Shocking Developments

Today I had a conversation with Steve Lathrop regarding shock valving and spring rates. (Thanks in no small part to reading through the FC to FF conversion thread now on ApexSpeed:  http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43663 ).

Long story short I am going to have Steve revalve my shocks per his recommendations. So tonight off they came to be dropped in UPS tomorrow.

There were a couple of things about the current setup that made me go "Hmmm?"
First was the spring rates and preload settings:
Front: 1300# Springs and 1" of droop (measured between the shock collars and the springs).
Rear: 900# Springs and 0 preload (shock collars snug against springs, but no preload)

** I also noticed that the shocks were "spaced" between the bellcranks by thin nylon washers on each side of the shock eye. These seem a little too flimsy to me. Reminder to self to ask Steve about the desirability of replacing these with thin AN washers instead.

Removing the rear shocks... Same nylon washers between the bellcrank attachment point and the shock eyes here (see one in lower right of this photo).

Front shocks stripped down and ready to ship out.

Rear shocks gone and the gearbox is ready for the strip down process to install the longer Fit spec input shaft. Removal of the shocks should make getting the side cover off a lot easier now...