AVO's Help Please

[bugsy]

I'm borrowing a ramp Saturday morning and want to check my ride height.
Do I need any special tools?
Can anybody give me a run through on the order in which to do things?
Is the adjustment only on the ride height or can you soften or harden the suspension on AVO's.

[joospeed]

You could do with a *C* spanner to adjust the spring platforms with, you cna use big grips but you risk damaging the castlations on the platform 9that's assuming you have the adjustable ride height version, AVO do a fixed platform version too). Yup AVOs are adjustable for stiffness aswell

[bugsy]

Thanks Jools
Are there any runthroughs posted or can you give me any clues, cos I'm skint at the moment and can't afford to employ a specialist.

[GreenV8S]

Some dampers have double spring seats that are tightened against each other to stop them slipping. As far as I can remember though, the AVOs I tried were a conventional single spring seat. I don't remember whether or not they had a grub screw to lock them (its not really necessary and if mine did have one it was never used).

The easiest way to adjust the height is to jack the car up to take the weight off the wheel, remove the wheel, grab the spring firmly with both hands and twist it firmly. Unless your adjusters are badly corroded and seized onto the damper body, the spring seat will turn with the spring so you can wind it up and down as necessary. Make sure the left and right dampers are set to the same height - for example by counting the number of threads exposed below the spring seat. Do NOT try to correct the corner weights or make the car sit 'flat' by setting the spring seats at different heights. Incidentally this is a job that is quite easy to do on flat ground and doesn't require ramps. All you need is a jack and wheel brace.

[S1.5f]

GreenV8S said:

As far as I can remember though, the AVOs I tried were a conventional single spring seat. I don't remember whether or not they had a grub screw to lock them (its not really necessary and if mine did have one it was never used).

The AVO's are single seat and have a small 'allen' grub screw (4 or 5mm key) in the side of the seat. I could easily twist mine as Peter has stated but did give the threads a good clean and lube before I started.

[clive f]

I`ve just fitted a full set of avos to my s2,I havent got the car back on the deck yet as I`m doing some other jobs as well, but the Bible suggests a ride hieght of 5 to 6 inches, and I`m assuming that this is the distance between the main sections of the chassis to the floor when on a level ground, I`m probably going to opt for 6" or more depending on how high the car looks, and someone on this site earlier said his dampers on his avos were set to 6 clicks on the rear and 7 clicks on the front, hope this helps, what settings have you been using so far?

[bugsy]

Funny you say that because the previous owner said that he had set the fronts harder than the rear.
I'm a real novice on this front and am only looking for more clearance in this speed bump city I now live in.
I don't do track days and I just want reasonable handling without breaking my false teeth everytime I go over a bump.
Anybody else with how many clicks would be useful.
I understand that TVR set them at 60%, does that mean if the ride moves 22 clicks (as posted) 13 clicks from the softest ride would give me 60%?

[clive f]

7 clicks on the front would make them stiffer than the 6 on the rear, I`m in the same boat as you with regards to the type of use the car gets, perhaps other users don`t pass comment as they have most repairs or maintainance done at a garage?