regularly used 22 year old TVR keeps me busy, but making it more reliable and drive better than when it was new is my real mission, I'm happy I've achieved this already but the mission to improve never stops. My best advice is learn from my mistakes, cut your losses and stop fiddling with your Gaz adjusters in the hope you'll one day find that perfect setting, if my experience is anything to go by that Gaz setting will always elude you... because quite simply it doesn't exist!

Take the short cut to great handling and a far superior ride....go Bilstein! It's the guaranteed £1,000 bolt on solution to what you'll never ever quite achieve with Gaz suspension.

[Belle427]

Did you sell on the gaz stuff?
I think her indoors would just about release the funds if I thought I could get about £300 back for the old stuff, which has refurbed dampers roughly 1000 miles ago.
If anyone’s interested in the old stuff for track work etc let me know, I’d consider changing around feb next year.
I’m more interested in road comfort than ultimate handling.