handling issues?

[yayoboy]

hi all, got to nurburg and everything seems fine engine wise, but the car is handling ****e, back end seems really light like it wants to step out, im running gaz coilovers all round, front dampers are set at half way and rear are ten clicks back from fully hard, strut brace on front but not on rear, poly bushed everywhere. we are trying a few things now, and are going to a suspension place on the ring on monday, just wondering if anyone has any ideas on here, and what kind of dampening they are set at to give me a figure to judge mine from. cheers lads, sean

[JordyzNova]

put some sand in the wheel well lol

[Austin_Nova16]

Soften the rears up , harden the front and take the arb off..

[craig green]

As above.

This sounds very similar to what I was experiencing back when I first built mjine as 1.6XE. I had rock hard AVO's on the rear with somewhat softer KONI's on the front. The rear was so light it was ring twitchingly scary in corners at 50mph on A roads.

Temporarily try lowering the fr end a little to give you some front biased rake & maybe soften the rear tyres. I'd say you want lower pundage rear springs in it. When I specced up a full GAZ kit to my liking it solved all my issues.

Plenty of chat here.

http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/other-mechanical-electrical/374578-some-suspension-handling-issues-nova.html

[yayoboy]

cheers for comments, from speaking to a few fellow 'ringers' similar things have been said, stiffen the front, soften the rear to about 10 clicks up from softest setting. will also try and lowering the rear slightly, any ideas how much would suffice? have also been told to drop tyre pressures to 26 front and about 24 for rear? and from memory i think my spring poundage is 350 front and 250 rear, but im just going to have a look and make sure. craig, what you said seems exactly what problem im having!

[yayoboy]

also craig did you mean lower the dampening on the front or ride height?

edit also there is no arb fitted front or rear

[craig green]

Only trouble with dropping the front, depending where it sits now is running on the bump stops which will make the front very skittish & bouncy. My GAZ's were like this, I raised the front a little & it solved it. The car was then very stable & planted. Best I've ever had tbh. D'ecked' Novas dont handle.

[craig green]

also craig did you mean lower the dampening on the front or ride height?

Lower it, but take that to mean - run the front la little ower than the rear. Under power the car will pull the back end down level anyway.
See my above comment.

[yayoboy]

craig see my project thread and tell me what you think to my ride height as i dont think its that slammed? then suggest what end to lower, cheers buddy
http://www.pngclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122493&page=14 see pics half way down page

[craig green]

I'm inclined to say front. If it feels bouncy though, bring it back up. In which case raise the rear a tad.

It sint slammed your raight, in the ballpark of how I ran mine really.

[craig green]

This was mine on the bad setup.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/NovaGSi-WIP_pics/campics012.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/Nova%20GSi/work_in_progress038.jpg

Then with GAZ allround when I was really happy with it.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/Nova%20GSi/craig.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/Nova%20GSi/759.jpg

[yayoboy]

The pics of your gaz setup look similar to mine I'm gonna wind the clicks minus on the rear and try that checking the poundage now, what clicks rear and turns front are yours from minimum craig and would you agree with dropping tyre pressures?

[craig green]

no idea what my settings were tbh. I started midway though iirc.

yeah drop the tyre pressures, what brand tyres are they? Try some softer rear springs at some stage though.

[garyc]

if they are top adjustable GAZ's at the front they are rebound adjustable not bump adjustable.

[yayoboy]

Correct rebound adjustable, the tyres are eagle f1s on brand new wheels

[craig green]

Its just 1 way adjustable for rebound iirc.
Golds are rebound adjustable aswell.

[yayoboy]

Can you remember the rear spring poundage on yours then? My fronts are marked 350 but there isn't any marks on the rears, pretty sure they were 250 tho do you think thats to high?

[yayoboy]

They aren't golds they are just damping adjustable mate

[craig green]

You get rebound damping (return stroke) & compression or bump damping.
Typical adjustable shocks just have adj rebound iirc.

[yayoboy]

They are gaz gha's on the site it says onboard damping?

[yayoboy]

ok, softened the rear this morning, and stifened the front, tyres now have 26 psi in the front and 25 in the rear, which raises to 30 and 29 respectively when warm. this seems better, not perfect, still seems to be a slight body roll to the car?

[yayoboy]

also does anyone know if gsi/gte etc are the only arbs you can get now for the nova, didnt h&r used to do a adj one? and does anyone know what poundage spring they are using on the rear with their gaz coilovers? 250 is to hard! help lol

[Stuart]

The adjustable damping will change bump and rebound together at a fixed ratio depending on where you set the adjusters.

I tend to run mine 10-20clicks from SOFT.

I have heard that at the ring you want softer springs than you'd consider normal, but your 350/250 sounds about 'right'. Dont forget, you have a LOT of things to play with in terms of handling, I mean if you think the back end is twitchy because the front moves hsarply that could be down to the front toe settings etc.

Will dig out GAZ's number but they wont be back in the office till tuesday at the earliest (I'm guessing thursday is more likely as they are racing this weekend and will be out testing early next week)