Fred Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 I Have just fitted a set of freestyle avo shocks to a new R400 thought you might want, to see what they look like not tested yet due to weather ect.this is the new light aluminium type . PAGE NO LONGER ON LINE 22/1/ 03 Edited by - fred on 4 Jan 2003 16:18:25 Edited by - FRED on 22 Jan 2003 22:45:10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordy Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 I'm all excited now.... mine should arrive on Monday!! Any fitting tips to a novice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawrence_Z Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 What do they weigh Fred? are they the ones with seperate rebound adjust? Lawrence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted January 4, 2003 Author Share Posted January 4, 2003 Fordy . A extra pair of hands for fitting the washers helps but not essential. very strait forward . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted January 4, 2003 Author Share Posted January 4, 2003 Don't know what they weigh 🤔 No seperate rebound adjust? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grim Reaper Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 2 points... 1..Are they on the right way up? 2..The rears appear to have a lot longer spring than my Nitron's have, are they fully extended in the pictures? If mine are that close to the stops they rattle loose! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted January 4, 2003 Author Share Posted January 4, 2003 1 they can only be fitted one way you cannot invert .adjust valve to bottom. 2 they are fully extended in the pictures. once ride hight is adjusted they will be up 2in on thread. on the rear ones. Edited by - fred on 5 Jan 2003 13:31:13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Grundy Posted January 5, 2003 Share Posted January 5, 2003 Fred Are these only supplied for widetrack suspension? BTW, I love your little characters, how do you do that?? 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted January 5, 2003 Author Share Posted January 5, 2003 Don't think so colin, ill find out for you and let you know monday. Colin they are available for all.===============. Edited by - fred on 6 Jan 2003 10:04:33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Walker Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 They look nice Fred what do they cost inc the springs ??????????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Perry Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 Has anyone tried the AVO's for a decent length of time (presumably these are the 1000 model) what are they like compared to Bilies or Spax Gas dampers ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted January 6, 2003 Author Share Posted January 6, 2003 ROB £500.00 😳 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V7 SLR Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 Fred, have you got a piccy of the front ones when they're properly adjusted? I'm keen to see how much travel the damper would have (i.e. how much of the piston-rod is visible). Thanks. Worcs L7 club joint AO.//Membership No. 4379//Azure Blue SLR No. 0077//Se7ens List Tours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted January 6, 2003 Author Share Posted January 6, 2003 V7 There is 90/93 mm of rod exposed with the full weight of car on ,you have 22mm of bump stop open and closed measurements below front=-open15in- closed10in- stroke 5in. rear= open18in -closed11.5in-stroke 6.5in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 The new shocks are avalible for wide track standard both with or without spherical joints. We also have some new specially made spherical joint spacers to make fitting a doddle no more bits of old tube and packing washers. The dampers are abour one 30% lighter than the steel ones, but with the same damping . Sorry if this seems like an advert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick M Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 Graham, I swapped over to AVOs on my Westfield and the difference compared to the old Spax units was amazing. They're much more progressive and don't seem to suffer from "stiction" like the Spax ones did. For the record they're steel bodied AVOs which are fitted with spherical bearings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Perry Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 They certainly look good value Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V7 SLR Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 That's it then. My 2004 budget goes to Freestyle then. Pity I've got to wait until then. ☹️ Worcs L7 club joint AO.//Membership No. 4379//Azure Blue SLR No. 0077//Se7ens List Tours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Perry Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 And mine for 2006 ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 I replaced the spax units on my cyclone with the ally AVO SA1000's. Regarding weight, (the rears are 15", and fronts 12" on my car), the weight saving was 0.5kg rear and 0.4kg front per corner - not as much as some would expect but I did weigh very carefully. Just to cross check I did compare the percentage saving compared with the Spax, and it worked out at just over 30%, which is what AVO claim to be the difference between their steel and alloy units, so it seems about right. Probably not worth the change for the weight saving alone, but the improvement is very, very noticeable, specially as the compression damping on the Spax was totally shot at, at only 6K miles. Not used in absolute anger yet due to winter but I am well impressed. Downside?, well they appear to have saved a little doh by not annodising the body - its bare alloy, pity, and in my application I had to shave some material off the top eye to provide clearance on compression, due to the extra sectional thickness of the ally version. Paid about £420 brian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordy Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 the freestyle/avo dampers look to be ali versions of the steel Avo Pro Race dampers. I'll not give the part numbers because that would be most unfair to Freestyle. From what I can glean, freestyle do not seem to be adding much on top and so I believe them to be excellent value. I'm fitting mine this weekend 😬 To those that have already fitted them. Whats the procedure for setting the ride height? Will I need a special tool to do this once the spring is under compression. I suppose my initial idea is to measure the ride height before I remove the old bilsteins and try to achieve the same with the avos. Also any dangers when removing the old springs/dampers? This slightly worries me cos I can imagine the springs could do me much damage. Do the bolts to hold in the dampers need to be torques up to specific values. I am replacing my bottom wishbones too. Do the bolts on these have torque values too. Finally, am I right in thinking that the uprights connect to the lower wishbones by just sitting in a cup secured by a circlip? can you tell i'm a suspension virgin yet? Edited by - fordy on 10 Jan 2003 12:00:53 Edited by - fordy on 10 Jan 2003 12:02:28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Sewell Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 When I was watching Gary do mine, he did not take that many precautions with the springs as I had a fairly high ride height (145mm from the chassis to the ground at the front - 160mm at the rear) and the springs had no strength left when there was no weight left on the wheels. On putting the new shocks together, he only hand tightened the spring height adjuster with the shocks off the car and the car was running at 135mm (I need to raise mine by about 5mm to stop the front tyres chewing the clamshells). The adjusting rings are locked with a grub screw - so you will need a suitable allen key - don't know the size) Only minor problem was getting the ali sleeve out of the bottom of the old front shocks to reuse - but Gary sorted that out without a glitch. As for torque settings. The front damper upper mount is difficult to get to so F tight using and ordinary ratchet hex drive. The front damper lower mount is F tight with an allen key - but more care if you use a hex drive and socket set due to the extra leverage available. My car is a live axle, so I cannot advise on the rear of a de-dion car. Low tech luddite - xflow and proud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Howard Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 '1 they can only be fitted one way you cannot invert .adjust valve to bottom.' I have steel AVO/Freestyle shocks fitted with the adjust valve at the top. Now I am worried. Why can they not be mounted this way? Thanks Graham 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey UC Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 I am just fitting a set of Pro Race Avo’s to the rear of my live axle. Removing the old damper posed no problems – (just jacked the car up and unbolted them). Installing the new ones is pretty straight forward too, although I had to cut down some old bushes to use as spacers as the rose joints are narrower than the old bushes. I think Steve Foster did a good article on installing Avo dampers, to be found in the archives. Graham, my particular dampers could only be installed with the adjuster nut at the bottom, but I think more importantly the adjustable platform has to installed on the bottom. I did forget to measure the ride height before installing the dampers, and set my new Avo’s to the same length as my old Spax dampers forgetting that I had opted for a slightly stiffer set of springs! So take anything I have written so far with a hefty lump of salt. Haven’t tested the new dampers out yet, I’m still waiting for a set of Powerflex bushes to arrive before I can reassemble my car (bushes ordered before Christmas) , and I can’t use my old bushes as I’ve cut them up to use as spacers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordy Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 I am just in the process of fitting the avo shocks myself. Freestyles instructions state that the damper stiffness adjuster is located at the bottom............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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