Suspension Geeks: Strut mount question

[nocones77-vw at yahoo.com (nocones77-vw@yahoo.com)]

First off, the easiest way to obtain improved travel is to modify your A1 housing to accept A2 strut inserts, which are shorter. This is what BSI and others do on their racing coilover setup. (Conveniently, it also allows you to run full race-spec, double-adjustable Konis, which you would otherwise have to have custom made for an A1).

Once you have done this, the driveshaft will hit the inner fender before you bottom out the strut. If you want to notch the inner fender for clearance, then you're back to figuring out how to get more travel. The easiest way to do this is to make an offset camber plate, kinda like you've been talking about. PMW's camber plates do this, but are really expensive due to the other features you get (adjustability, mostly). You could accomplish the same thing with some thick sheet steel welded into a "cap" that contains the strut bearing, though it won't be adjustable. Have it mount around the perimeter with six or so bolts, and a reinforcement ring on the underside of the strut tower to spread the load of what will now be bolts in tension. Kevin Wenzel runs this exact setup on his National Champion FSP car.

Dan's idea is troublesome because moving the spring on the strut will require re-engineering both the upper and lower spring perches, and doesn't really get you anywhere anyway. As long as it isn't hitting anything important, who cares where the spring is vertically on the strut?

Neal

----- Original Message ----
From: Dan Bubb <jdbubb@verizon.net>
To: GGehrke <ggehrke@gmail.com>; Scirocco list <Scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 9:33:37 AM
Subject: Re: Suspension Geeks: Strut mount question

I really think the big deal is not so much to lower the car. That should be easy to accomplish with the H & R's. The big deal is to still have enough bounce travel after you do it. So, along those lines I'd think the thing to concentrate on is to raise the upper shock mount, which is what you're doing, but not necessarily raise the upper spring mount.  Then your basic idea could work as long as you take into account the loads and reinforce the various parts to handle them. So, if you can keep the upper spring mount in the same place, yet raise the strut bearing, then you should have no clearance issues. Certainly modifying a stock upper spring perch is easy enough to do. Don't know about doing that to the coil overs though.


From: "GGehrke" <ggehrke@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 10:37 PM


As I mentioned a second ago in my other mail, I'm thinking of
modifying my suspension to get a little more drop without reduction in
travel.  I was looking at camber plates with spacers, but decided "not
yet" so here's what I came up with instead:

Would it be possible to cut off the studs on a stock upper strut
mount, drill out the holes where they used to be, and use bolts
instead?
And then, instead of mounting them on the underside of the strut
tower, mount them on top.
And for an added bonus, put a 1/2" or so plate between the strut tower
sheet metal and the strut mount.  I'm thinking you'd probably want a
reinforcement plate on the underside of the strut tower as well to
distribute the force of the bolts (this could potentially be made from
an old strut mount).

Here's a picture of what I'm thinking:

http://www.xgtgx.com/img/StrutMountMod.jpg

My questions are, though:
1. First off, is this an accurate portrayal of how the strut mount
fits together?  I haven't taken my scirocco suspension apart yet, so I
could be completely off base.  Keep in mind, too, I'm talking about
all this in context of aftermarket coilovers.

2. In the process of drawing it out, I think I debunked my own idea -
The spring would still have to seat on the underside of the strut
tower, so even if the shock were more extended, the spring would not
be.  Correct?

3. If #2 is the case, then how do camber plates with spacers work? 
Where does the spring seat?  Is it a problem?

Opinions?

I'm probably just going to install my new coilovers and new strut
mounts and call it a day, but I'm a huge geek with this stuff and
would love to tweak it to perfection...

-Grant-

P.S. Next week's pipe dream: Drop spindles and eMachineShop

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