Shock absorber recommendations
 

After a short drive to church (Dans) today, realised the front driver's shocker had collapsed.

To be precise the collets at the bottom of the spring had moved off the old Monroe gas shockers and the car was decidedly lower on the driver's side. Knew this cause I bottomed out the exhaust.

Not the first time and I've had enough, though I was going to do the whole car at once. I am now just going to get the front redone first.

So after shocker recommendations or at least ideas of what to avoid.

Know the QA1's have seen some favour, particularly the single and double adjustability variants, but I am prepared to spend some more on higher level shocks if recommendations suggest.

So what do you guys suggest?

Look forward to the feedback.

Cheers

Steve

Hi Steve,

I am getting mine custom built by a retired suspension engineer in Geelong. He is about to order his own shocker dyno to set them up to the car.
If something like this interests you I can contact him.

Ross

Except for the distance it might be good idea.

However I am after suggested brand options first.

Have to say my past history in past older Euro cars was Koni.

These were never coil overs but performed very well.

I think that if you are after ride quality, pay the extra and get something like Koni's or similar

I have no experience with anything else but the QA1's on my car, and I cannot fault them. Built quality is excellent and excellent value at the time. Were cheaper than the equivalent AVO's which were the recommended shock and have caused issues for other.

hi Tenrocca.. which model QA1's..?

Proma Star Single Adjustable Shocks | Custom Mount Coil-Over Shock Absorbers | QA1 Suspension

I just remembered though - I did have to replace the bearing once on the rears - the nylon ones did collapse on me, but the steel\nylon replacements have been much better.

slowly, the QA1 seem to be pretty much the standard around Cobras around here. A lot, and I mean a lot, of Cobras on here have QA1 and I don't really hear any complaints or regrets.

I have Penske 7500 double adjustables on mine, really just because that is what I wanted. I didn't care that they cost more. Are they any better? Who knows, but I'm happy with them.

I have shock envy, and great to see that you got them just because you wanted them.

That is what cobras and cobra stuff is all about..... no rational reasoning apart from just wanting one (oh and the Penske Shocks are pure class as well).

Steve,
I bought GAZ shockers and coil overs from V & S Spiteri in Melbourne, the guys helped me with choice and recommendation. Worth a call

Steve, We looked at Koni and they didn't have the adjustable range to suit the corner weights of our car. They are more designed for the standard road car that has more weight over the front wheels than a Cobra.

I also quizzed him on placing a coil over in place and he said that with a shocker installed inside the spring we effectively have a coil over in its operation. Just not the adjustability. Unless you want to relate the mounting points.
I run Koni on my 4x4 and XY and they are good but didn't match the Cobra

Steve,

A couple of other points to consider when selecting a replacement shock.

1 Length. Make sure that the extended and collapsed length suits your suspension. The only way to do this is to measure it on the car. Remove the shock and spring, and measure the minimum and maximum distance travel between the upper and lower mounts. Do not use the existing shock to confirm size. I have seen many shocks of the wrong size fitted to low volume production cars.

If it's too long, you will not get the required travel, and will pound out the bump stops, internal parts and or mounts. And handling will not be good.

If too short, you may lift a wheel when cornering. You have four wheels, best to keep them on the road at all times.

2 Spring length. Ensure that the spring free length is recommended by the manufacturer. If too short, it may come off its mount at full rebound, and when cornering, that wheel won't be giving much traction. If too long, it may become coil bound at full bump.

3 Travel. Make sure that your shock travel and the spring travel are compatible. If you have a shock with 3" of travel, make sure that your spring has more than 3" of travel. If it does not, you will get coil bind, and two things will happen. There will be a rapid loss of tyre compliance, and bad handling, and all load will transmitted through the shock and its mounts, which will contribute to a rapid deterioration of both.

All reputable spring suppliers can advise the minimum compressed length of their spring.

4 Mounts. While not really a shock related matter, ensure that the mounts are appropriate. They need to be parallel, and also 90 degrees to the shock. If not, the shock will work in a bind, and will flog out mounts and prematurely wear out internal bushes.

5 Spring rates. If you are running high spring rates (more than 600 lbs/inch), tell the supplier. While there are many other considerations to valving, the valving required for a 350 lb spring, is often different to a 1000 lb spring.

AVO thank you for the comprehensive advice.

Just on point 1, do you mean measure the full distance between where the suspension would be at either end of maximum movement?

Or something else?

Ta

Steve

The LJ Superformance MKIII Cobra we track uses QA1 they are valved for the weight of the car and supplied from Superformance USA. They have preformed well over the last 5 years with no issues and have good tune ability. The road car used Bilsten as standard. I recommend you use an experienced shock installer or retailer the ride and safety of your car is the most important thing track or street.

Good advice there. For my own setup I went through detailed specifications and use-case discussions with the Penske agent in Australia, who subsequently valved and setup the shocks to suit including providing full dyno results on every shock setting permutation and the >50 page Penske 7500 technical manual. Buying off the shelf you're going to get what you get, and it wont necessarily suit the car no matter brand of shock it is.

Steve, measure the full distance between full bump (fully compressed) and full rebound (fully extended). However, there can be some practical issues on fully extended. It can be that in normal use, you would never get to that maximum length. You may need to get some incidence from the suspension designer or an expert in the use of the vehicle