Suspension refurb

I think I'm going to do a refurb of the suspension on my GTA Turbo to include tubular rear wishbones as these were fitted to my last GTA and it drives much better than my present car. I know the car is in need of a geo setup but I imagine the bushes are not in the best of order now and see little point trying to setup a car in this condition. What I want to know is what are your reccomendations and experiences with brands or shock absorbers and what else to look out for/do while I'm there? Got a bit of clonking at the rear nearside which is irrtating/worrying too.

Trevor.

Clonking on the rear nearside could be bushes, but could equally be the brake caliper. They can wear on the sliders (being only single pot)

Take the wheel off and see if you can feel any movement. It shouldn't flex at all.

In my opinion Trev the standard de Carbons are pretty good. Konis are the best of the uprated. Coilovers let you play and you can get the car sitting nice, but this does tend to upset the ride and geometry. For a road car I think the best set up is standard or Koni dampers with a mildly uprated spring - I had some made - approx 25mm drop and 10% uprated. This gave a significant improvement in handling with no real loss of comfort. - Wish I had never sold 'em

I have supplied lots of people on here with coil overs and all have been very happy with them. PM me if you are interested. They are GAZ suspension.

Besides the set -ups mentioned above I've had GAZ coilovers until recently but if I'm honest never found a set up with them I was happy with. I'm no expert but I think the spring rates were too high. This meant that it was very hard to get a remotely decent ride without setting the dampers to a setting which was too soft to give decent handling. Currently have some Spax coilovers fitted but haven't tested them in anger yet - I'll let you know soon.

I'm running GAZ fully adjustables that I got from DG (David Gentleman), and I've found them to be very good, but then I'm only comparing them to standard. Had a Skyline driver in my car today and he was amazed at how good thay feel on the road, soaking up bumps well with no bangs, but great feedback. Running them around 40mm drop on Azev As with Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres (255/40-17 rear and 205/40-17 front). Dunno if that helps?!

That's good info thanks. My old N/A that Felipe now has was running 16's front and 17's on the rear which I think was supplied and recommended by Andy887. It's a little difficult to judge a new setup when some say the Gaz are high on the spring rates and then you describe then as being just the sort of thing I want. A bit wary as when I ordered my VX220 Gaz Gold Pro shocks they were too stiff on the springs and I had to change them but I'm happy with them now. Do you know what the front and rear spring rates are in your car and what the originals are?

Trevor.

Not too sure what the spring rates are or were. Richard fitted them & set them up for me while he was doing other work to the car (I'm not that 'hands-on' ). You do feel all the bumps, but it's never crashy with it. 28psi in the rears & 26psi in the front are the pressures I found work best with the set-up.

Useful again. Perhaps Richard will be along and be able to confirm the spring rates you have.

Trevor.

Gaz spring rates are 500 at the back and 400 at the front if i remembr correctly!!