coil over shocks

Hello....I need to raise my car about 3/8 of an inch...to clear my tires..I have coil over like the beilstein....I will like to install air shocks to adjust the elevation.

The coilovers have treads for adjustments, but the springs are compresed to the point that they are limiting the travel and it is harsh drive due to the limited rebound.... I am aware that I may need longer travel type....but at the tune of 600 dollars...I need a more cost efective alternative. Anyone of you have done the use of air absorbers instead of coilovers on a mid engine setup?

Mr. Lopez

If, as you say, the springs are almost fully compressed with just the car sitting on them at rest, them maybe all you need are some stronger springs (around a hundred bucks a pair). They come in different spring rates from about 85 Lb./inch, increasing in 10 Lb./inch increments up to way over 250 Lb./inch.

Mark

With the car on the floor, the compression is due to adjustment to increase height...the result from adjusting to the top of the treads-compressing the spring equals to a hard drive and aquired about 1/2" in height and when lossen to the bottom it gets softer but the car gets lower. I need to have additional clearance of about 3/8 of an inch to feel confortable during hard cornering. Hope that I can accomplish that with out over hardening the coilovers.

I got an idea from another forum and someone recomended the relocation of the top bracket...the feel of the car is of a race nature and it is natural that the lack of rubber bushings on the rear and lack of torsion bars transmit all the road imperfections to the bottom of your seat.

Nevertheless I love the car!

Ok...I got a new set of air shocks to find out that one was defective!! it was a US made...I can not imagine when -soon- most of the auto parts may be manufactured in china!

I will get another pair and try the air system...I will be out of 50 bucks..I may try to refurbish the ones that I had in the car ....the coil over is the best design for my mid engine application. I am curious about the installation of the air shocks and see how the car will behave.

Thanks for any additional comments!

I just installed the air shocks! and it will be tested today to verify behavior. The coil-overs removed are from Aldan American with 11, 7/16 coils- I do not know how to gauge the weight-.

I had to order two sets of the air shocks due to inconsistent manufacturing practices of the Warner Co. The bladders in the air shocks were not set equally and after setting the pressure, with the equalization tubing installed, the shocks were uneven. I made a pair out of the 4 and the car is now level.
This is a temporary fix. I need to move the top mount to a lower placement and re-install the coil overs. Nevertheless it was an interesting process.

I accomplish my objective in increasing the height of the car by 1/2 of an inch.
Does anyone know who may rebuild the gas Aldan coilovers?

Thanks for the comments!

What about trying a "longer" spring of the same weight catagory?

Aldan rebuilt a set of mine and they were very reasonable

If you have aldan shocks, they are marked for the spring rate with a small dash of paint (like red, white, blue, yellow) on one end of the spring near/on the last coil.

You can log onto their website and reference the color code for the spring rate.

www.aldaneagle.com/index.htm

They are also very helpful to people who call in. I've done a couple of transactions with this company and found them both extremely knowledgable and accomodating.

angela

Thanks I found the page for Aldan and printed some of the info...I will verify the color of the dots....I remember seeing them. Good tip thanks! Alberto

I just completed a replacement of the front shocks with air shocks. It works great. I left the torsion springs in place in both axle tubes, but removed the adjustment screws in the center of each axle tube. This essentiall converted the torsion springs into anti-sway bars. I chose (as an experiment) a pair of Monroe air shocks with the same dimensions as the stock shocks. I removed the rubber bushings from the stock ones, and pressed them into the Monroes. With the car off the ground, and the trailing arms hanging free, I charged the air shocks to 100 lbs pressure. I lowered the car down, adjusted the air pressure down to bring the car to the proper ride height, and PRESTO. It works great. The ride is much smoother, I can infinitely control the ride height, and the overall deflection of the suspension travel has increased two-fold.

man...that is somewhat creative... let see what is the feedback from the readers. It sound great to be able to think out of the box with out the fear of failure.
It will works as it generaly does, well you did it like blue eyes - your way.

Now....drive the car and test under different loads of acceleration and stoping and see how the car reacts. Some guys will argue the wisdom of revising an engineered suspention but I am more lets try it and learn. let me know!

Nice creative idea. PLEASE follow-up as suggested. I was looking at a much more difficult setup to essentially do the same thing, eliminate the torsion height adjustment and gain ANY semblance of suspension.