Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

Made up a bush/part list from superpro.

Front

-------KIT151K ("front end alignment kit", all front control arm and radius rod bushes)

-------SPF1453-30K (30mm sway bar D bushes)

Rear

-------SPF0977-80K (high performance 80 duro? version. Available from 70-90)

-------SPF0016-80K (high performance 80)

-------SPF0017-80K (high performance 80)

-------FR002X (special order, not listed but available, adjustable panhard rod kit)

-------SPF0589-20K (20mm sway bar D bushes)

-------SPF2092K (sway bar link bushes)




As for the rest of the suspension specs.

Already have K-mac stage 2 front strut tops and Boge front shockers "turbo series"

Springs will be Lovells standard height HD.

Front sway bar will be K-mac 30mm, rear I already have 20mm genuine FE2 bar.

Rear shocks will be the same as the front Boge turbo.

Front sway bar links will be the nolthane kit with the rolly polly top bushings, well thats what I call them

Roadsafe ball joints and tie rod ends.

[psyolent]

Top job VSH you the man

I got a pair of suspension concepts pillow/ball tower bearings.
There is zero compliance / nolathane in these and they are pretty hardcore. They are also sleeved so you can run different shocks with different shaft OD (eg: VS LCA and VT on upright ect)
Its part of my one day plan ....

[vlad01]

Yeah I was looking at them too but be rattly as hell on a road car and G said they can break the welds on the towers. The K-mas stage 2 is also pillow ball but encased in a small urethane housing for some but minimal give for harsh shock/vibration absorption, so they are street friendly but also hold geometry well.

[immortality]

Add a strut brace to stop the towers flexing and breaking welds

I had one on my old VN, improvement in the over-all rigidity of the body pan and improved the steering too.

[vlad01]

the welds break from up and down pounding, not smooth sideways flexing (unless sliding sideways over a ripple strip or similar) which no strut brace currently available helps much with due to having a clevis type design, not a solid 1 piece design like its suppose to be. Been down this path before, not feasible unless I custom make a brace that requires a hole in the bonnet to fit.


To be any good in that respect you need a brace design like this but even then it still won't stop up/down flex much but at least it will work correctly for what they are suppose to reduce, sideways flex.

strut_brace_BMW_Z4.jpg (18 KiB) Viewed 4883 times

[psyolent]

yeah. the urethane gives some give which is useful in a road car. in a track car though

[immortality]

Any major flexing will break shit over time not just pounding on it.

Not that it matters, clearly the difference the strut brace made in my VN must be in my head!

I'd better email all the companies that supply strut braces for commodores and tell them that they are crap because Vlad said so!

[psyolent]

ha. my strut brace on my VN made a big difference years back immo when i had it installed. it didn't 'wallow' as much around corners, turn in was much sharper.

VSH engineering

[vlad01]

If you look at the inner guard you'll find they distribute flexing over a large area in sideways dirrections, also coupled with the fact the only real sideways loading is due to weight transfer during cornering which in nature is a just smooth loading and not shock loading.

For up/down loading the inner guards and towers don't have much give (like a tin's strength up/down verse across its width) and that coupled with shock loads seen with suspension travel the welds get stressed much much more in this scenario. Therefore a brace and also the fact they do not brace at all in up/down movement by nature and more so that these have a pivoting clevis won't prevent welds breaking in extreme shock loads or in the case of solid strut tops.

The argument was nothing about handling and purely about complete lack of up/down bracing where breakage would occur.

[immortality]

Your theory is based on a clevis joint that is free to move in the vertical plane which is not the case with most strut braces.

A simple test would be to jack the front driver side (like you would to change a tyre) with and without a strut brace fitted. If you are correct than the body pan would twist the same amount regardless.

If there is less movement in the chassis then the suspension is better able to do it's job.