Gaz Gold/Kam Adjustable top mounts issue

[RobBrodie]

Hey Guys

So I've never been happy with the handling of my car, I haven't really paid a huge amount of attention to the set up as I've been looking to improve my own driving and tidy up the rest of the car!

I use my car on the road but also for hillclimbs/sprints

I've recently started looking into sorting the handling out and started by going for some softer springs as recommended by a couple of mates. While I've been stripping down the front coilovers I've found that the car has been bottoming out. Looks like once the car is on all 4 wheels I have about 25mm travel, which explains everything! Yes I know I really should of noticed sooner but I haven't adjusted the ride height since I fitted them to the car, when I did fit them I set them about 10mm off of the highest setting and gaz stated about 60mm of adjustment. So that's why I assumed that it wasn't bottoming out

So the issue I have is that effectively I seem to have no adjustment in ride height!?

I'm using kam racing adjustable top mounts and my only feeling with them is that they seem to have a lot of stack height, so between the 'top cup' of the spring and the chassis of the car I probably have about 40-50mm. But this is a set height and there's no adjusting that fact.

The car isn't low by any means, there's a pretty reasonable arch gap

So my question is has anyone has this issue before, have I done something really dumb, has anyone had issues with gaz gold set ups/kam top mounts etc

Hopefully I've explained my self well enough!

Any help or advice would be appreciated!

Cheers
Rob

 

[ripp]

Hi rob!
I had this issue with mine and long story short I had to shorten the bump stops in order to gain some travel.
I have the GHA kit but I am pretty sure that the shock bodies are the same lenght, I also have the k-tec solid mounts which may be about the same stack height as yours.
here's my thread on this: http://www.cliosport.net/threads/whats-your-ride-height-gaz-gha-owners.603059/
To this day it's unclear on how gaz advertise their kits on going 60mm lower when in fact after a 30 mm drop you basically have very little suspension travel left! They have a great customer service though, I think you should give them a call.
Cheers!

 

[RobBrodie]

Thanks for you reply @ripp , I've been doing a lot of digging into my set up and talking to various people including nick @ puremotorsport and I seem to be really getting some big improvements from the car

I definitely need to go harder springs so I will be talking to gaz about that hopefully next week anyway

I'm kind of reluctant to go for smaller Bumpstops as they can only be 10-20mm at the moment anyway, but again I'll see what gaz recommend

Hopefully I will get back down to a reasonable ride height as a result of the above, it's pretty annoying that you have to put so much work into them to get a decent setup when your forked out a fair amount to buy them in the first place!

Thanks for your help though it's much appreciated

Any more advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[bloke]

Any more advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

sell them and buy some bc's instead:wink:

 

[RobBrodie]

sell them and buy some bc's instead:wink:

So annoyed you've said this! I've already thought about it!
Any ideas how much Golds go for?

I was thinking about bc fronts and keeping the gaz coilover rears - bc quoted £500 for the front corners

 

[bloke]

sorryensive:

not sure on value of the golds.

i was debating getting the gold but went for bc in the end, the deciding factor was being able to set preload on it's own. if you keep the rears you're still in the position of not being able to set preload, can you turret your rear arches to fit a coilover or have you got to run standard bodywork for your class?

 

[RobBrodie]

...i was debating getting the gold but went for bc in the end, the deciding factor was being able to set preload on it's own. if you keep the rears you're still in the position of not being able to set preload, can you turret your rear arches to fit a coilover or have you got to run standard bodywork for your class?

(Noob)What do you mean by turret?

 

[bloke]

chop the inner wheel arch away where the standard damper fits and weld a semi circular piece in to give you more clearance so you can run full coilover.

 

[ripp]

Well let us know what gaz say about this and what springs you will get

 

[RobBrodie]

chop the inner wheel arch away where the standard damper fits and weld a semi circular piece in to give you more clearance so you can run full coilover.

I'm running a gaz coilover rear at the moment so what would i gain from this? does someone make a coilover that you would need to do this for it to fit - sorry if im being a plank!

Well let us know what gaz say about this and what springs you will get
:smile:

Will do buddy, thanks for your input

not sure which way to go now!

 

[ripp]

the gaz golds are decent, I'd say you keep them. The refurb is quite cheap on them also. Maybe gaz will supply you some shorter bump stops and together with harder springs you won't be bottoming out anymore. Oh and get some coilover covers to protect them