Adjusting the coil overs

[Brastic]

I need to raise my hot rod because my tires are rubbing. For the fronts, do I need to take the shocks out? The rears look easy to do on the car.

[NAZ]

You should be able to answer that by simply looking at the room available. Depending on shock orientation, you may be able to adjust the pre-load without removing the shocks. I have mine inverted (body up) and can reach the adjusters with the special wrenches made for close quarters. Summit Racing carries them and instead of handles they have a 3/8" square drive you use with an extension and ratchet.

144392

[33fromSD]

You should be able to answer that by simply looking at the room available. Depending on shock orientation, you may be able to adjust the pre-load without removing the shocks. I have mine inverted (body up) and can reach the adjusters with the special wrenches made for close quarters. Summit Racing carries them and instead of handles they have a 3/8" square drive you use with an extension and ratchet.

144392

I inverted mine as well, glad I did too. looking from underneath with the belly pan on (before I removed it for paint prep) it would be almost impossible to adjust the front from underneath. Jim

[Brastic]

I like the idea of inverting the front shocks. I will plan to remove them this weekend, make the adjustment and install them invereted. The rears I can get to no problem. Thank you all for replaying.

[AJT '33]

I like the idea of inverting the front shocks. I will plan to remove them this weekend, make the adjustment and install them invereted. The rears I can get to no problem. Thank you all for replaying.

Just to be safe, check the model FFR supplied you, some of them CANNOT be inverted so you need to be careful. If you search the build threads you will see that come up and some models could not, like mine, which are their stock Koni Coil Over's

[RoadRacer]

As they say, YMMV, but I can easily adjust mine but I don't have any front bodywork. Simply jack up the car to unload suspension and turn the adjusters.

Here's one of the inverting threads (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?24319-Inverting-Front-konis-on-33&p=278281&highlight=shocks+upside#post278281)

[Brastic]

I went out and checked. I have the double adjustable nickel plated Koni shocks. So they must stay up.

[j33ptj]

Maybe using the different holes in the frame allows you to raise the frame with out adjusting the shocks very much. If you have used the upper holes, by using the lower holes you will raise the frame too...

[Brastic]

Just a follow up. I bought the coil over wrench and raised my car 1/8" and I am not rubbing anymore. The shocks are still to stiff for road driving. Next for me is to adjust them.

[Brastic]

After 1k miles on the Konis, I gave up. They are fine on perfectly flat road. On the street, (especially out here in Northern California) they are terrible. I am setting up my hot rod for road driving. With that, I reached out to Dan Ruth. He was very patience with me and all of my questions. The new QA1s with longer springs arrived quickly and installed easy. I have the car on jack stands till June with other work I am doing. I cannot wait to get them on the road.

[RoadRacer]

After 1k miles on the Konis, I gave up. They are fine on perfectly flat road. On the street, (especially out here in Northern California) they are terrible. I am setting up my hot rod for road driving. With that, I reached out to Dan Ruth. He was very patience with me and all of my questions. The new QA1s with longer springs arrived quickly and installed easy. I have the car on jack stands till June with other work I am doing. I cannot wait to get them on the road.

Keep us up-to-date with the results.

I agree it's stiff-as-hell but I'm curious how much you'll have to raise the rear to get enough clearance with softer springs. Mine still very occasionally rubs tires but it has to be a high-speed big bump. With softer springs, I'd imagine you'd have to go up another 1" or more. Unless they are progressive springs?

[NAZ]

Yes, the FFR supplied springs seem like they're off a 1-ton truck and ride like a Conestoga wagon. I have 250#/in springs on the front and 150#/in in the rear, and the front could stand to be maybe 25#/in lighter.

Now that you have the QA1 shocks, did you invert them in front? Makes it so much easier to adjust but you need some extension caps (Summit Racing #QA1-9018-113) to give you the room between the springs.

[NAZ]

Keep us up-to-date with the results.

I agree it's stiff-as-hell but I'm curious how much you'll have to raise the rear to get enough clearance with softer springs. Mine still very occasionally rubs tires but it has to be a high-speed big bump. With softer springs, I'd imagine you'd have to go up another 1" or more. Unless they are progressive springs?

James, you should consider installing longer bump stops to prevent the tires from rubbing. Stiffer springs = harsh ride and less traction, and don't guarantee the tires won't rub, just requires a bigger bump.

[Brastic]

I did install the fronts inverted per the instructions from Dan. The hardest part for me is that the car is on jack stands in front of my office window. So while I am swamped with work, I am staring at my car.

[J R Jones]

In my road racing past I went from single adjustable Konis to non-adjustable Bilsteins. The Bilsteins were some of the first shocks that were pressurized with nitrogen to limit foaming. This also made inverted installation possible to reduce unsprung weight.
It was interesting to see them self extend when compressed. My 818S is not running yet and the suspension does not flex when I jump on it, causing me concern. My springs are 350 front and 275 rear and the preload rings are just snug on the springs. The phrase "Go Kart" is popular on this Forum, but I prefer my car not ride like one.
jim

[HVACMAN]

I too have Dan's QA1 shocks and springs (fronts inverted) along with his 4 link set up. I had FFR delete the original parts. The 4 link helps center the rear wheels in the opening. So far no wheel rub. I can't make a comparison to the original suspension but the car rides better than I expected. [ATTACH=CONFIG]148304

[RoadRacer]

James, you should consider installing longer bump stops to prevent the tires from rubbing. Stiffer springs = harsh ride and less traction, and don't guarantee the tires won't rub, just requires a bigger bump.

Thanks I’ll look for some. We have some fast toll roads here but the one I travel most is 4-5 lane, straight and empty, so it’s easy to drive fast - but here are a few big undulations that make pickups lose their load and me almost fly! When I pulled my rear wheels to check brakes yesterday the tires have almost rubbed through the gelcoat in one spot from the early runs. I’ve raised a couple times since then, but I’ll be searching for bump stops today as a backup. Still running the stock 250lb..

[NAZ]

James, the bump stops are a must have to prevent tire contact with body parts and ultimately, damage. For an occasional big bump, bottoming shouldn't be too annoying.

But if you drive roads that cause frequent bottoming you may consider running a double adjustable shock so you can tune the bump damping separate from the rebound. I like the QA1 double adjustable shocks, they're a good value and easy to adjust on the car. The way you would tune the bump damping is to run across the high speed bumps that cause bottoming and incrementally increase bump damping by 2-3 clicks until the car no longer bottoms out. Then back off 1-click at a time until you just feel it kiss the bump stop. It's an iterative process that takes some time but once set, you're not likely to have to adjust again unless something changes on the car or the roads you drive.

Good luck and let us know how it works out so others may benefit from your experience.

[RoadRacer]

A quick measure shows I have 16mm rod diameter on the standard nickel shocks, with a bump stop ~1.78" long. The only longer one Koni does is https://www.summitracing.com/parts/kon-7034530000 but that's only 0.39" longer; doesn't seem much. According to my measurements, that's still a long way from engaging before the tire hits bodywork.

But yes, many seem to prefer the QA1 route, so I'll put that on my todo list

[NAZ]

You can stack and cut bump stops to get the length you need