arch 2 tyre gap!

[mak]

having spent last sat fitting new shocks to the car and setting up the ride height and damping over the last few days taking major time and effort to get the stance just right and oooooo! so level it not only looks a hell of a lot better i dont even need to mention the handling BUT! Ive set the ride height by measuring the rim to wheel arch instead of riggers to ground. now i do relise i've got to re do it from ground upwards and so i shall but my point is after its level from ground up just how different are the wheel arch gaps going to be bearing in mind there all spot on at the moment, although i've got a slight nose down stance at the front, before i took the old shocks off the thing was sitting high at the front and 15mm lower on the nearside but that was my way of measuring maybe it actually sat level, just how far out are the panels! hope there not to bad because at the mo it looks stunning, we'll see.

[Woody_450]

Hi Mak,

I'm planning to put new shocks & ARB drop links on mine soon, but when I last did a bit of chassis maintenance I noticed that the offside part of the shell was about 5 to 10mm lower than the nearside around the outriggers.

I'm putting it down to the former owner been a fat ass!!

Rich

[GreenV8S]

You can't set the ride height from the bodywork. The body is not symmetrical from side to side, mountings can vary and so on. Setting the damper height by measuring the chassis height side-to-side is also not a good idea unless you are set up with a perfectly flat level surface, because your average flat road or driveway is nowhere near flat enough.

The way to do this is to set left and right spring dampers on each axle to the same ride height by putting the spring seats to the same position on the damper body. Move them up or down as a pair to get the average ride height right for that axle. ou should still be wary of using the body clearance to gauge the ride height, it's OK as a rough guide but you should really be measuring the chassis height and averaging between the two sides. (By taking the average, avoids any twist caused by the ground not being perfectly flat.)

[shpub]

Slight nose down is advisable as it helps high speed stability.

[mak]

i'm doing the measuring on a concreat garage floor witch is not as good as a metal ramp but it'll do, so effectifly v8s wot i have achieved by measuring wheel arch gap is a perfectly level car body but probbably an uneven ride height for the chasis (is that right) before fitting the shocks i did set them to the same platform height for each side but when fitted they where a mile out (with my arch measuring) so i've basically got all different platform heights by up to 18mm to end up with the car as it is now, i'm gonna be upset if the body looks lobsided just to get the propper ground level because it sit so sweet. I new once i'd fitted adjustable shocks my life would become obsessed with adjusting them lol.

[GreenV8S]

A floor that looks dead flat could easily be out by half an inch or more over the length of a car and you'd never see it. Assume that the floor is wonky unless you have measured it (this takes some care). In order to get the car handling correctly it is important that the chassis is level; the body is more or less irrelevent. In any case once you start looking carefully you will see that the two sides don't actually look the same, you will never get it completely symmetrical, how often do you actually park on completely flat ground anyway? If the body is really miles out from side to side it would be worth checking that you still have all the packing in the right places because it shouldn't be *miles* out, but you should still aim to level the chassis not the body.

Basically unless you are going to do a full cornerweight and geometry setup, set left and right to the same position on the damper and adjust them up and down together. Setting them differently can and will screw up the handling.

>> Edited by GreenV8S on Tuesday 28th February 17:23