Damper hat to wishbone clearance

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Westfield 129
Posts: 867
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 4:20 am

Re: Damper hat to wishbone clearance

Post by Westfield 129 »

I have never seen any problem with wear between the hat and the wishbone. That said, I have never had the original dampers on a car for more than 1000 miles before installing the longer, smaller diameter front dampers and matching springs. My experience is with 5 late chassis cars that I drove through break in.

If you raise the car on a jack the spring hat may disengage, depending on how the ride height was set. It is important to make sure that the hat properly engages the spring and damper when the car is lowered onto the suspension (often the ride height may be set too low, not set with the driver in the seat) the spring will disengage and be cocked when the weight is put back on the spring. This will definitely contact the whsh bone. The press demo car was delivered with "correct ride height", but was actually way too low as the height was set with the car empty... The first tiem I put the car on the jack, both front springs disengaged and the hats popped out.

Also, check the damper bushings and make sure that the damper is properly spaced an aligned.

This is aother reason to lift the bonnet to check the clearance of the various bits and pieces on a regular basis. Before every drive is a good idea... At least until you hae everythig sorted.

The springs should not disengage the damper at full suspension droop. If they do, tighten up the collars until they dont' come loose. Then set the ride heigh and corner weights with the driver's weight in the seat.

If you use taller tires, the car will be a bit higher in fide height, by half the difference in tire diameter, or the difference in rolling radius.

If you still can't get the springs to sit tight on the dampers, get a longer spring, or a set of "helper" springs that are flat coils designed to collapse when the car is set back on the suspension. These will keep your springs engaged.
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