Our F85 Power Tour Project

[PhillipM]

Well it was bound to happen. I did ask Ride Tech when I ordered the rear coil-over kit what the ride height length of the shock was and they told me 15". Great! That's what mine is too. However I had a feeling something wasn't going to be right because of how low our car is. We've all seen the C notches and the ride height. So, after modifying the upper mounts I quickly bolted on the lower mounts and the first thing I noticed is that my brake lines were now too short. Hmm.. Well, after doing some more measuring I found that the upper mount was now dropping the shock about 1.5" and now the axle housing the same amount, and subsequently raising the car the same amount. After a quick email to Darren at Ride Tech he offered to swap the shocks for shorter ones. That was a great offer however then I would be giving up shock travel as well as I don't think the shock would then go long enough to get the wheel and tire off the car. Because not only would the stroke be shorter it has less stroke as well.

So in the end I decided to rework the lower mounts as well. First thing I did was put them in the band saw and get the original mounts cut off. Once they were nice and flat we reinstalled them and set the car at ride height. This way everything would be nice and straight at ride height including the heim joint. Don't think this is really necessary but hey if your there building it from scratch might as well get it right? Here are some pictures of the new lower mounts.