Injuneer

Spohn sells a coil-over conversion for the rear, and that uses the QA1 shocks and QA1 springs.

In the front you are not limited to QA1 springs, but if you want to use a stock-like replacement or Eibach spring in the front, you have to use a modified lower spring seat on top of the QA1 spring seat.

tfs95z28

Ok, im kinda concerned... I never fully dropped the rear end out when doing this install... is that necessary to get these shocks fully bolted up? My car looks like it is sitting lower than with the stock shocks. I was never able to access that nut on the top of the QA1 shocks from underneath the car because I never dropped the rearend out. Im wondering if the top nuts are not fully tightened because of this... help! Do I need to go redo this job?

tfs95z28

Injuneer?

Injuneer

You lost me.... If I recall correctly, the "nut" on the top of the QA1 shock (accessed from under the car) shaft is there so you can hold the shaft and keep it from rotating when you are tightening (or loosening) the nut that goes on top of the bushings (accessed inside the car). I remember doing the shocks by myself, and wedging an open-end wrench on the lower nut, and hoping it stayed there while I tightened the upper nut, from inside the car.

There is no reason you should have to drop the rearend "out" to replace the shocks.

Sam Strano

I'm afraid to tell you that what you seeing is pretty typical of those shocks. And that's because they aren't good dampers. They are for weight transfer and do very little in terms of controlling springs properly. You can see that by the fact you changed them and not much changed.....

This is the problem with cheap adjusters (not that the shocks were cheap, but the adjustment mechanism is). You make the softer and stiffer, but you are always stuck in a situation that's never quite right for anything but just weight transfer (which, fwiw is the opposite of damping.... and shocks are spring *dampers*).

Injuneer

Agreed... I would never run the QA1's on a car that I expected to handle above average, or even to handle as well as the stock deCarbons. The QA1's are a "compromise" at best.

tfs95z28

I cannot access that nut on the top of the shaft w/o taking the springs out, hence dropping the rearend, but not completely out i guess. Just enough to get the springs out correct... or can you get it tight enough w/o having to access that nut?

I did notice the shaft start to turn after I got the nuts on there, and after it started doing that, tightening the upper nuts any more was pretty much pointless.

Injuneer

Here's a pic I took of mine when having the "drag" style rear sway bar installed. Everything on the car was assembled, springs intact, etc. Or are you running the "coil over" conversion? I remember pushing the open-end wrench over the nut, and wedging the end of the wrench against the spring to hold it in place while I climbed inside the car. It only fell off once or twice....

tfs95z28

No, i didnt get the coil over conversion, just the regular bolt in 12 way adjustables.

oh, so you were able to get the wrench on there with the springs in tact? Interesting, I took one look at that and said, how in the hell am I gonna get a wrench on there... LOL

I'll have to try and do what you did... hopefully I have a wrench small enough to try it. That looks really tight, i dont know how you did that... we will see i guess.

OBE1 95Z28

You don't need to remove the rear to remove the springs. Disconnect your sway bar end links and lower shock mount. This will allow enough travel of the rear to remove the springs if they're in your way.

tfs95z28

Ok, got back under tonight, only to discover that after being able to lock the wrench on underneath and have someone up top tighten it, it was over tightened and now the top part of the passenger shock is stripped!!!! I AM FURIOUS!!!! Oh, and once i just tightned up the driver side a little more i realized they were pretty much on all the way and had nothing to worry about this whole time... Wow, now i have to get another one overnighted so that I can drive again... SO FRUSTRATING!!!

When it says to tighten it so the bushings start to compress on the top of the shock... i figure this means that once you see them just start to bulge out a little bit is good... right?

Forgive me, this story is evidence that I am a suspension newbie... Any insight Injuneer is GREATLY appreciated!

Honda Hunter

Which are these

tfs95z28

thanks for cluttering up the thread... i think we are past that issue.

sorry, i am a bit pissed off at what happened tonight with the shocks... read two posts up for the full story... and hopefully Injuneer can shed some light on the "tighten til the bushings start to compress" issue...

Honda Hunter

Wow. Excuse me.

shoebox

When the bushings begin to bulge, they should be tight enough. A little road test will generally tell you if they really are. I never had an issure with the rod turning when tightening the ones I used to have. Maybe you did because you over-tightened the nut.