2b Rear Ride Height/stiffness

[Joel]

Is it possible to buy shorter springs for the rear Zimmerframes on a 2B?

 

I need to lower the ride height as the gap between the top of the tyre and wheel arch is huge at the moment. Problem is I also need to stiffen the suspension as it's running too soft, but winding up the nut on the Zimmerframes is going to raise the ride height even more.

 

I think I've taken as much as I can off the roll bar tube (where the upper shock mount slides into), and the only remaining option I can see, short of fitting entirely new coilovers, is to fit a shorter spring to the existing one.

 

Any ideas?

[Guest rizla]

cant really help there sorry

 

but i think you have just invented the first off road hood

[Big Jim]

Not wanting to upset you Joel, but you've put your wheel arches on too high. you've obviously cut off the bit that was between both sets of "combs" this should have been rivited to the underside of the chassis rail, so that makes it 1½ inches of a problem.

what you need to do, is go to harder springs on the shocks, not shorter, so that you can wind them down. Some of the guy's will come in with the kind of poundage that you want to go for. New springs are only about £12 each.

If you can afford, change the rear zimmerframe shockers for something that will do the job. There are various ones on the market, and plenty of people have already done it.

[Guest Tony Tank]

Joel what is the ride height approx.

About one & 1/2" infront of your wheel arch, from the panel edge to the ground.

You should be looking at about 6-7 1/2 inches , and as Jim says wheel arches fittted way 2 high

Sorry for the negative advice but that seams to be your problem.

 

Good luck Tank

[Guest Battery Bill]

Rizla

but i think you have just invented the first off road hood

Joel

Yes looks like arches are too high (We have not fitted ours yet so you can laugh at us then)

If you want to lower the rear ride height, try putting something heavy in the boot!

eg a Battery

Have you looked on the Video Richard lowers a customers arches ?

[Guest Tony Tank]

Bill

It would have to be a couple or 3 truck batterys to stand any chance of lowering it any

 

Regards Tank

[Joel]

Thanks for the replies chaps,

 

i think you have just invented the first off road hood

 

I think the Rager just pipped me to the post.

 

Regarding fitting the arches too high, it's quite likely, though I'm fairly certain I did it as per the video, with the bit between the two 'combs', that Jim describes, riveted to the underside of the cresent-shaped chassis rail. The front and rear leading edges of the arch meet up perfectly with the respective points on the body side panel, and rear panel.

 

Incidentally, that photo was taken months ago before the car was finished, and now with all the extra weight the gap isn't quite so big, but it's still a good couple of inches.

 

The ride height from body panel to floor, just infront of the rear arch is exactly 7 inches.

 

 

Long term I want to go adjustable Avos all round, but in the meantime I knew the replacement Zimmeframe springs were quite cheap, that's why I was exploring that option rather than going for whole new coilovers. I just wasn't sure they were available in different sizes, but as has been explained, fitting shorter springs may not be the answer anyway.

 

Thanks again.

[Guest Tony Tank]

Hi Joel

Well if it is about 7 inches then u r not far out with the ride height

But u must admit it in the photo it does look like the wing is on wrong.

Tank

[Joel]

I can't disagree with you there

 

I'll get the car out tomorrow and take a more up to date picture.

[Guest Ant]

Joel,

 

I don't think your arches are too high. In fact, if it's under the curved chassis rail at the top, lined up with the side panel and the rear panel at the bottom, and symetric around the wheel as in your photo then I reckon you've fitted it perfectly according to the RHE instructions.

 

However ...

 

2B's are notorious for having too large a gap at the top of the wheel compared to the gap at the front and rear. The solution, as you suggest, is to lower the ride height. Do this by lowering the nuts on the zemmeride units. But ... this in turn brings about the problem of rear wheel camber. ie as you lift the wheels into the arches their top edge starts to lean in and the wheels aren't vertical anymore. Some people then correct this with Jim's infamous alignment shims. (Currently available from someone else in the for sale section of this board if my memory serves me correctly).

 

My solution to this problem, starting where you are now, was to reach a compromise between ride height, gap above the wheel in the arch, and rear wheel camber. I have a bit of camber and a bit of a gap, but neither is excessive.

 

One other thing to mention regards what adjusting the nuts on the zemmerides actually does. No matter where the nuts are the weight of the vehicle sits on the springs and compresses them by a certain amount determined by the spring rating. You cannot make the springs harder or softer by adjusting the nuts. Instead the nuts adjust where abouts the range of travel of the shock is relative to the bottom of the spring. The upshot is that the nuts have two effects:

 

1) They adjust ride height.

2) They adjust the bottoming out point of the shock.

 

The lower the nuts then the lower the ride height and the sooner you'll bottom out when you land to earth after a humped back bridge with two people on board. Lowering the nuts can also mean that when you jack the car up the springs become loose, and possibly the fitting on the top of the springs can fall off the shocker. This can also happen if you "get air" on the affore mentioned humped back bridge, and the result would be a collapsed rear suspension. Not nice! Avoid this by checking your chosen "compromise" setting. Jack the car up and if the springs are so loose that you can remove the shim at the top then you need to wind the nuts back up a bit until it's held in place again.

 

Raise the nuts and the ride height increases, and you have to push down harder to reach the bottoming out point.

 

An alternative (and perhaps easier) solution to the gap problem would be to lower the arches so they're closer to the wheels. But you'll have to put a panel behind the arch at the top to fill in the gap, and you'll probably have to trim the front and rear ends of the arch (and fibreglass) to re-aling them to the panels. Has anyone out there done this?

 

Sheesh - that's a long post. No doubt a lengthened discussion is about to begin. Hope it helps!

 

Ant

[Guest daveg]

Ant

 

No doubt a lengthened discussion is about to begin

you've said it all

 

Dave

[Big Jim]

Joel, can you photograph the top joint of the arch to side panel please?

[Guest Battery Bill]

Ant

Sheesh - that's a long post.

All your posts are long have you not noticed

[Joel]

As requested....

 

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