Broke my new Shockwave!

[GRNOVA]

Not to much driving right now. I had a minor set back when I pulled into the garage I saw a little oil coming from my front Shockwave.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

As I looked under the car I noticed It had broke or something.
After I had got the car onto the lift I could see it was devastating.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn13/tnt342/?action=view&current=IMGP0371.flv)


It looked like the shock had split. After talking to Jeremy at
Ridetech, he informed me that, that is where the lower half of
the shock screws to the body.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn13/tnt342/?action=view&current=IMGP0371.flv)

He told me that they will get to the bottom of this and I should return the Shockwaves and LCA to them so they can inspect it up close.

I would just like to go on record that I have been dealing with Air Ride Technologies (old name) since Ridetech (new name) 2000 when I bought my first suspension for my Nova, and I will continue to purchase from them. The service and especially the customer service has been 125% Top notch!! You have to remember this is new technology and there are going to be some "bumps" in the road!

[garickman]

I just installed some of the newer shockwaves, hope it is not a flaw in the design. I will agree though, the company and customer service is first class all the way.

[T-CHRGD]

PLEASE Keep in Mind Just MY Opinion from what I See in the Pics.
I could be :bsjerk:

Looking at the pics, the problem seems to be lack of clearance between the shock mount and the reinforcing plate on the a-arm. When the suspension compresses, the plate pivots up and contacts the shock mount, and acts like a prybar against the shock, right above the shock mounting bolt, causing the shock to bend and pop out just as it did in the pics. You can see the damage to the shock mount on the left, just above the bolt hole (pic 3). Good news would be it would be Not a defect in the shock, and probably an easy fix.

Good Luck with it !!

[Bryce]

PLEASE Keep in Mind Just MY Opinion from what I See in the Pics.
I could be :bsjerk:

Looking at the pics, the problem seems to be lack of clearance between the shock mount and the reinforcing plate on the a-arm. When the suspension compresses, the plate pivots up and contacts the shock mount, and acts like a prybar against the shock, right above the shock mounting bolt, causing the shock to bend and pop out just as it did in the pics. You can see the damage to the shock mount on the left, just above the bolt hole (pic 3). Good news would be it would be Not a defect in the shock, and probably an easy fix.

Good Luck with it !!

I agree, whos LCAs are those?

[GRNOVA]

I agree, whos LCAs are those?

Ridetech's LCA's

[Bryce]

well it looks like the LCA hits the shock under compression. Are your bumpstops setup correctly?

[GRNOVA]

It wasn't the bump stops the LCA could not go past 80* at which the lower part of the shockwave hits the webbing on the LCA. and after talking talking Jeremy @ Ridetech they will need to redesign their LCA so I will need to ship the front shockwaves and my LCA's back to them. Another note on customer service when this happened the next day my wife called Jeremy and told him that we had a leaky shockwave and he immediately had one built and shipped overnight. Although this was not going to fix this problem I was amazed, that is over and beyond what I had expected.

[Bryce]

way to go ridetech!!

[rrstroker71]

Ridetech has a very good product and good service. Glad to see this was taken care of.

[Bad Bowtie]

Jeremy is :1st: . He helped me work out a couple of controller issues i had on 62 caddy i'm building. Their service is first class, i'm looking forward to my next RideTech install.
BB

[JRouche]

Interesting. I have shockwaves. I re-worked my lower control arms (MII arms) to fit them. I moved the suspension throughout the entire movement after welding in my brace plates on the CA. And I did have to clearance the inside of the plate to clear the lower part of the shockwave body. Actually it was to clear the adjusting knobs of the shock, not the body. The clearance between the plate and the shock housing is very close on your vid. Also, in the vid it didnt look like the plate was bent or even that the paint was removed. No signs of contact. But the way the shock is broke and the close contact area looks to point at that interference.

You had the old shockwaves on before. Did you replace the lower CAs with the new shockwaves? JR

[GRNOVA]

No, the older ones worked for 5 years I upgraded to the Master Series and they redesigned the shock. The LCA are old airride tech musII but they do not work with the new design. And the newely designed LCA do not work either.

[bret]

In January of 2010 we started shipping a new version of the Shockwave shock. This one has a slightly larger [like .100"] diameter at the bottom of the shock. I truly thought we had all the control arm clearances checked. [sigh] That's what I get for thinking.
I'm glad Jeremy took care of it for you quickly [like he always does!].
The specific solution to fix your control arm is to gring just a bit of clearance on the mounting plate where it gets close to the shock. No, you cetainly should not have to do this yourself, but it would be the quickest fix. We will certainly send you a new set of lower control arms with revised plates, but it will take a few days to get them back from the powdercoater.
My apologies for the inconvenience, and my appreciation for bringing this to our attention. The revised arms are already in the works.

[JRouche]

I see now.. Its one of the old bolt in place parts and assume they work. NOT!!! Not a bad on ART or Jeremy. A combined effort it seems. And its a GREAT learning experience for us and them. Im glad J showed us and glad ART talked about it.

But any time you modify the suspension on your car you should completely check it for binding in every area.

If its a new roll bar, control arm, trailing arm, shock, spring, steering arms, brake components or wheels. Binding in the suspension is failure. And its usually a catastrophic failure. When you are lucky its a controlled failure and you can get the car to the side of the road. Or to the garage. When its a bad failure there is damage to sheetmetal, and skin and bones of your person.

Sometimes I wonder if there shouldnt be more regulations with what a guy can do to his car and drive it down the road at whatever speed. But NO way do I want that. I love the freedom we have with our cars. I want to keep that freedom.

Too many companies provide aftermarket items for our cars and market them as a do it yourself project. Even marketing some serious components to folks that dont have any mechanical skills. Im not talking about J and ARTs friendship. Just the general need for aftermarket car parts dealers and manufactures to sell the product to who ever will buy it and bolt it up to their car. In the wrong hands that can lead to some major mishaps.

With the way that after marketing is. Any guy that owns a car can buy parts to modify the suspension (and everything else). And he is relying on the manufacture to say yes, this will work, and it is safe. He is not the only one relying on the manufactures seal of approval. Every other driver on the road is covered buy the manufactures seal also. You know, the innocent mom and daughter driving next to the guy that just put in some new control arms.

As a manufacture they need to consider this. Look at what Toyota is going through. Want to jump on that band wagon as a manufacture? Prolly not..

As a small manufacture it only takes one families death to put you out of business.

Lackadaisical attitude or a rush to put a product out may kill the business and folks on the street.

Aftermarket products are NOT always tried and true. Its up the the installer to verify to the best of his abilities that the components he is putting on the road are road worthy and not rely on the manufactures say so.

Cars are not Lincoln Logs or legos. Its not just a bolt together arrangement of parts as many of the aftermarket manufactures would like you to think. There has to be some though and testing involved from the buyer of the product. Us, as the buyers of these components have to take some accountability when we use these parts. We need to ensure they are what the manufactures says they are to the best of our abilities. And test them in the garage before we take it to the street.

And testing for us means making sure the fasteners are what they should be, clearances are what they should be, the parts are what they should be (yeah, order pickers do screw up too). And it goes even further then that. I have a long list of what should be checked before a part hits the road.

One thing I can say for certain. Dont EVER take a part in hand and expect to just bolt it up. Examine the part, look at how it interacts with the other parts of the system. Human error is a reality. If you dont do your own fact finding and measurements you will take one persons error and amplify it. JR

[GRNOVA]

JR, you are absolutely correct with everything you said. And this is no ones fault but mine as car builders we take the responsibility to check what we do and try to make it safe to the best of our ability.I do normally go through all my new aftermarket parts for form, fit clearance and the function I expect. I will be more careful in the future. And to put some Irony into the story. As I came down the drive way I was just getting ready to take my 4 year old TJ and my Father for a ride I am glad this happened next.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn13/tnt342/65%20nova/?action=view&current=IMGP0330.flv)
At the time I was unhappy it ran out of gas but thank God something stopped us from going back out. I really had cabin fever, and wanted to drive it.