Airflow

iTrader: (13)

Ok, how do the experts properly adjust threaded shocks?
What is the baseline or starting point?

What I do is use collars to get equal spacing on all 4 shocks.
Is this sufficient? Granted that I have the ride height that I wanted,
how will I know if I still need to adjust it in increments? Do I need to
adjust or stiffen the heavier side to compensate?

How do the experts do this?

JR007

I use a vernier caliper to check the distance between the base of the shock cap and the top of the collar to get them even

Airflow

iTrader: (13)

Ok. Getting the same distance from shock cap to the threaded collar is easy.
I use 1 set of plastic adjustment collars from non-threaded shocks to have
equal spacing on each 4 shocks. Doesnt anyone here make different shock
adjustments to each shock to compensate on weight or tweak. Or should
all shocks be equal front or rear, left and right?

airwoods

iTrader: (1)

To start off i have the collars adj till they stop at the top of the shock then mark a spot on each collar with a marker or nail polish then turn equally amount of turns to what ever ride height you want,but also remember that not all springs are exactly the same size so you may have to compinsate a few turns shock to shock.The whole adj your shocks if tweaked has always threw me off cause when you turn the shock collars to adj for tweak you mess up your ride height to that side of the car.Try to balance your car using lead stick-on weights cause it really helps when adj your shocks and having your car sit evenly left to right.

sosidge

The great benefit of threaded shocks is for making quick adjustments to ride height and fine adjustments to tweak.

Start off by setting your car to the desired ride height at each end with the collars even, then de-tweak the car, either using a tweak station or the "knife trick". Tweak stations are like this - http://www.rc411.com/pages/howto.php?howto=2. Rough description of the knife trick on my site here - http://www.sosidge.com/sosidge/yokomo_sd_tweak.php

Static weight balance was mentioned above - this is desirable to minimise differences in ride height, however it would require a lot of work with the weight placement to solve tweak issues without compromising the f/r weight distribution or running weight.

NitroVal

iTrader: (2)

Shouldn't you just be able to use a ride height gauge, check your vehicle's ride height and droop and adjust them accordingly? Thats how I always do it

niznai

No. On the droop gauge tweak is not transmitted from one end of the car to the other. You might see the chassis rocking a bit on the blocks, but then again you might not.

Apart from that, to set the droop correctly you have to disconnect the shocks (and everything else connected to the suspension arms) and apart from being laborious, this too removes the tweak input of one end of the car to the other and side to side. Then after you reconnect everything, tweak is transmitted and will show as sosidge has demonstrated in his webpage as one wheel coming off the ground before the other. I run the same test but only as a final independent checkup, not to adjust anything just because of it.

If you find tweak in your car you better find where it comes from and try to get rid of it there rather than compensate for it because this has unwanted consequences no matter what you do. The screw loosening/tightening routine is the way to do it even if you need to do it several times before you get it right. Remember, tweak is more often than not a consequence of things moving around ever so slightly (in a crash for instance) rather then real deformation in carbon fiber plates which don't really distort that easily, so retightening the screws after they locate properly (under no lateral tension) should get rid of it.

Back to the topic at hand, you need to adjust all other settings on your suspension before you attend to the springs. And no, they needn't be deflected by the same amount front to rear, but at the same end I prefer they are. I too use spacers to check but also have collars marked and count turns. No method is bulletproof though since springs have different lengths by amounts larger than the thread pitch on shocks, so you might need to compensate things by more than one turn in some cases. Also, when you make the shock it is very important that the distance from the body shock bottom to the top of the lower ballcup is the same at full extension (and this is sooo easy to get wrong). Just check your shocks before you put any oil in.

Cpt.America

iTrader: (52)

No you don't, that is how you set your downstops. Droop is measured ready to run.

niznai

True, captain. My mistake.
Droop being limited by downstop setting however, you still need to do it first.

skypilot

iTrader: (14)

droop can be set with a droop gauge with the wheels off and shocks disconnected. your down stops, is what sets the amount of droop

Cpt.America

iTrader: (52)

Doop actually comes from both where you set your downstops AND ride height. You could set your downstops anywhwere you want... but if you max out your ride height for example, your droop would be 0.

sosidge

We're getting trapped in language a little here...

Personally I prefer to refer to "droop" and "downtravel".

Droop is what you can measure with the gauge on the car (by the way, I always measure with the shocks on, just in case the shocks are too short to let the arms reach the droop screws).

Downtravel is the difference between the ride height and the point at which the tyres lift from the ground.

(I'm not saying my language is universally correct - it's just how I choose to distinguish between the two different measurements, one of which is put on setup sheets, the other of which is a more accurate real-world value).

or8ital

iTrader: (38)

Shocks will generally not be the same front to back but if your car is well balanced and tweak free they should be the same left and right. As was pointed out, what you do is back the collar off all the way to the stop. Mark a spot on the collar with a marker near the center. This gives you a reference to count the # of turns you adjust it. For me, I have generally found that the same # of turns are needed left and right again assuming a a balanced tweak-free car.

Airflow

iTrader: (13)

Ok thanks for your inputs.

Here's the case, I have 2 NimH batts both GP3000. One is industrial grade,
light green in color and the other one is the commercial version (with labels).

The commercial version is heavier by 150+ grams. Im finding ways to
accommodate both in one set up. If I use the industrial GP3000, my
left and right balance is near perfect, but when I use the commercial
version which is heavier, I get slightly lower ride height to the batt side.
I use both of these on 3 cars. TC4, TA05R, and TC5R. To fix the weight
difference, I turn threaded collar once to reclaim ride height that I lost
when using the heavier batt. Now, my settings will be off again if I use
LiPo. I hate to make adjustments to different batts.

Regarding marking the threaded shock bodies or counting the turns,
dont you guys think it will be more accurate if you just use static collars
for getting the same distances on all shocks? Just slip the static collar
to the shock body, turn the threaded collar till it stops, then remove
and use the static collar to the rest of the shocks.

or8ital

iTrader: (38)

The threads are a pretty fine adjustment. They wont be far off if you count the turns, if at all. To test, do the mark and turn and then measure with some calipers. I bet they are very close.