Succesful Steps In Building a A-Body Suspension

[gizmo]

Define "nice"? Because plenty of cars that handle well but probably seem "harsh" to the average joe?

[bret]

Define "nice"? Because plenty of cars that handle well but probably seem "harsh" to the average joe?

You pose an excellent question, one that has been asked in various forms of us for the last 15 years. To answer it we are actually working on a device that will quantify ride quality performance much like you can already quantify cornering performance in terms of lap times and skidpad numbers. But for the moment, I have no definitive explanation for "nice". I will be gald to take anyone for a ride if we can meet up at a Goodguys show or other events. That is the ultimate confirmation of any ride quality level anyway. Even the oem engineers with all their data gathering equipments do thir final ride quality tuning with the time tested "assometer". No substitute for an analog evaluation of a digital problem!

[gizmo]

You pose an excellent question, one that has been asked in various forms of us for the last 15 years.

I was actually asking the OP what he meant by "nice" because I wasn't sure what exactly he was looking for when he asks for a "nice" ride.

My apologies, I should've overtly directed that response to the OP.

[1nkred1ble]

Define "nice"? Because plenty of cars that handle well but probably seem "harsh" to the average joe?

A wise man once told me that I am going to jump into my chevelle and expect it to ride as nice as my daily driver. So I guess that would be my bench mark for "nice"

[406 Q-ship]

I have to chime in here. When doing any kind of coil over or even a "shockwave" style shock in the rear of an A-body, it will require a rethinking of the way the lower shock mount is attached to the rear axle housing. The shock stud design for the A-body was NOT designed or even considered to support the weight of the rear of the car. Back in the air shock days guys used to tear out the shock studs with the shocks up for tire clearance. The stock spring location is the best bet for the rear of an A-body. If your looking for ride height ajustability like a coil offers then look at the Stock Car products places for a weight jack for the rear of the A-body, the street stock cars have been using this suspension on and off for decades. Andrew's 70 GTO that won the Real Street uses a weight jacking style spring mount in the rear.

[BobB66SS]

I have to chime in here. When doing any kind of coil over or even a "shockwave" style shock in the rear of an A-body, it will require a rethinking of the way the lower shock mount is attached to the rear axle housing. The shock stud design for the A-body was NOT designed or even considered to support the weight of the rear of the car. Back in the air shock days guys used to tear out the shock studs with the shocks up for tire clearance. The stock spring location is the best bet for the rear of an A-body. If your looking for ride height ajustability like a coil offers then look at the Stock Car products places for a weight jack for the rear of the A-body, the street stock cars have been using this suspension on and off for decades. Andrew's 70 GTO that won the Real Street uses a weight jacking style spring mount in the rear.

Absolutely right and an excellent point. The DSE rr kit includes a substantial mounting bracket for the coilover that attaches to the lwr ctrl arm bracket on the axle housing. Make sure any system you use has done their engineering homework for that change in load.

[1nkred1ble]

Absolutely right and an excellent point. The DSE rr kit includes a substantial mounting bracket for the coilover that attaches to the lwr ctrl arm bracket on the axle housing. Make sure any system you use has done their engineering homework for that change in load.

http://www.detroitspeed.com/productp...oilovr-kit.htm

this is the set youre talking about right?

[BobB66SS]

http://www.detroitspeed.com/productp...oilovr-kit.htm

this is the set youre talking about right?

That's it, except I have the full Speed Kit 3 as well.

http://www.detroitspeed.com/productp...ar-spd-kts.htm

[1nkred1ble]

I have to chime in here. When doing any kind of coil over or even a "shockwave" style shock in the rear of an A-body, it will require a rethinking of the way the lower shock mount is attached to the rear axle housing. The shock stud design for the A-body was NOT designed or even considered to support the weight of the rear of the car. Back in the air shock days guys used to tear out the shock studs with the shocks up for tire clearance. The stock spring location is the best bet for the rear of an A-body. If your looking for ride height ajustability like a coil offers then look at the Stock Car products places for a weight jack for the rear of the A-body, the street stock cars have been using this suspension on and off for decades. Andrew's 70 GTO that won the Real Street uses a weight jacking style spring mount in the rear.

thanks for that reply, but is there anyway you could translate that to a car newbie???? lol i tried fallowing what you where saying but you got wayyyyy tooooo technical for me, this is the first car ive ever tried to work on, so its kinda of hard to fallow you.
i really appreciate the help though if it wasent for you and the rest of the guys chiming in i would even more lost that i am now.

[406 Q-ship]

thanks for that reply, but is there anyway you could translate that to a car newbie???? lol i tried fallowing what you where saying but you got wayyyyy tooooo technical for me, this is the first car ive ever tried to work on, so its kinda of hard to fallow you.
i really appreciate the help though if it wasent for you and the rest of the guys chiming in i would even more lost that i am now.

If you look at how the lower shock mount is just a 1/2 fine thread stud that goes through a piece of maybe 5/32 formed sheet metal, then it become obvious that it was never intended to hold any weight. When a coilover style shock is used it will be in tab on each side of the shock bushing mount, this puts the mounting bolt in double sheer. In some cases the bolt will be more than 1/2" diameter or of a higher grade than 8.

A great book to read for this kind of stuff is Prepare to Win, it is about how to mount pieces and hardware in the building and maintaining of a race car. The book gets a bit technical but most can make it through.....heck I did.

[1nkred1ble]

If you look at how the lower shock mount is just a 1/2 fine thread stud that goes through a piece of maybe 5/32 formed sheet metal, then it become obvious that it was never intended to hold any weight. When a coilover style shock is used it will be in tab on each side of the shock bushing mount, this puts the mounting bolt in double sheer. In some cases the bolt will be more than 1/2" diameter or of a higher grade than 8.

A great book to read for this kind of stuff is Prepare to Win, it is about how to mount pieces and hardware in the building and maintaining of a race car. The book gets a bit technical but most can make it through.....heck I did.

i see.......
soooooo what would be the answer to this???? i know that it was previously mentioned that the DSE rear coilover set has solved this issue with mounting brackets that you relocate else where. Do i need to worry about anything else after i go with the DSE package???? Thats what im leaning tores I have enough $$$ for the rear set up and should everything saved up for the fronta with in the next couple of weeks.

I was made aware that the front coilover kits from DSE do not bolt on directly onto the stock front LCA, does anybody know if they bolt on to other LCA from other companies, ie; global west, spc, cpp, so on and so forth????

is there much of a perfomance diffrence between the Qa1 front coilvers vs DSE???

thanks for the ton of feedback guys i really appreciated.

[JRouche]

I have to chime in here. When doing any kind of coil over or even a "shockwave" style shock in the rear of an A-body, it will require a rethinking of the way the lower shock mount is attached to the rear axle housing. The shock stud design for the A-body was NOT designed or even considered to support the weight of the rear of the car.

Very good info. A shock mount can not convert to a coilover or shockwave mount. Just was not meant to hold the weight of the car. Gotta build the mounts up a lil.

Here is a lil build-up of my shockwave mounts. Im on the front end now and will post some pics when done. Doing some similar stuff up front. JR

https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=55420

[1nkred1ble]

Very good info. A shock mount can not convert to a coilover or shockwave mount. Just was not meant to hold the weight of the car. Gotta build the mounts up a lil.

Here is a lil build-up of my shockwave mounts. Im on the front end now and will post some pics when done. Doing some similar stuff up front. JR

https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=55420

is this true for both front and rear mounts or just rear???