GAZ Set up advice, in a mess.... not sure how to move forwarrd..

[trackerdave]

Hi Guys,

Im running a Clio Williams 2 at the moment its full stripped out and to be a track car only (no road use) with good brakes, half cage, strut braces, polly bushed and GAZ coil overs problem is the lad before me had 17 X 7.5s with 205/40/17`s on it and fully compressed the springs along with cutting the car away to allow for the fowling that was enevitabley going to happen!!

Ive now put standard wheels back on and 888`s, i now want to set the Gaz coilovers somewhere near, how would you go about this? the ride is off the scale at the moment although better than it was with 17`s!! but still horrible...

Any opinions greatly appreciated boys..

P.S how does corner weighting assist?

Dave.

[stevie_b]

Sorry, what is it that you are trying to ahieve when you say you want to set it 'somewhere near' - a normal ride height? When you say the ride is bad, the 'stiffness' should be able to be altered by a knob on the strut itself, unless running remote cannisters, or they are non-adjustable struts? The corner weighting is a later step where you would normally aim to get all corners of the car balanced, using the height collars, to take an equal weight and therefore share the work across all four contact patches, but there is more to it than that.

[trackerdave]

Thanks for the reply, the ride is much to hard it's as if the springs arnt doing any work at all, it skips and chops across the road at the slightest sign of a bump of anything on the road, I'm using the Gaz gold coilovers if that helps.
Sorry, what is it that you are trying to ahieve when you say you want to set it 'somewhere near' - a normal ride height? When you say the ride is bad, the 'stiffness' should be able to be altered by a knob on the strut itself, unless running remote cannisters, or they are non-adjustable struts? The corner weighting is a later step where you would normally aim to get all corners of the car balanced, using the height collars, to take an equal weight and therefore share the work across all four contact patches, but there is more to it than that.

[northy]

sounds like they have lost the dampening to me. When you push down on each corner of the car is it firm and spring back up one or does it rock?

[trackerdave]

It's solid, the shocks look brand new and are actually only 5 months old from new, so it's not as if there old or been overused..

[stevie_b]

As northy said, check the damping. Have you got the adjustment knob for the front struts that you would usually use on the top of the struts in the tower? Turn those fully anti clockwise first (think that's right for the Gazs still, my car with Gazs on is 6000 miles away from me at the moment, but if not then try adjusted to both ends of the adjustment, fully anti-clockwise then fully clockwise in turn), and the same on the rears which will probably use a screwdriver to adjust a small adjuster there rather than there being a knob to turn, and then see whether they move freely or not. If they are on their hardest setting then it wouldn't be at all unusual that the car bounces around all over the place on the road as they are set for billiard table-smooth tracks if wound to their hardest.

[trackerdave]

Thanks for the info I will deffo give this a try, I don't have the tool for adjusting the fronts though, bought it like it Is and was never given any tool!!!

Thanks again..

[northy]

Its not that low it's bottoming out is it?

[Wobba]

You can still adjust them.

Is it these ones?

5502

Don't yours have the blue bits on top?

If not you'll either need a small socket, or a small allen key to adjust them. DO NOT over tighten or force them, you'll damage the valves. Anti clockwise to make dampers softer.

Can raise the ride height by turning collar underneath clockwise. Not rocket science really. Count how many time the collar turns and repeat on the other side to maintain height for both sides, or take it to a specialist and get it corner weighted.

[stevie_b]

The blue bit is a detachable knob Wobba - just an alloy version of the black adjuster one on the Avos. No doubt it will have gone AWOL between owners, unless you find it stashed away in the glovebox or one of the cubbies somewhere? It would be worth contacting the previous owner to see if they have it as it does make things easier at the track, but otherwise as Wobba advised you can just use a socket set or small spanner. I'd advise against trying to do it with mole grips or pliers as if you damage the nut part it could be an expensive fix.