removing shock covers

dfink · 01-19-2007, 06:31 AM

Question about shock dust covers. On the front of my 85 the dust covers are hitting and limiting the ammount of front camber. What are the detriments of removing them and just using a washer for the top rubber. Perhaps a boot of some sort to keep water out of the front strut housing. I can get close to -3 in the rear but only -1.4 in front due to this problem. I am using Koni sport yellow and the car is at least 80% track other 20% is getting to track.

jaydubya · 01-19-2007, 06:42 AM

I just did this.

This part at Summit Racing fits perfectly as a replacement on my Bilsteins:

link

Pick your color.

Thanks to jhelgesen for the suggestion.

If you have Bilstein shocks, they are an inverted design and the upper part of the shock articulates against bushings inside the strut. Thus it should be kept free of debris. I'm not sure about the Konis.

Cheers,

Jeff

dfink · 01-19-2007, 07:35 AM

Those look like a good plan. Did removing the dust cover give you more adjustment.

jaydubya · 01-19-2007, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by dfink
Those look like a good plan. Did removing the dust cover give you more adjustment.

Before you do this, first take a look at the three bolts that come up through the square holes in the fender. If the bolts are already touching the inside edges of the holes, removing the dust cover will not help. If they aren't touching, the two areas keeping them from moving all the way over are usually 1) the width of the strut top, and then 2) the dust cover.

Check to see if the inside edge of your strut top is touching either the inside of the cylindrical part of the fender (underneath) or the edge of the big hole for the top of the strut top (inside the trunk). If it is, you need to do something about that first...

Every car is a little different, but on my car the strut top was limiting lateral movement before the dust cover.

-1.5 degrees is not bad. You can get another -0.5 degrees by tightening your strut brace. Alternatively, if you class allows it, you can replace the strut tops with the narrower aftermarket versions, such as provided by Smart Racing, Wevo, etc. Unfortunately I cannot do that in PCA stock racing classes...

Cheers,

Jeff