No room for coil-overs. Now what?

[cstreit]

Gang,

Turns out that even the smallest coil-overs won't fit up into the tunnel in the rear cross-over on 71 and earlier chassis.


So... I'm struggling with what to do here and could use some outside perspectives... Here are my options as I see them so far:

1. Cut out rear cross member and weld in a bar (ala additionms car) and mount the shocks to that. (But I'm nervous about making major structural changes)

2. Cut out the side of the tunnel section and expand it (seems like less of an effort)

3. Scrap the coil-overs and stay with T-bars

4. ???

[john_colasante]

What about getting the cross member and related parts from a '73 and welding those in?

[cstreit]

I thought of that as well... Probably no less work than doing something like this though:

[MT912RS]

Are you running the dampers upside down? If you run them upside down (spring down ) and run a short spring (~8" Free length ) you may have some clearance to gain. Just a thought. Otherwise you could cut out the current tower and make one out of a larger diameter tubing with a cap on it

[earlycar]

Chris, MIrage international sells upside down rear coilovers. www.mirageintl.com . Probably easier than modifing the shell. chris

[cstreit]

I have the RSR Bilstein shocks with the threaded body. I'm not sure if they can be run upside down, but then the heim-joint on the "former" bottom would have nothing to mount to without a special adapter even if they could.

I thought about just cutting the "sides of the tube out (they are only short in one direction parallel to the car) and then welding a plate over the cutout that is bowed out to be larger.

GOOD IDEAS! Keep 'em coming!

[TimT]

Hmmmmmmm, Chris I thought I splained dis befo

mount the shocks upside down,buy or make a spacer to move the spring out of the shock tube..

problemo:



solucion:

[TimT]

I made the spacer to move the spring lower on the shock. One caveat, you do need eye/eye shocks to make this work, unless you want to do some more fabricating.

[earlycar]

Chris, I too have the rsr threaded bilstein shocks and have no idea how you could possibly run them upside down. I would suggest selling them and calling mirage. chris

[cstreit]

The Mirage shocks are about $1200.

These cost me about $300 and are more period-correct. I talked to Jae at Mirage, (good guy) but I just want to stay a bit more original.

I think It's either fabbed or modified cross-bar unless I can make a spacer as TimT suggested.

[scca_ita]

Call Patrickmotorsport, he makes a spacer that will fit into the purch that solves this problem on the early tubs.

[cstreit]

I'll call tomorrow and post back. ZTHanks.

[anh911]

I think it depends on the rest of your set-up but if you go the tube frame route you should ad a triangulated piece to the system used in the pic. That one doesn't have coil-overs and you will be adding much more tension to the crossmember by using them.

[cstreit]

Good point. Probably right where the cross member is welded to the down-tube and to where the down-tube meets the frame. On Jim's car there are extra gussets on the rear, but because of my oil-filter, I can't extend the cage as far back.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Chris:

FWIW,........We have had excellent luck mounting those shocks (or any others) upside down with a clevis and stud kit (and using 2.25" springs, of course) on those early cars with the small diameter tube.

In some cases, we remove those small tubes and install larger ones to facilitate using a main-tender spring package.

[cstreit]

Thanks for the reply Steve. I've had my heart set on mounting them "right side up" but considering the amount of surgery required to do this, it may be over the top.

I'm assuming the clevis and stud kit is the adapter to mount the heim-joint up to the top, and adding a heim-joint to the bottom for the bannana arm?

Once I get the engine out for the winter checkup, I'm going to sit in the engine bay for an hour with a beer and ponder my predicament I think.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Originally posted by cstreit

I'm assuming the clevis and stud kit is the adapter to mount the heim-joint up to the top, and adding a heim-joint to the bottom for the bannana arm?

[/B]

Yessir. These kits are comprised of a billet, anodized clevis/stud that mounts to the bottom shock mount and a threaded mount with a monoball for the lower shock bolt that attachs it to the banana.

[cstreit]

After looking at the setup, there is no way to space the spring down far enough to get it out of the shock tower and have enough suspension travel. A call to Patrick confirmed this.

So the choices are either chassis mod or inverted.

[304065]

When in doubt. . . www.gunnarracing.com (from the RATT RSR project)

[addictionMS]