Saturn MX5 Shocks???

[jenks]

Can anybody who is building to the Saturn MX5 plans confirm the open and closed lengths of the rear shocks?

I think I may have been sent the wrong ones... To Australia

[skov]

On mine the open length of the rear shocks is 12".
Not sure what the closed length is. I can't measure that without taking them off and removing the springs, and it's far too bl00dy cold at the moment to do that!

I think the upper rear bones do point downwards slightly when the car's at normal ride height, so it might not be as bad as it looks in your picture.
If you put the lower bones and uprights on it might look ok.

[Talonmotorsport]

I can't give any comments on the shocks but please tell me that you are removing the paint where you are welding and NOT welding straight over the paint?! You'll contaminate the weld making it porous much like honey comb which is great for weight reduction but does very little one the way of adding any strength.

[PorkChop]

I have them written down as

Front

Dampers - 13" open, 9" closed, 1.9" ID.
Springs - 350lb, 8" open, 1.9" ID.

Rear

Dampers - 12" open, 8" closed, 1.9" ID.
Springs - 250lb, 7" open, 1.9" ID.

[Talonmotorsport]

Just a quick thought are your CP3+4 plates fully welded on yet? You could move the damper brackets out towards CP5 which would decrease the angle and effectively make them longer.

[jenks]

Thanks for the replies.

The pic is of the shock fully closed. Will measure up and see if they're the same as PorkChop's notes... Even starting from a slightly down position they will give very little bump travel.

Talon, yes I'm cleaning the joints up before I weld. The coating ia very very thin and is supposed to be specially formulated not to interfere with welds (vaporises in front of the arc) but I'd rather not have it in my welds. It's called Kleencoat or something like that. Most of the tubing you buy out here has it.

[Talonmotorsport]

The suspension will not move much more than 1-1.5" max when in use, if they hit the bump stops you'll need to up the spring rate. I assumed that the damper was fully open when you took the pic so those will be fine. Light cars tend to skip over bumps at speeds over 25-30mph rather than absorb them like softly sprung productions cars do.

[Numplumb]

Originally Posted by PorkChop

I have them written down as

Front

Dampers - 13" open, 9" closed, 1.9" ID.
Springs - 350lb, 8" open, 1.9" ID.

Rear

Dampers - 12" open, 8" closed, 1.9" ID.
Springs - 250lb, 7" open, 1.9" ID.

Hi everyone first of all sorry for long post

My Gaz shocks measure

Front
overall 15" open 14" centre to centre of the bushes
113/4" closed overall 101/2" centre to centre of bushes
8" springs 350lb

Rear
12" open overall 11" centre to centre
101/4" closed overall 9" centre to centre of bushes
7" springs 250lb

I have never been happy with the ride height, the rear lower wishbones point upwards slightly when the springs are adjusted to a reasonable suspension setting, if I adjust them to bring the lower arm level which seems to be a better ride height but then the suspension is way to hard.
I have removed them and fitted a piece of box section 11" long centre to centre and that gives me level lower wishbones and a nice ride height.
So I'm thinking I need rear shocks which will have a centre travel length of 11", overall length 13" open and 9" closed overall approx.

Front 13" centre travel, 15" overall length open and 11" overall closed approx.
Any information from anyone regarding this and Spring sizes would be appreciated.
Regards Mick.