16v susupension travel?

[haygood at myway.com (Brian Haygood)]

I've been fiddling slightly with front suspension stuff, too.  Measuring the gaps between coils on my H&R springs, I found that, when installed on an unladen strut, it has about 6.2" in it before it bottoms out.  I had a stock MK1 strut on hand, and it travels 6.1" before the strut bottoms out.  I say about because they were quick, rough measurements, but the picture I'm getting is that they bottom out at about the same time.  



Measuring an early (domed) and late upper strut bearing shows that, from their "no load" positions, the early bearing would let the top of the strut sit 0.2" further extended for a given spring loading, so the spring, in my case, would bottom out before the strut does, using an early upper bearing.  



I don't know which bearing flexes more in use yet, but it looks like the early one might flex more, softening the bottoming out, perhaps?  Lots of conjecture on that part, so far.   



I'm  considering using our tensile tester at work to test spring bottoming and maybe upper strut bearing stiffness, just for the heck of it.  Too busy this week.



So somebody get me caught up on the A2 strut possibilities, please.  What is different about them?



BH

BH





 --- On Mon 11/13, Dan Bubb < jdbubb@verizon.net > wrote:

From: Dan Bubb [mailto: jdbubb@verizon.net]

To: doubt@inwave.com, scirocco-l@scirocco.org

Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:30:50 -0500

Subject: Re: 16v susupension travel?



Considering your combination of parts it's hard to know what's going on. I'd think an A2 spring would be a fairly hight rate for a Scirocco simply because an A2 is heavier than a Scirocco. OTOH, there's no telling how it would work on a Scirocco because even if the rate is higher the compressed height could be quite a bit different simply because of the different application. Meaning that even though you might have a higher spring rate, the car might sit lower than it should.Setting all that aside, my experience is that if the a-arms are horizontal or below, i.e. angling up towards the wheel, then you'll be very close to riding on the bumpstops. Of course, once you hit the bumpstops the effective spring rate goes way up and the shock can't control it. Shock damping doesn't vary with the position/compression of the shock. The damping is only a function of the rate of compression. So, the higher spring rate, coil spring + bumpstop, is more than the shock can control and gives 
the results you describe.I'm not sure trimming the bump stop is going to help. To the extent that you trim it and the suspension doesn't contact it, the ride will be better. The downside is that trimming the bumpstop makes its spring rate even higher, so when you do contact it the lack of control of the shock that you're currently experiencing will be even more pronounced.My opinion is that A1's just don't have enough travel when using aftermarket lowering springs and unless you go to coilovers or play some tricks with raising the upper strut mount or adapting a shorter A2 strut housing (heresay, but something on my list to try) or lowering the strut housing relative to the bearing carrier, you're pretty much just stuck with riding the bumpstops and the crappy ride.DanFrom: "Nate Mellom" <doubt@inwave.com>Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:57 PMSubject: 16v susupension travel?>I installed a set of A2 lowering springs (Neuspeed/H&R) on my '88 a while >back, and installed a new 
pair of Spax struts up front.  While its very >stiff, it seems like I'm not getting any damping on the front at all, it >just bounces and jounces.  The rear feels okay, stiff but nice and damped >(still have the old Boges on the rear).>> What I'm wondering is:  Could I be riding on my bump stops up front?  In > the proper application (A2 Golf/Jetta), the springs have a drop of about > 1.5 inches, and looking under the fender (which is tough, there's not much > room to look up there anymore), the springs seem compressed almost > completely.  Did I take out all my travel?  Should/could I cut my bump > stops to gain some travel?>> I am using A1 strut housings with components from A1 and A2 struts (upper > spring perches, etc) to make the srings work.>> Nate>> _______________________________________________> Scirocco-l mailing list> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l> _______________________________________________Scirocco-l mailing 
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