Scott Tully Posted January 27, 2003 Share Posted January 27, 2003 I have an SV with adjustable suspension. But no where in the owners manual does it say how to adjust it. I can work out that by adjusting the collars holding the spring you can adjust the ride hight, but how do you adjust the damping? *confused* Is it at the bottom of the shocker where the two flats are and if so which way stiffens it and which way softens it? Someone please help! *confused* Azure Blue SV 1800 X-Power 140bhp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelspeed Posted January 27, 2003 Share Posted January 27, 2003 The only adjustment on any bilstein I've ever seen fited to a Se7en is the ride height. Personally I think that it's a bit of a cheek using that as a reason for saying the dampers are adjustable as it's hardly adjustable damping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Carmichael Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 The damping is non-adjustable and the damping characteristic is "somewhat bizarre", but quite effective at handling variations in axle weight and spring rate. Damper dynamometer plots show that the dampers effectively "friction damp". The damping curve is extremely digressive and so you get this effect. They do work effectively enough and are a very low stiction design with reliable internals. They are quite good enough to outperform the Trakspax dampers fitted to a certain high-profile seven... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaseb Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 But not as good as Nitrons which are fantastic 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Carmichael Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Erm.. well... Yes... The Nitrons apparently work quite well... ... but I want all the competition to stay on Bilsteins, so shhhhhhhh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-B Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 scott i to have them, i've used them for track days, and long distance rallyes. low for the former, and higher for the latter. i've also got a dry sump on our VHPD so i don't want to slam it on the floor. i'd recommend you drive it for a while with one setting, and then experiment an equal number of turns up or down. you will find a setting you most like. more can also be achieved with the rear stiffness bar, behind the wheel.. Steve Metalic Black SV-VHPD click here to see our pictures.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawrence_Z Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 The new proper adjustable bilsteins will be available quite soon Lawrence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby dooby doo Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 or freestyle can supply you with avos that have adjustable damping. its only adjustable in one way though - ie bump and rebound at the same time for a similar price to the bilsteins. spending more money will let you adjest bump and rebound separately. I believe dampers exist that let you adjust more - not sure what though - second derivatives of the damping force / velocity response 🤔 HOOPY 500 kg R706KGU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonkey eyed barmaid Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 on a similar note to the orig post: I know the standard Bilsteins on my Classic are non-adjustable, but have read on this forum that the lower spring platforms can be fixed in one of 3 positions on the damper body, by moving the circlip supporting the platform, to alter ride-height... does anyone know how much difference in ride height these 3 settings offer? (they are spaced about 12-15mm apart from memory). both front and rear. its set in the bottom ring just now; by moving to middle or top, will I be lowering ride height? (i cant be in the lowest setting now i dont think, as i have no clearance probs). by moving the bottom spring platform up the damper I will be compressing the spring a little - as well as affecting the height, will this affect comfort/handling at all? thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Sewell Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Grant, From other threads, moving away from the bottom slot will raise your car. For the front of the car, every mm of movement on the damper is about 1.4mm at the wheel for standard track (or put the other way, for every mm of wheel travel the damper moves about 0.7mm). At the rear, it is 1 to 1. So if the front damper changes by 12mm, that is about 17mm at the wheel, so the rear needs to be adjusted by 17mm. Note that this will also stop your problem with tyres hitting the clamshells. From what I have been told by Caterham Cars and by Len Unwin, the car is not particularly sensitive to overall ride height. But it is sensitive to changes in rake from front to rear. So if you raise the entire car by 17mm front and back, then there should not be much noticable difference ON THE ROAD. For track use, please ignore the above as it is probably not accurate enough. Low tech luddite - xflow and proud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number31 Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Graham Must be the xflow or something as on my roadsports when adjusting the front ride height when I move spring seats on the damper 10mm the ride height changes by about 7mm ! 1.0mm change onn damper = 0.71mm at wheel (This changes dependant on the angle of the bottom wishbone and can be calculated using basic trig) In your example 12mm at the damper would give about a 8.5mm change in ride height NOT 17mm. Hope this helps. Number31. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Sewell Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Number 31, I cannot see how your figures work, assuming that the spring/damper form the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle with the wishbone and upright forming the other two sides. If the wishbone is 4 units long and the upright is 3 units high, the the damper will be 5 units. Fow a small change in wheel height (x), the change in perdendiclar width of the wishbone will be minimal. The damper length will now become sqrt(25 + 6x +x^2). Again for small x, x^2 is minimal so this simplifies to sqrt(25+6x). However, in terms of the additional length of the damper (y) we get that (5+y)^2 = 25+6x = 25+10y+y^2 (again discard y^2) gives 10y=6x => y=0.6x as in 1cm raise at wheel =0.6cm shorter damper! Low tech luddite - xflow and proud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-B Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 geez guys is this maths class 😬 🤔 Steve Metalic Black SV-VHPD click here to see our pictures.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelspeed Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Three and four way adjustable dampers don't adjust anything else apart from bump and rebound they just split bump and rebound into low speed and high speed. So on a 4 way you have a separate adjustment for low speed bump, high speed bump, low speed rebound and high speed rebound. I guess low speed bump is for things like roll into a long fast corner, high speed bump is control of wheel movement over a kerb. You might want to limit the former a lot more than the latter. All academic anyway as you have to pay £k's a corner for anything this sophisticated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number31 Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Oops! Edited by - Number31 on 29 Jan 2003 18:47:06 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby dooby doo Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 cheers Graham - i had wondered for a while abut this HOOPY 500 kg R706KGU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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