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Superformance mkiii shock adjustment
I recently purchased a Superformance cobra that was built in 2012 but has only 250 miles on it. I was going thru the manual and making adjustments and when i set the cars shocks up like the manual says which is to measure from the bottom of each wheel straight up to the wheel opening after i was done i noticed that the right front shock had about 1 1/4 more inches of threads showing than the left front and the left rear had about 3/4 more inches of threads showing than the right rear. Is this normal for these cars ?
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Measure the distance from the ground to the high points of each wheel well. Let's first see if it is sitting at the correct height.
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I suggest measuring to the center of the headlamps and tail lamps. Takes out any body variations that can be in the wheel openings. The tolerance is =/- 1/4". Be sure you are on a level surface. Most driveways are not.
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Mine does the same thing. Normal.
As said before measure the ground to the fender lip. As long as both sides measure the same, you're good to go. |
It's also possible that the front shocks are not the same length as the rears. I have two sets of QA-1s specific to Superformance cars where this is the case. I believe that the fronts are longer by an inch.
While working from the bottom of the wheel to the fender lip is a good method at the same time to assume that the body is symmetric from side to side might be a stretch. You could measure from the ground to the chassis at the front and then rear wheel centerlines. Under most situations the front could or perhaps should be a bit (1/2" or so) lower than the back. Welcome to the world of Cobra adjustment and maintenance. As a suggestion Blas's wiring diagram is very helpful as is the owner's manual from Mike Stenhouse / Second Strike. Jim |
I have it perfectly level side to side both front and back. It just seemed strange that to make it perfectly level side to side one spring would have to be compressed a inch or more than the other side.
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You're running into corner weight issues.
Passenger front is the lightest corner, driver's rear the heaviest and then you get in which throws more weight to the left rear. Driver's front and passenger rear are somewhere between. Just as an example - generally moving the battery (40#) over the passenger header / sidepipes helps the even out the corner weights, but you can't really run it there. You are part of the balance / ride height equation unless your car drives itself. Set it up with about a half tank of gas. Disconnect one side of the sway bars before starting and roll it back and forth a few times to settle the suspension after each adjustment. Every change to a single corner will change the others, some corners more than others. Ahhh, the pleasures of suspension adjustment. So, even out the ride height side to side, throw in a bit of forward rake if you wish (a recommendation) and drive it. The forward rake reduces the air moving under the car, not much but a little. Doesn't matter under 100, probably does over that. Good luck, welcome to the club. Jim |
Thanks for the info Jim. I have it adjusted pretty well now. I will run it like this awhile and check it from time to time.
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The body on my car is off a good bit and find the fender lip measurement useful only to get height in the ballpark. For final settings, I find it best to measure from ground to bottom of frame. Make sure tire pressure is even with this method. I adjust mine when on an alignment rack at local garage.
1 1/4 is a huge amount of side to side difference. I did the same on my first sttempt. After setting one shock, always reset the shock on the same end next, then adjust the other end. |
Looking at my photos from when I swapped my original AVO's for the Race Bilstein's, the spring collars/exposed thread length are greatly different when they were sitting on the bench. and when installed. Rears had more thread exposed then fronts. I can send you a comparison photo if you email me.
Blas |
My rears have a lot more threads showing than fronts also. Its just both rear and fronts are different from side to side. In other words left front only has about 1/4 inch showing and right front has 1 1/2 inch showing and left rear has 3 1/4 inch showing and right rear has 2 1/2 inch showing.
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Do it the right way. Scale the car. Cheap and easy
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