B$%£*y Suspension

Well a strut mount might have broken. Why don't you go and look instead of asking people who can't see the bloody car?

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

Spare me the trite comments please.

I fitted the stops Tuesday, and now have no travel at all.......... over the past year I have been trying to eliminate a knock about centre in the steering. I've changed: Steering rack, track rod ends, anti roll bar end fittings, shocks, leg bearings, upper mounts, wishbones, ball - joints, springs, and now the stops.

The car recently had new tyres fitted, and one was rubbing the arch liner. Folowing advice from a mechanic friend, I went for the stops, which were pretty tatty, but I figured there's not much left to change!

Knocking's gone now........shame about the lack of suspension

Spare me the trite comments please.

I fitted the stops Tuesday, and now have no travel at all.......... over the past year I have been trying to eliminate a knock about centre in the steering. I've changed: Steering rack, track rod ends, anti roll bar end fittings, shocks, leg bearings, upper mounts, wishbones, ball - joints, springs, and now the stops.

The car recently had new tyres fitted, and one was rubbing the arch liner. Folowing advice from a mechanic friend, I went for the stops, which were pretty tatty, but I figured there's not much left to change!

Knocking's gone now........shame about the lack of suspension

Not if you've fitted the wrong stops. It'll be noticeably low if springs have gone. Has it been "chopped"?

It may seem a trite comment to you, but it was sensible - you do need to tell us more.

What car? Any pictures of the offending bit? Is the car suspension standard?

cheers, clive

Standard as built. Couldn't get original stops, but fitted an aftermarket synthetic set from Regal. The size of the stop is certainly he same as the old rubber ones, and i would expect them to be harder when they do make contact, but there's got to be some travel!

OK - I'll admit it's a Cavalier 2.0 16V with aircon - so the biggest/heaviest combination - would/could a set from a V6 fit or improve matters?

Standard as built. Couldn't get original stops, but fitted an aftermarket synthetic set from Regal. The size of the stop is certainly he same as the old rubber ones, and i would expect them to be harder when they do make contact, but there's got to be some travel!

OK - I'll admit it's a Cavalier 2.0 16V with aircon - so the biggest/heaviest combination - would/could a set from a V6 fit or improve matters?

It shouldn't hit the stops until the wheels are pretty much inside the arches so I suggest that they're not the right ones or they've been fitted incorrectly.

If you have no travel then fitting new bump stops won't do anything. I suggest you get the suspension bits you've changed looked at by someone who knows what they're looking at to see where you've gone wrong. With the amount of suspension travel available normally and what you describe now it ought, I think, to be pretty obvious that somethings stopping the suspension from moving, and as you've changed lots of bits, it could be any one of them, or other bits could be bent/broken as well.

I'd suggest you specifically check the wishbones and shocks to see you've put them on the correct way round, and haven't over-tightened anything so it binds and stops movement.

snipped-for-privacy@AOL.com wrote in news:1166710532.720540.287330 @f1g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

What a bizarre problem. Are you sure you have the right suspension units in? Springs the right length? Got me stumped, I just can't envision what's going on. Good luck !

I am pretty sure I've got them together right, done in accordance with the book, and a side at a time for cross reference. I'm a reasonable engineer - RAF aircraft technician by trade, so I am confident in what I do, and as sure as I can be it's right - hence my confusion/frustration.

Of course, I only have the supplier's word that what they supply is indeed the right part......... and Vauxhall don't want to know on a car this age when it comes to spares, so I can't go for all genuine parts ( plus it'd probably be beyond ecconomic repair! ).

I'm going to try another set of springs tomorrow. Failing that I will look at changing the whole legs. I did have a look round the breakers / have a bid on e-bay a week or two ago - no joy.

Do the wheels look like they're in the right position relative to the arches? Ie have you fitted a set of lowering springs or something like that? Pictures would help here...

cheers, clive

where / how do you load pictures?

As I said, as far as I'm aware the suspension is standard, and the wheels do sit centrally in the arch, albeit somewhat low in my opinion. I'll shoot tomorrows activities for reference.......

There are many free photo hosting sites - flickr is one, fotopic another.

If the bumpstops are right and the car is sitting at the right height then there should be oodles of clearance. Since you said there's none, either your bumpstops are wrong, your installation of the bumpstops is wrong, or the car is at the wrong height.

cheers, clive

"Clive George" wrote in news:458b16d3$0$8729$ snipped-for-privacy@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net:

Just remembered, doesn't Haynes show the ride height by measuring from the top of the tyre to the lower edge of the wing? Or something like that?

UPDATE- well, the nearside has now has a systematic strip, clean, inspection, re-spring and rebuild. The two main findings:

The existing Suplex spring, once removed and uncompressed, was 2 inches less than the new Boge one, despite having the same number of coils. As I said before, bought online and assured it was for my vehicle.

The Regal bump stop was around 1/4" longer than the original knackered GM one.

Took a shave off the stop, fitted the new spring and rebuit - lo and behold I now have suspension travel again and the car is sitting around

Two inches in height? You were given the wrong springs or they were lowering springs.

They weren't listed as 50mm lowering springs, or similar?

Following Clives tips I've tried to upload some pics - see what you reackon...........