Gaz - Dampers and springs

[Hoover33]

I am about to have these put on my S2, and was wondering if anyone knows of a decent basic set up, before I start playing around to find my ideal set-up.

Front dampers and springs were supplied and set up by Tower View(so no idea on spring rating), I just need to install them. (however I have heard that most people consider Tower View settings alittle soft.)

The rears are also Gaz shocks with 10" 340lbs springs.

I need some idea so I can get the mechanic to install at half reasonable set up.

Ride hieght I guess 5" - 6" from chassis to ground, but how many clicks on the dampers them selfs?????

[noahstvr]

On my 3000 s I installed GAZ dampers last spring. I started out with 12 clicks from soft front and rear for road only use.After one season of driving I feel the rear could use a few more clicks of firmness. Make sure your clicks are from soft to firm, it is my understanding this is the proper method. Good luck.

[Roy C]

Tower View set the GAZ dampers on my s2 to 18 clicks.
Having played around with them for a couple of years, 18 is probably about right.

[HarryW]

Assuming the front are stronger springs than the rear, which at 340lb I would not consider to be soft. Only issue I have with after market shocks is that they must be designed around standard spring rates, so I would expect to start roughly in the middle of the adjustment band.
A point not mentioned very often is that the beauty of nitrons is that the dampers are valved to suit the springs you are fitting too. So if you increase the rate on changing the dampers they will be better matched. AFAIK GAS/AVO etc one size fits all so if you venture outside of the standard spring range by too much shocks and springs will not work as well as they could.

Harry

[Hoover33]

As I state I don't know the spring rating of the front, do the colour of the springs indicate this:

The front are red (unknown lbs), whilst the rear are black (340lbs).


The person I bought the rears from was aiming for a fast road/ ocasional track days but never got round to fitting them.

If all else fails I will set both to 20 clicks (IIRC Tower View said 40 clicks in total), and take it from there.

Come to the conclusion set up of the car is something best left to the experts.

Thanks to everyone for the advise

[HarryW]

Hoover33 said:

As I state I don't know the spring rating of the front, do the colour of the springs indicate this: The front are red (unknown lbs), whilst the rear are black (340lbs). The person I bought the rears from was aiming for a fast road/ ocasional track days but never got round to fitting them. If all else fails I will set both to 20 clicks (IIRC Tower View said 40 clicks in total), and take it from there. Come to the conclusion set up of the car is something best left to the experts. Thanks to everyone for the advise

re the front rates don't know what the colours signify .
However it is standard for an S to have stiffer springs on the front due to the effective rate. Do a search particularly on GreenV8's previous post on this subject, it has been covered once or twice before.

Harry

[joospeed]

yup indeedy.

340 is quite high rate but not unmanageable.

I think PeterH is on 600front 400rear and i'm on 650 front 450 rear. If no-one buys the S i'll be going up to 850 front 650 rear. I like it hard

[millard]

Joospeed,

I'm assuming you wont be using it in the wet then???

I was running an 'M' with 300/250 which swaped ends for a passtime in the damp(wipe clean seats are needed!). Just fitted 200 rears expecting to calm things down a bit and test driving tonight.

Alex

[GreenV8S]

My V8S is wonderfully docile with 600/400, it is just nicely balanced in the dry in third gear. More care needed in the wet obviously but that's always going to be the case with these power levels. Never driven Joolz' motor but from the passenger it felt very composed in damp conditions, yes it took armfulls of opposite lock from time to time (mostly on the corners!) but that's because Joolz was provoking it at every opportunity!

Personally I feel that 600/400 is a little excessive for these tyres and if I could control the body attitude I'd like to soften it a little, I think it would find more grip. Think going to 800/600 probably is a little much or road tyres in the dry and losing a lot of grip in the wet. But you never know 'til you try so I'd be interested to find how Joolz got on with them.

[joospeed]

I just like the feel of the car as it gets stiffer and stiffer .. it may be excessive in real terms, but it's the feel i'm interested in .. if it feesl worse I'll go back a step

It certainly needs more roll stiffness though .. looking at pictures of it on track days even with over 3 degrees static negative camber it's going into positive camber through turns...

[GreenV8S]

Yes, mine's the same (although I don't run quite that much static camber, the front's seem to have more or less enough camber compensation but the rears don't.

I do wonder though, how much of the 'lost' camber comes from bush deflection rather than straight forward body roll. Those outside wheels are taking a heck of a lot of torque.

[Hoover33]

Hmmmmm staring to think my rear springs may be in excess of the front.

I'll have a chat with Tower View seeing as they supplied the front suspension as a kit........

Got the rear dampers and springs at a bargain price on Ebay, Springs can't cost that much so maybe I'll get something softer(depends on what TV say).

[Hoover33]

Hmmmmm staring to think my rear springs may be in excess of the front.

I'll have a chat with Tower View seeing as they supplied the front suspension as a kit........

Got the rear dampers and springs (both unused)at a bargain price on Ebay, Springs can't cost that much so maybe I'll get something softer(depends on what TV say).

[joospeed]

GreenV8S said:

Yes, mine's the same (although I don't run quite that much static camber, the front's seem to have more or less enough camber compensation but the rears don't. I do wonder though, how much of the 'lost' camber comes from bush deflection rather than straight forward body roll. Those outside wheels are taking a heck of a lot of torque.

bush deflection is a distinct possibility .. i run the front very low on my car so camber loss during roll should be less than a std ride height car since the rate of angle chnge on the top arm is greater than the (shorter) lower arm.

[GreenV8S]

joospeed said:

the rate of angle chnge on the top arm is greater than the (shorter) lower arm.

This is a test, right?

>> Edited by GreenV8S on Friday 14th January 19:15

[joospeed]

a-ha .. lol .. I'd got the working of the shorter top arm in my head as i wrote it .. yup .. well spotted .

You fancy proof reading all my posts from now on Peter?

[clive f]

hoover, I`ve just fitted a new set of Avos, and they imformed me I needed 300lb on the front and 250lb on the rear,my old springs were 10 1/4 " long, when off of the strut, this apparently was relative to the poundage of the new springs. also these sizes were sold quite frequently to many tvr garages for s series replacements.
I have set them up on the car with a compressed spring length of 8 7/8", this gives a ride hieght of 5 3/4",chassis to level floor, and I`m trying the dampers out at 10 clicks from soft all round until I`ve got some miles done to see how it feels. the exhaust is not grounding out now on the usual speed bump near my house, hopefully some miles can be done tommorrow and all will be well.
hope this helps.

[Hoover33]

Just spoken to Tower View, they have told me that the 340 springs will work well with the front set-up.
So I'll try and get the suspension fitted all round this week

[Hoover33]

Just picked car up........

Seems like a different animal now.

.... Not to sure on the damper settings, I will have a play with them after it has all settled down...