Discussion
Hi
I have seen many discussions on proffered ride height, varying between 140 to 150 front and maybe 10mm extra on the rear, mine was setup by a TVR specialist 2 years ago but seems rather low, 112mm front 122mm rear measured to the underside of the outrigger, if I try the finger in wheel arch method I find the fronts are level with the arches and the tears have one finger space, so I guess I need to lift everything, is there an easy way to do this without a ramp, or is it wheel off , adjust, next corner etc and just keep going around and around until it looks good?, this sounds rather time consuming??, also I find that after jacking up the car sits a little high for a while, is it best to just bounce each corner a few times to settle its position faster???
Yes. You need to do it in the boring way .
Try raising all four corners by a three or four complete turns of the adjusting ring. Lower the car and roll it backwards and forwards to make the suspension settle. Bouncing on its own isn’t enough.
Check the ride height and repeat. It can get a bit tedious!
Try raising all four corners by a three or four complete turns of the adjusting ring. Lower the car and roll it backwards and forwards to make the suspension settle. Bouncing on its own isn’t enough.
Check the ride height and repeat. It can get a bit tedious!
Thanks Phazed, I hadn’t considered rolling it? But one I don’t understand is why there are so many thoughts on the height, I just assumed there would be a tech sheet that gave s definitive figure, is that not the case?
One other thought , as I am changing by quite a considerable amount, do I need any wheel adjustment checks done after??
One other thought , as I am changing by quite a considerable amount, do I need any wheel adjustment checks done after??
They came with fixed height suspension as standard so there is no data on adjusting it. It's just become more aesthetic for cars to ride a bit lower. Mine has 3 to 4 fingers in the rear wheel arches with standard Bilsteins!
Also, because the body is bolted to the chassis and is handmade, it is possible for the car to have the chassis the same height from the ground on both sides, but 'appear' to not be, if judging purely by the wheel arch gaps.
Also, because the body is bolted to the chassis and is handmade, it is possible for the car to have the chassis the same height from the ground on both sides, but 'appear' to not be, if judging purely by the wheel arch gaps.
Rule of thumb for unequal length wishbone setup is to have the bottom wishbone horizontal at rest. The purpose of unequal length wishbones is to alter the camber angle one way when under compression, and the other during lift. If the wishbone is horizontal at rest then that design feature can operate at optimum. Setting ride height to factory settings will approximate horizontal wishbones
Paulprior those heights are too low unless your suspension is rock hard that would have me fearing getting the under-carriage bottomed out or worse with some enthusiastic driving and a dip or crest in the road , good chance the tyres are hitting the tubs inner wheel arches under suspension compression too 
You don’t need a ramp.
Many years ago I was at Niel Garners place and they checked up one corner at a time, adjusted the spring, rolled it backwards and forwards, checked the ride height and worked their way around the car.
Since that time that is the way I do it myself even though I have a ramp!
Of course, if the spring seats haven’t been moved for years, having a ramp makes life easy to free them off and lubricate the threaded bodies.
Many years ago I was at Niel Garners place and they checked up one corner at a time, adjusted the spring, rolled it backwards and forwards, checked the ride height and worked their way around the car.
Since that time that is the way I do it myself even though I have a ramp!
Of course, if the spring seats haven’t been moved for years, having a ramp makes life easy to free them off and lubricate the threaded bodies.
I only normally have the weekends available to do such things and at best my local guys only work Saturday morning, so i will go for the Phazed solution, just one thing i dont fully underside is how rolling the car back and forward settles the suspension, surely it doesnt move if the surface is flat ??
Adjustment should be easy as the units are only 2 years old, have a light oil coating and have never seen rain, so hopefully all ok
Adjustment should be easy as the units are only 2 years old, have a light oil coating and have never seen rain, so hopefully all ok
When you lower the car back down onto the tyre, it will always remain slightly higher until you roll it backwards and forwards and the car settles evenly.
That is easily seen by when i use my two post lift. If I put the rubber pads under the outriggers close to the bolts, lift the car and then drop it to the ground. There is least an inch clearance in between the lifting pads and the bolts until the car drives out and settles .
That is easily seen by when i use my two post lift. If I put the rubber pads under the outriggers close to the bolts, lift the car and then drop it to the ground. There is least an inch clearance in between the lifting pads and the bolts until the car drives out and settles .
Paulprior said:
........... i don't fully underside is how rolling the car back and forward settles the suspension, surely it doesn't move if the surface is flat ??....................
When you lift the car the suspension droops and takes on positive camber. When you lower it the the tyre grips the ground so the tyre stays 'tucked under'. You could bounce it but you would need sufficient bounce for the tyre to lose that grip which is not likely. Rolling the car allows the toe in of the tracking to correct the tuck.As a side note the same applies when changing your tracking.
Steve
if you change ride-height you need a full suspension-alignment afterwards.
height influences camber, camber influences tracking.
by the way: the correct way of leveling the lower wishbone is this one (not the mentioned rule-of thumb):
http://westfield-world.com/suspension.html
height influences camber, camber influences tracking.
by the way: the correct way of leveling the lower wishbone is this one (not the mentioned rule-of thumb):
http://westfield-world.com/suspension.html
I've said it before and I'll say it again
Forget about trying to get any wishbones level.
Put the ride height at one that allows you to actually use your car in the way you want to use it.
Ride height so low it bottoms out ? Raise it up until it stops doing it.
People make suspension way more complicated than it really is.
I defy anybody on PH to get it a car and from driving it tell me if the wishbones are pointing up, down, level or whatever. It makes 4/5th of eff all difference to 99 percent of us.
If it's too low, raise it up.
Forget about trying to get any wishbones level.
Put the ride height at one that allows you to actually use your car in the way you want to use it.
Ride height so low it bottoms out ? Raise it up until it stops doing it.
People make suspension way more complicated than it really is.
I defy anybody on PH to get it a car and from driving it tell me if the wishbones are pointing up, down, level or whatever. It makes 4/5th of eff all difference to 99 percent of us.
If it's too low, raise it up.
Nice reply Joolz! That really did make me smile.
How many times have I read people saying they have had their geometry done and the difference is night and day! I can only think that either their car was set up with all the wheels pointing in the wrong direction originally or it’s a bit like a placebo effect.
Not saying that the above post showing the correct angle of the wishbones is incorrect, on the contrary it is very interesting but very hard to achieve under normal circumstances without a proper ramp as opposed to a two post lift.
Also makes me wonder that when we are hooning round a race track at maximum grip with sticky tires, the car leaning over and everything as a point in life you wouldn’t be at on the road. Would a millimetre here or there make any difference at all? Assuming all the wheels are pointing in the right direction of course!
How many times have I read people saying they have had their geometry done and the difference is night and day! I can only think that either their car was set up with all the wheels pointing in the wrong direction originally or it’s a bit like a placebo effect.
Not saying that the above post showing the correct angle of the wishbones is incorrect, on the contrary it is very interesting but very hard to achieve under normal circumstances without a proper ramp as opposed to a two post lift.
Also makes me wonder that when we are hooning round a race track at maximum grip with sticky tires, the car leaning over and everything as a point in life you wouldn’t be at on the road. Would a millimetre here or there make any difference at all? Assuming all the wheels are pointing in the right direction of course!
So i adjusted the ride geight today, the advise from Phazed to go 4 turns was a very good starting point, i ended up with between 4 and 6 turns between all 4 wheels and have 140 front 148 rear, i guess that seems a reasonable figure from the multitude of recommendations i have seen and obviously much higher than i had before.
Now on to alignment, i have seen it recommended many times to only go to a TVR specialist for this, but again, is there not a recommended spec that any decent alignment place can set it too?, i just dont have many options for specialists and certainly no one local
Now on to alignment, i have seen it recommended many times to only go to a TVR specialist for this, but again, is there not a recommended spec that any decent alignment place can set it too?, i just dont have many options for specialists and certainly no one local
After I converted my car to a Subaru power steering rack, obviously the tracking was all over the place.
I set it up by eye and went down to my local Kwik Fit that was 2 miles away. They set it up on their laser alignment, asked what I would want it set to and I said just set it up neutral with about eight minutes of toe in from memory.
They did that and set the steering wheel up exactly centrally and that was fine until I got a proper four wheel alignment.
I set it up by eye and went down to my local Kwik Fit that was 2 miles away. They set it up on their laser alignment, asked what I would want it set to and I said just set it up neutral with about eight minutes of toe in from memory.
They did that and set the steering wheel up exactly centrally and that was fine until I got a proper four wheel alignment.
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