irish said:
C3 Motorsport
Shock piston length definitely affect ride height since hte length of the piston determines hou much or how little compression the springs are under ,,,,, a longert piston puts the springs under less compression result in the car sitting higher....
No, it doesn't. A car's weight and downward force under cornering/braking/acceleration determines the amount of compression the spring is under. That is NOT the purpose ofr the shock being there, and under 999 out of 1000 applications it will NOT effect ride height.
Wrong!!!!!!! They effect the rebound height, and since his new shocks rebound further, the car sits higher. It's actually a well known thing about suspension setups. I'm trying to figure out how a control arm bushing, a 100% fixed item, can effect ride height....
Not sure where you are getting your information...but I will try to explain this as best I can. If you have any questions, please feel free to respond...
Under ALL conditions, your control arms, trailing arms and SPRINGS dictate ride height. Not shocks (more correctly "dampers").
Imagine if you will, the compression and expansion of a spring compared to a simple algabraic sine wave. On the downward curve, the spring is being compressed. On the upward curve, the spring is expanding. If you were driving along and had no shocks, and you hit a bump, the spring would compress and expand with nothing other than the weight of the vehicle to slow the ocilation.
The simple and all consuming job of the damper is to minimize the ocilation effect. Under ideal conditions and adjustment, the damper would allow the spring to compress once, and expand once, returning to it's original state. Granted this is a very uncomfortable ride, but again, it's the damper working at optimum efficiency.
A dampers design can be simple, or more complex...but the overall design is universal. For gas shocks (not air shocks) fluid transfers from one cylinder to another through valves. The valves are what control the bump and rebound of a damper. Some dampers are pressurized by some form of gas, other lower quality ones do not.
Ever try to compress a shock by hand? It's fairly easy, and I can assur you that under the weight of a nearly 3000lb car, the resistance the damper provides is laughable. Also, notice that the piston in the damper returns more slowly than when you compressed it in the first place? Also that if you maintain constant equal pressure on the damper, that it does not extend? There are good reasons for it. That's because the spring does most of the work, the damper only controls how fast or how often the spring does it.
The ONLY way a damper would have any effect on your ride height is if the damper, when compressed, was longer than the spring it is mated with. Thus, the damper would be bottomed out all of the time, and would be supporting the weight of the car, not the spring...which renders both completely useless.
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