From Friday's chat...
Quote:

Here's the short story of what happened:


The truncated version of the long story:
1. I got my rear suspension apart.
2. I realized the coilovers I have require more fabrication than anticipated.
3. I didn't have the stock material to fab up what I want, so back together goes the rear suspension.
4. The car still needs an alignment, though. So I bring it down to my local shop.
5. Mechanic gets my car upon the rack and finds the busted shock pictured above!
6. I'm too lazy/busy this weekend to tear into the front suspension. So I pay my mechanic to install my original springs and some off-the-shelf stock-style KYB's.

I called the vendor that sold me the suspension parts. He's going to contact the manufacturer of the coilovers. It's a fairly new suspension system (to the market) comprised of parts from different manufacturers. So the three of us need to figure out what went wrong with my combination of car, wheels/tires, and suspension choices. Other guys have successfully used these coilovers, but not necessarily in a full-accessoried, big block-laden, convertible.

So, I'm out a few hundred bucks for my mechanic's labor and the KYB's. But my vendor is going to take care of me as far as replacement coilovers are concerned. He's a standup guy and is really helpful before, during, and after the sale.

On the bright side, though it was cold, breezy, and a little choppy, I did manage to fish yesterday. We kept three sand bass and caught/released several sad dabs, croakers, mackerel, etc.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Cheers-
Nelson V.

You got in some fishing so it ain't all that bad.

wow. that's shocking. er, so to speak.

You need an aluminum big block.

Most importantly, it didn't cause an accident, no one was hurt and nothing else was damaged. Unfortunetly, this is sometimes what happens when you deal with aftermarket.

I spoke with Dave McClellan at Sebring and it was an interesting conversation. He is on the advisery board for the Mosler MT900. His #1 recommendation - use proven parts that work, or else you are taking a big risk. the between the lines part was what hit home: The OEM manufacturers have already tested this stuff to death, use it. Much of the MT900 uses OEM Corvette parts and electrics.

What's even more amazing is that I didn't even know it was busted until we got it up in the air. My brother had complained to me that the ride was harsh, even mentioned that it "bangs hard" on bumps. I figured he just wasn't used to the stiffer suspension. From the looks of it, the sides of the coils were suspending the car to some degree. When I drove it (for the first time in several weeks) down to the alignment shop, it was maybe one mile down two easy streets.

Ouch!!! At least it didn't cause any other damage - that could've been bad.

And I spent the weekend assembling IKEA furniture... hm...

How does that happen? Combination of overextending shocks and binding shock mounts? Do the shock mounting points shift or tilt or rotate during suspension movement in a way that puts them out of line? Or do they use spherical joints? Are we looking at a solid axle or an IFS?

There are hiem joint looking things on the ends and this is the IFS.

Either way, I am really curious how they broke.

It's IFS. The lower mount is a plain T-bar running through what looks like a delrin bushing. The upper is a spherical joint, though I wouldn't call it a heim, per se, as it's not a perpendicular joint.

Anyway, I've been talking to my vendor and considering some geometries I measured. It looks like the spring was too short for my application and/or did not provide enough spring rate (650 lb/in). So, I may have inadvertently overcompensated by placing too much pre-load.