was $195 coilovers , ease of adjustment...

[nealtovsen at yahoo.com (Neal Tovsen)]

One-hand adjustablilty vs. two-hand adjustability? How often do you plan
to adjust these things?

Yes, coilovers with adjustable spring perches give you adjustablity for
ride-height and corner-balancing. And they let you more easily swap-out
different spring rates. But you adjust it as often as you adjust
alignment settings. In fact, you shouldn't do one without the other. How
often do you change alignment settings? Do you care if your tie rods can
be adjusted with one hand?

Once you get your corner weights set and align the car, you don't need
to adjust them again unless you want to try something different to make
the car handle better. On a street car, that probably won't be too
often...

As for a totally generic "kit" vs. one that is VW-specific, the
VW-specific one will have that lower strut collar I was talking about
for holding the sleeve to your strut, as well as the proper spring perch
for VW strut bearings. With a generic kit, you're on your own. Most
people solve the issue by using the stock lower spring perch to hold the
sleeve, but it isn't in the right spot. But that reduces your
adjustability by several inches. Then they use the stock upper spring
perch, which doesn't hold the spring as well (stock springs are nearly
double the diameter of race-type 2.5" coilover springs). Not to mention
that it looks really tacky, if that matters to you.

Neal
'77 G60

On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 14:50, A J wrote:
> Did anyone bring up the ease of adjustment thing ? For
> most of them you have to use 2 tools and 2 hands to
> loosen the 2 perch pieces from each other to make any
> adjustments , the ground control kit claims you use
> just one hand and one tool , do these really adjust
> that easy ? - coilovers are sick but I would like to
> have that one hand setup just to make it easier for
> adjustments - One other thing , if you are gonna spend
> 195 on a setup with no name and only dimensions , then
> why not spend the 60 on ebay for a set ? - Aaron in
> San Jose 
> 
> 
> 
> --- Neal Tovsen <nealtovsen@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Gotta agree here.
> > 
> > What's the big deal about, anyway? Sheesh.
> > 
> > A coilover kit consists of nothing but a threaded 
> > sleeve, something to hold the sleeve on the strut 
> > (usually just a collar you weld on), a threaded
> > lower 
> > spring perch to go on the sleeve, an upper spring 
> > perch, and a spring. 
> > 
> > No rocket science here. If you can 
> > get the threaded collar and lower spring perch, you 
> > can make the rest up yourself with a welder and some
> > 
> > scrap.
> > 
> > I dealt with the pricks at Ground Control once, 
> > and their anodizing and laser etching ain't worth 
> > dealing with their attitude, at any price!
> > 
> > Neal
> > '77 G60 
> > (with custom made coilover kit from Geoff Zimmer on
> > the VW Autox list)
> > 
> > 
> > Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 22:32:45 -0500 (EST)
> > From: Brian McGarvey <brianm@earendel.org>
> > Subject: was $195 coilovers: now get a grip
> > To: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > Message-ID:
> > <Pine.LNX.4.53.0401222225190.31442@earendel.org>
> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> > 
> > basically 95% of the problem with the $195 coilovers
> > isnt the attachment
> > method or the coil type, because as all the
> > engineers here know if the 
> > constant K spring is good enough. 
> > 99% of the problem is that its not a known brand. ie
> > if TT started
> > selling 
> > them 99% of the people who are complaining would say
> > they are great. The
> > only diff I can see between the fancy ones and these
> > is the following.
> > 
> > #1 the dif is the collars are not anodized.. a $5.00
> > difference
> > #2 the springs are 6" instead of 7" 
> > #3 the top hats are 2 parts. 
> > #4 they are only for A1's no generic design
> > required.
> > #5 nobody has run them before. We'll im solving that
> > after I use them on
> > the track I'll give em to either Patrick or Allyn
> > who we all know will 
> > abuse the crap out of them. Koni's an all. (i'll
> > need something in
> > return 
> > to prop the race car on). and have a real world
> > abuse test.
> > 
> > So for $195 get a grip it's asmall biz doing us a
> > favor. they could
> > easily 
> > chage $500.00 and nobody would complain.
> > 
> > /me rant off..
> > Get a damn grip.
> > Brian
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scirocco-l mailing list
> > Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
> 
> 
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-- 
Neal Tovsen