Ford Falcon BA-FG Coilovers

[Shockworks]

I think a full coilover unit in a XE would be very difficult or dam near impossible. We are now making dampers for the XY Falcon and would not consider changing too much but they are adjustable at the front and an inverted monotube at the rear so you can adjust at the lower mount. We are looking also at a CNC to mount with bearing for the top. My only concern for WA id the base height adjustment so may introduce a fixed base adjustable damper.

[twr7cx]

Well my front coilovers are installed! The installation was the easy bit. They are significantly lighter than the old KYB AGX and King Spring combination that I removed which made fitting the Shockwork units a breeze!

It was perfecting the height (I wanted a centre of hub to guard measurement of 375mm) and ensuring that it was even left and right that took me the longest (adjust it, lower the vehicle off the jack so that I can check, raise back up, adjust and repeat).

It's going to the wheel/tyre shop tomorrow morning for a wheel alignment.

[old_mate]

Ill dig up the documents I was reading and report back.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[twr7cx]

A couple of installation pictures:








I found that after installing them and adjusting them to the desired height they sagged 7mm after I actually drove the vehicle out of the driveway. I realised this on Friday morning when I was about to take it to get the wheel alignment done. So I readjusted them 7mm higher and they were perfect when they sagged again. The wheel alignment will be on Monday now then I'll be able to test them out and comment on the actual performance of them.

I also found that a 1mm height increase on the spring base equaled approximately a 2mm height increase from hub to guard measurement.

I have adjusted mine up to standard XR height which matches my rear leaf springs. There's enough adjustment for the spring base to raise the front all the way to standard height (XT/Futura style) if you desired.

The only other thing I noted during the installation is that the included nuts are smaller in their diameter than the original units (you can see the wear on the inner guards paint job in the first picture from the larger OEM nuts). Also the OEM units are nylock while the Shockworks are flanged nuts.

[Pepscobra]

These look great.
Do you adjust the height from the spring seat or the other nut at the bottom of the shock?
Did you do anything with the preload?

[40RDT]

Nice how much were they?

[twr7cx]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Do you adjust the height from the spring seat or the other nut at the bottom of the shock?

I adjusted the height using the two nuts on the shock absorbers shaft to lift up the spring base.

The lower nut is to lock the base (the fork part which bolts to the lower control arm) to the shock absorber body. Reference my first batch of pictures showing this removed.

I suppose you could unwind the fork from the shock absorber body which would also increase the height, but I didn't do it by this method as my experience with other coil overs is the height adjustment is done by adjusting the spring base. I'm sure Brett will confirm if this is correct.

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Did you do anything with the preload?

I'm not technically versed, so I don't actually know what preload is or if it's adjustable.

I do however, assume that these are a single rate spring, so even though the spring may be being a bit compressed by me raising the spring base, I would assume the spring rate is still therefore the same? Is that how it works?

I have the shock adjustment set to the softest setting at the moment and I'll play around with it while I drive the car.

[xexr6t]

Don't adjust height from the spring base. This will affect spring preload and the car will drive like crap. Height adjustment should be done by adjusting the lower shock mount up or down. There should be no preload on the spring. With the coilover out of the car the spring should rotate by hand. This made a massive difference to the ride and handling of my GT and I only had between 5-10mm of preload. Pm me your number if you want and I can give you a ring and explain it beter.

[Pepscobra]

Originally Posted by xexr6t

Don't adjust height from the spring base. This will affect spring preload and the car will drive like crap. Height adjustment should be done by adjusting the lower shock mount up or down. There should be no preload on the spring. With the coilover out of the car the spring should rotate by hand. This made a massive difference to the ride and handling of my GT and I only had between 5-10mm of preload. Pm me your number if you want and I can give you a ring and explain it beter.

That's what I thought actually, but wasn't too sure.
But then does that mean you have to take the bottom mount off to adjust the height each time?
What's the point of having the adjustable spring seat then?

[xexr6t]

You don't need to remove the bottom mount just undo the lower lock nut on the shock body and you can rotate the whole shock body by hand. The shock will spin in the top bearing and raise and lower on the threads in the bottom mount. The adjustable spring seat makes it possible to adjust spring preload. For normal street driving no preload is Brett's recommended setting. Hopefully he sees this thread and can explain it properly.

[twr7cx]

Hmmmm... Looks like I might be redoing them tomorrow then!

[Pepscobra]

Originally Posted by twr7cx

Hmmmm... Looks like I might be redoing them tomorrow then!

Shouldn't be too hard by the looks of it, could probably do it with the wheels on?

I'm really interested in these shocks for my future BA GT track car project, keen to hear from anyone who has done a few anger laps with them.

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Shouldn't be too hard by the looks of it, could probably do it with the wheels on?

I'm really interested in these shocks for my future BA GT track car project, keen to hear from anyone who has done a few anger laps with them.

No track work peps.....but have put a few spirited drives up in the hills now since having them fitted. Even on the softest setting handling is very predictable and sure footed. When pushed really hard..it still understeers but nowhere near as bad as befre fitting these. The pleasant surprise though is the compliance. A bonus is that shockworks will warranty these units for motorsport use......not something that all manufacturers do or stand by.

[twr7cx]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Shouldn't be too hard by the looks of it, could probably do it with the wheels on?

It would be possible to leave the wheels on, but wouldn't be the easiest to access and would take longer than removing and refitting the wheels!

I've unwound all the pretension on the spring and adjusted up the base. So all sorted now (the proper way). The one thing I can straight away comment on is the suspension has significantly more droop adjusting this way. I also noticed that the same spacing was maintained between the orange lock off nuts to achieve the same vehicle rid height.

[twr7cx]

Had the wheel alignment done this morning and have since driven about 50kms in the vehicle. It's hard to comment about the performance of the Shockworks product as I made a few significant changes all at the same time:

1. haven't driven the vehicle in about five weeks due to an issue with the roller rocker - so I've been in a Land Rover Discovery TD5 with a 3" lift and 33" tyres (drastically different in ride and handling).
2. I changed the 17" staggered Works Equip for 19" staggered ROH Modena. Besides the larger diameter wheels and smaller side walls, the 19" are also significantly wider both back and front.
3. Fitted a Mal Wood Ford Ute Tramp Rod Kit ( http://www.malwoodauto.com.au/index....=tramp_rod_kit ).
4. Raised the suspension - Tramp Rod Kit above raised the rear suspension by 12mm and when I installed the Shockworks coilovers I increased the front suspension height significantly. The vehicle is now at a ride height approximately equal to a brand new FG XR6.
5. Installed the Shockworks coilovers. These replaced a set of KYB AGX with King Spring 450lb (approx 8kg) coil springs. The Shockworks springs are a higher spring rate of 9kg.
6. The wind gusts today are reaching 60km/h and the ute has been getting blown around a bit on the road.

With all the above in mind I will make the following comments - considering the significant ride height increase, the handling has certainly not suffered one bit. The vehicle feels very planted and steers exactly where you want it to. The handling is better than I expected at this ride height and I imagine the Shockworks units have contributed to this.
The back end feels a bit harsh, likely due to the Tramp Kit and Whiteline rear sway bar (remembering that Falcon utes don't have a rear swaybar from the factory). However, power feels like it's going to the ground significantly better. Coming out of corners on hard acceleration the back end grips and the car goes!
The front suspension is silent in it's operation and I have no negative comments on it. I'll comment more when I've used it for a while and given it a good test.

If anyone is in Tassie and is wanting to check it out at any point, your welcome to contact me.

[Shockworks]

Hi Guy's,

Sorry for the late reply as I flew back to Melbourne yesterday.

XEXR6T is spot on about adjusting the dampers. It's better to have zero preload or even have them a little loose which is not problem. You can then set the heights at the base but a word of caution! With all the changes to wheels and tyres, it is common practice to remove the spring and one drop link to do a full compression test at the height you want. Jack up the lower arm with no spring in the damper and make sure the front wheel turns freely and then turn the steering wheel though it's range and make sure nothing is touching. We have limited how short the damper can be adjusted for this reason to avoid contact with the inner guards and there are different tyre OD's being fitted so good to make sure.
With the base lock nut loose you can use the C spanner on the spring seat to rotate the body and adjust the height.
I am surprised and not sure at the moment why twr7cx's car had sagged at all, as we had not seen this before at all with any kits. I am wondering if the first height check was when the wheels were first on the ground when the tyres had not rolled out to final height. Very strange and not happened before so, could also be that the base lock nuts may not be tight and the body screwed down a little. You should contact me twr7cx if you have any questions mate.
Cheers

[05_ENFORCER]

Originally Posted by Shockworks

Hi Dylby77,

The Territory suffers badly from the bushes going which is a shame as its a pain in the $%# to fix some of them.
To date we don't have any dealers up North yet but have plans to get up there soon to find some good guys in the field that will sell and install our dampers. We have had a couple of delays in the new version of the Territory lower front mount but will be much stronger than the first designs.
I do know Pedders have a new bush fix for the front that seems to be OK and a new tool that installs it on-car so much cheaper to fit.
We only went up 10% in the spring rate over the standard Territory with the F6X but ended up a great improvement on the std rig. Now we have a better damper with more options so can't wait to get started.
I will be in China testing for the next 2 weeks and will start the Territory development on my return.
Cheers
Brett

Hey Brett, how are you travelling on the Territory package?


.

[Shockworks]

I am hoping the new design with the stronger mounts will be air freighted by the end of this week so I can get stuck into the new tuning. I will post some photo's and advise when they arrive!!

We will also have the Ford ute dampers land in a 10 days but only have 6 car sets to start with. I will also advise when they are here.
Cheers

[BOSSEGO]

Hi Brett, do you have anyone in central QLD that can supply and fit these to my FG XR8 sedan?
Thanks

[Pepscobra]

Hi Brett, maybe this is a difficult question to answer easily, but how do you go about 'tuning' a shock to a particular spring exactly?
Do you do it on the car? Or on a jig of some kind?
Cheers.

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by BOSSEGO

Hi Brett, do you have anyone in central QLD that can supply and fit these to my FG XR8 sedan?
Thanks

Hi BOOSSEGO,
Sorry for the late reply mate. Told by the real boss, to stay away from the computer this weekend haha.
As of yet, we still don't have any dealers in central Queensland so can't recommend anyone up there at the moment. I will check this out during the week and see if we can find someone who would be good for the install.
Cheers
Brett

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Hi Brett, maybe this is a difficult question to answer easily, but how do you go about 'tuning' a shock to a particular spring exactly?
Do you do it on the car? Or on a jig of some kind?
Cheers.

Hi Pepscorbra,
Probably the most difficult question to answer and could write for 40 pages but don't have the time.
It's really seat of the pants to tune dampers and the same everywhere around the worlds car manufacturers. So many things, like the primary control, or the way the cars breathes down the road in it's vertical displacements. The lateral head toss, Continuous bumps where the energy can build or single impacts. Initial turn in to the corner, steady state in the middle of the corner balance, brake and turns, weight shift under brakes and power. So many things are effected by the damper in transient direction changes and are all tunable with the damper and how well you can make a change to the damping forces without making something else worse. Little things like making an impact feel the same front to rear as the bump goes through the car. Keeping the car supple while the body stays flat over a bad roads with undulations. We perform so many tests and so much to consider when tuning and to have the fun factor, so you want to turn around and go through that corner again!! Strike through to the bumper is also very important and is part of the tuning so even on big bumps, the car has a good level of control to the end of travel. We have so many options for tuning the Shockworks dampers without placing excessive loads on the sealing system and other components. The experience with how to do this took literally years with so many feelings to understand at the same time. Tiring but very rewarding!!
I hope this helps but is difficult to explain in detail mate.
Cheers
Brett

[Pepscobra]

Cheers for the detailed explaination Brett.
So if someone comes to you with a ute with a set of leaf springs other than stock or Herrod (for which you have already tuned sets) you would have to actually install the shocks and drive the car a bit in order to tune them?
Thanks again,
Joe.

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Cheers for the detailed explaination Brett.
So if someone comes to you with a ute with a set of leaf springs other than stock or Herrod (for which you have already tuned sets) you would have to actually install the shocks and drive the car a bit in order to tune them?
Thanks again,
Joe.

Should be fairly close with other leafs but can always tickle them a little to get perfect.
Cheers

[ford-newby]

Is there a complete coilover set for xr b series utes yet? How low can your ute/car get with these coilovers? And are the ute coilovers (if any) the same price as sedan.

Sorry if these questions have been asked.

[Shockworks]

We now have kits for the BA through to FG utes using the sedan fronts and the adjustable rear dampers.
The front adjustable dampers come complete with new alloy top mounts, springs and base height adjustable.
They sell for $1700 using the existing rear leaf or for the Herrod leaf spring add $850.
Best Regards
Brett

[ford-newby]

Thanks for that, is it worth getting the upgraded leaf spring? And how low can the ute get with this set up?

[old_mate]

Hi are these still $2000?

I have a tax cheque needing to be disposed of

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by old_mate

Hi are these still $2000?

I have a tax cheque needing to be disposed of

The full kit for sedan is still $2000 old mate.
Cheers
Brett

[old_mate]

Could you possibly describe the benefits of coilovers to say a decent set of shocks (like the ones you also sell)? Googling seems to point towards coilovers being fully hectic, I guess i'm after an opinion from someone in the know why doubling the spend is a good idea.

FYI my G6ET is my daily, often sees fairly choppy roads, not real interested in a slammed ride height, just want the thing to ride and steer a little better (currently sits on King SL front and SSL rears, stock stuffed factory shocks)