Spring Rate Suggestions for '68 Camaro

[David Pozzi]

Mike,
I happened to have the parts to my Morrison sub laying around.

Front:
14" brakes 25lb
half of coil over shock 7.5
Half of LCA 10
Hub, knuckle, steering arm 20
18" Forgeline wheel with 275 tire, 47 lb
Total 109.5 lbs Smaller brakes would be a little less.

Shock angle 57 degrees which isn't available on the calculator.

A Ford 9' weighs 195 lbs with 6 piston 14" brakes, not counting suspension links or shocks. A ford 9" floater weighs 220 with brakes.

[Mkelcy]

Originally Posted by David Pozzi

Mike,
I happened to have the parts to my Morrison sub laying around.

Front:
14" brakes 25lb
half of coil over shock 7.5
Half of LCA 10
Hub, knuckle, steering arm 20
18" Forgeline wheel with 275 tire, 47 lb
Total 109.5 lbs Smaller brakes would be a little less.

Shock angle 57 degrees which isn't available on the calculator.

A Ford 9' weighs 195 lbs with 6 piston 14" brakes, not counting suspension links or shocks. A ford 9" floater weighs 220 with brakes.

David, thanks for the information. I was low for both ends. I measured a shock angle of about 64 degrees but, as I said, my car rides a bit high.

I got the rear shocks gassed up, but in the process of doing so, saw that the driver's side rear wheel was rubbing the canister hose. Things get tight back there with the 3 link and the exhaust. Fortunately, I'd covered the hose with some plastic wire loom for just this reason, so the hose wasn't damaged. I'll jury rig a mount for the canister in a different location, and make fabbing something pretty a winter project. We definitely have a driving season up here in eastern Washington, and I don't want to miss seat time while I get the car sorted out.

[Mkelcy]

I've got close to 1,000 miles on the car since I got it on the road at the end of April (including one 300 mile trip and one 250 mile trip), and have concluded that I need to look at damping before I play anymore with spring rates. I can't dial the AFCO M2's down anymore and I still get a pretty good jolt over slow speed bumps. It's great on smooth roads, but that's not a great test of a suspension. I think the spring rates may still be too high, but the current principal issues seems to be damping.

I'll be calling Ride Tech on Monday.

[Mkelcy]

I put a set of the Ride Tech handling quality shocks (single adjustable) on the car, together with 300 lb./in. springs in front and 175 lb./in. springs in the back.

According to the Ride Tech spring rate calculator, those rates were recommended for performance driving, and I agree, while at the same time the car rides much better than it did over bumps and pot holes. Overall I'm very pleased.

One thing I'd mention is that the Ride Tech shocks come with bearings that have a 5/8" ID. They include adapters to sleeve the bearing down to the 1/2" bolt size I was using. With the adapters installed, however, the overall shock bearing length is about 1.25".

The lower front shock trunion I had was set up for a 1" long shock bearing, however Ridetech has a trunion that will work with their 1.25" stack height.

Unfortunately my top shock mount on the subframe also required no more than a 1" bearing width and there was no modifying that mount. I ended up having the Ride Tech adapters milled down to the 1" overall width I needed.

If any of you end up needing to do this, be aware that the adapters don't touch inside the shock bearing, so you need to install them in the bearing, and then determine how much to take off each adapter.

[David Pozzi]

Keep an eye out for rear bottoming at 175 lbs.