front shocks and pwr/stng

[jamesandlouisa]

hiya folks

does anyone out there have this trouble:-

when i fit he ak supplied shocks to the front it pushes the wishbones down to almost 45 degrees, but the track rods only want to bend to about 35 , so if the car was jacked up all 240lbs of pressure ( from the springs) would be held back by only the knucke in the power steering, i have a fair bit of mechanial sympathy for this joint , and i was wondering if anyone has dabbled with either shorter shocks or has made up a bump stop arrangement to prevent this from happening?

cheers james

[Miket]

James

I think you will find that when it is jacked up there won't be any loading on the springs. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Mines gets jacked up loads of times without any problems, but if you are worried, block the wheels up. :thumb: :thumb:

[jamesandlouisa]

theres lots of load on the springs when the trackrods are attached,,, lots and lots.

routine maintenace is okay as i will jack underthe wishbone , but if for instance i want to change the wheel, the springs first point of resistance is the track rod/steering arm

[FMAN]

I'd be more worried about this when driving. If the wheel drops for any reason (eg road undulations, brows of hills at speed,etc) and the track rod has to fight the spring then somthing will bend or break.

Most people here are positive about AK so I suggest you talk to them, it might be something simple to fix.

Regards

Neil

[TonyD]

James,

Can you post a piccie of the suspension at full droop so we can get a clear idea of the problem. In the meantime I'd phone Ken and ask his advice.

Cheers,

Tony

[jamesandlouisa]

will take a piccy tonight

dont get me wrong ak are brilliant on the advice, i'm on email to them constantly. just thought i'd try here before sending another question to them and looking daft.

[jamesandlouisa]

in these 2 pictures hopefully you will see what i mean, in one i have jacked the car up under the wishbone so the suspension is as it would be if on the ground, and it shows the taper is in fact over centre of vertical and so would easily fit.

in the other i have jacked the car up and let the suspension hang, for changing the wheels etc. as you can see the taper doesnt quite match the vertical any more and can't be pushed any further.


any ideas?

[TonyD]

James,

I cant think that there would be much pressure from the springs at full droop as if there was you would have needed spring compressors to put your suspension units on and the gaz units themselves limit the travel of the springs.

Also when you put the track rod end into the steering arm attached to the stub axle it will be operating in its designed plane and therefore will not be stressed at an angle as your picture would suggest. I would connect up as shown in picture 1 with jack providing upward pressure and then see how things look afterwards when you let it down as in piccie 2.

Cheers,

Tony

[Miket]

I mentioned in an early post that there shouldn't be any loading on the springs at full droop, there isn't on my AK, because I can turn the springs by hand.

[Bowtie]

Originally Posted by miket

I mentioned in an early post that there shouldn't be any loading on the springs at full droop, there isn't on my AK, because I can turn the springs by hand.

Me too....