Ford Falcon BA-FG Coilovers

[twr7cx]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Shouldn't be too hard by the looks of it, could probably do it with the wheels on?

It would be possible to leave the wheels on, but wouldn't be the easiest to access and would take longer than removing and refitting the wheels!

I've unwound all the pretension on the spring and adjusted up the base. So all sorted now (the proper way). The one thing I can straight away comment on is the suspension has significantly more droop adjusting this way. I also noticed that the same spacing was maintained between the orange lock off nuts to achieve the same vehicle rid height.

[twr7cx]

Had the wheel alignment done this morning and have since driven about 50kms in the vehicle. It's hard to comment about the performance of the Shockworks product as I made a few significant changes all at the same time:

1. haven't driven the vehicle in about five weeks due to an issue with the roller rocker - so I've been in a Land Rover Discovery TD5 with a 3" lift and 33" tyres (drastically different in ride and handling).
2. I changed the 17" staggered Works Equip for 19" staggered ROH Modena. Besides the larger diameter wheels and smaller side walls, the 19" are also significantly wider both back and front.
3. Fitted a Mal Wood Ford Ute Tramp Rod Kit ( http://www.malwoodauto.com.au/index....=tramp_rod_kit ).
4. Raised the suspension - Tramp Rod Kit above raised the rear suspension by 12mm and when I installed the Shockworks coilovers I increased the front suspension height significantly. The vehicle is now at a ride height approximately equal to a brand new FG XR6.
5. Installed the Shockworks coilovers. These replaced a set of KYB AGX with King Spring 450lb (approx 8kg) coil springs. The Shockworks springs are a higher spring rate of 9kg.
6. The wind gusts today are reaching 60km/h and the ute has been getting blown around a bit on the road.

With all the above in mind I will make the following comments - considering the significant ride height increase, the handling has certainly not suffered one bit. The vehicle feels very planted and steers exactly where you want it to. The handling is better than I expected at this ride height and I imagine the Shockworks units have contributed to this.
The back end feels a bit harsh, likely due to the Tramp Kit and Whiteline rear sway bar (remembering that Falcon utes don't have a rear swaybar from the factory). However, power feels like it's going to the ground significantly better. Coming out of corners on hard acceleration the back end grips and the car goes!
The front suspension is silent in it's operation and I have no negative comments on it. I'll comment more when I've used it for a while and given it a good test.

If anyone is in Tassie and is wanting to check it out at any point, your welcome to contact me.

[Shockworks]

Hi Guy's,

Sorry for the late reply as I flew back to Melbourne yesterday.

XEXR6T is spot on about adjusting the dampers. It's better to have zero preload or even have them a little loose which is not problem. You can then set the heights at the base but a word of caution! With all the changes to wheels and tyres, it is common practice to remove the spring and one drop link to do a full compression test at the height you want. Jack up the lower arm with no spring in the damper and make sure the front wheel turns freely and then turn the steering wheel though it's range and make sure nothing is touching. We have limited how short the damper can be adjusted for this reason to avoid contact with the inner guards and there are different tyre OD's being fitted so good to make sure.
With the base lock nut loose you can use the C spanner on the spring seat to rotate the body and adjust the height.
I am surprised and not sure at the moment why twr7cx's car had sagged at all, as we had not seen this before at all with any kits. I am wondering if the first height check was when the wheels were first on the ground when the tyres had not rolled out to final height. Very strange and not happened before so, could also be that the base lock nuts may not be tight and the body screwed down a little. You should contact me twr7cx if you have any questions mate.
Cheers

[BOSSEGO]

Hi Brett, do you have anyone in central QLD that can supply and fit these to my FG XR8 sedan?
Thanks

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by BOSSEGO

Hi Brett, do you have anyone in central QLD that can supply and fit these to my FG XR8 sedan?
Thanks

Hi BOOSSEGO,
Sorry for the late reply mate. Told by the real boss, to stay away from the computer this weekend haha.
As of yet, we still don't have any dealers in central Queensland so can't recommend anyone up there at the moment. I will check this out during the week and see if we can find someone who would be good for the install.
Cheers
Brett

[Pepscobra]

Hi Brett, maybe this is a difficult question to answer easily, but how do you go about 'tuning' a shock to a particular spring exactly?
Do you do it on the car? Or on a jig of some kind?
Cheers.

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Hi Brett, maybe this is a difficult question to answer easily, but how do you go about 'tuning' a shock to a particular spring exactly?
Do you do it on the car? Or on a jig of some kind?
Cheers.

Hi Pepscorbra,
Probably the most difficult question to answer and could write for 40 pages but don't have the time.
It's really seat of the pants to tune dampers and the same everywhere around the worlds car manufacturers. So many things, like the primary control, or the way the cars breathes down the road in it's vertical displacements. The lateral head toss, Continuous bumps where the energy can build or single impacts. Initial turn in to the corner, steady state in the middle of the corner balance, brake and turns, weight shift under brakes and power. So many things are effected by the damper in transient direction changes and are all tunable with the damper and how well you can make a change to the damping forces without making something else worse. Little things like making an impact feel the same front to rear as the bump goes through the car. Keeping the car supple while the body stays flat over a bad roads with undulations. We perform so many tests and so much to consider when tuning and to have the fun factor, so you want to turn around and go through that corner again!! Strike through to the bumper is also very important and is part of the tuning so even on big bumps, the car has a good level of control to the end of travel. We have so many options for tuning the Shockworks dampers without placing excessive loads on the sealing system and other components. The experience with how to do this took literally years with so many feelings to understand at the same time. Tiring but very rewarding!!
I hope this helps but is difficult to explain in detail mate.
Cheers
Brett

[Pepscobra]

Cheers for the detailed explaination Brett.
So if someone comes to you with a ute with a set of leaf springs other than stock or Herrod (for which you have already tuned sets) you would have to actually install the shocks and drive the car a bit in order to tune them?
Thanks again,
Joe.

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by Pepscobra

Cheers for the detailed explaination Brett.
So if someone comes to you with a ute with a set of leaf springs other than stock or Herrod (for which you have already tuned sets) you would have to actually install the shocks and drive the car a bit in order to tune them?
Thanks again,
Joe.

Should be fairly close with other leafs but can always tickle them a little to get perfect.
Cheers

[ford-newby]

Is there a complete coilover set for xr b series utes yet? How low can your ute/car get with these coilovers? And are the ute coilovers (if any) the same price as sedan.

Sorry if these questions have been asked.

[Shockworks]

We now have kits for the BA through to FG utes using the sedan fronts and the adjustable rear dampers.
The front adjustable dampers come complete with new alloy top mounts, springs and base height adjustable.
They sell for $1700 using the existing rear leaf or for the Herrod leaf spring add $850.
Best Regards
Brett

[ford-newby]

Thanks for that, is it worth getting the upgraded leaf spring? And how low can the ute get with this set up?

[old_mate]

Hi are these still $2000?

I have a tax cheque needing to be disposed of

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by old_mate

Hi are these still $2000?

I have a tax cheque needing to be disposed of

The full kit for sedan is still $2000 old mate.
Cheers
Brett

[mr_xlr8]

Originally Posted by Shockworks

The full kit for sedan is still $2000 old mate.
Cheers
Brett

Wil this help me with axle tramping? It's killing me on my GTP. AXLE TRAMPS A LOT WHEN I TAKE OF DOWNER THE QTR.

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by mr_xlr8

Wil this help me with axle tramping? It's killing me on my GTP. AXLE TRAMPS A LOT WHEN I TAKE OF DOWNER THE QTR.

Hey,
We have made some great improvements to the tramp on the GT's. Very hard to remove all with just the damper tune but the cycle time is much reduced. This with the outer diff bush seems to be the best combo to help the launch.
Cheers

[dragons90]

Any info on your brake kits

Thanks Gerard

[old_mate]

Could you possibly describe the benefits of coilovers to say a decent set of shocks (like the ones you also sell)? Googling seems to point towards coilovers being fully hectic, I guess i'm after an opinion from someone in the know why doubling the spend is a good idea.

FYI my G6ET is my daily, often sees fairly choppy roads, not real interested in a slammed ride height, just want the thing to ride and steer a little better (currently sits on King SL front and SSL rears, stock stuffed factory shocks)

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by old_mate

Could you possibly describe the benefits of coilovers to say a decent set of shocks (like the ones you also sell)? Googling seems to point towards coilovers being fully hectic, I guess i'm after an opinion from someone in the know why doubling the spend is a good idea.

FYI my G6ET is my daily, often sees fairly choppy roads, not real interested in a slammed ride height, just want the thing to ride and steer a little better (currently sits on King SL front and SSL rears, stock stuffed factory shocks)

Hi Old Mate,
I am not sure if I can talk for other coilover brands as we have benchmarked many with not such good results so will just describe what we think are the benefits over normal twin tube dampers.

Most of all, I like the adjustment range that we have for the car over a damper that is set. On full soft, the car gives an OE ride quality while having much better response in corners. With R Spec tyres, being able to take advantage of the increase in damping forces and to be able to adjust or change the balance of the car. Most coilovers we have seen tend to reduce the total travel of the damper which has a large effect on rough road as the car can top out over events or bottom out easier. Being able to set the heights all round is another plus to get the right stance for some customers or to have the ability to corner weight the car. The top mounts transform the off centre steering response with a level of connection feel, the factory mounts can not achieve.
I think the G6ET will deliver better control on the worst of roads while maintaining a very good level of ride quality. The handling of the Shockworks kit over the standard setup is much better and can deliver v ery high levels of grip in the wet in which we tested heavily in the Mt Dandenong ranges during the Winter periods.
Our standard OE replacements offer all the same level of ride quality and almost the same level of handling that the coilover kit has on full soft but without the other features described above.
I hope this helps mate.
Cheers
Brett

[old_mate]

Brett I really appreciate the response.

Looks like I can't really go wrong with either product being the OE replacement shocks or the coilovers; in reality the car will never ever be something I punt around the racetrack in earnest (i do take it out to Queensland Raceway occasionally but that's mostly about destroying rear tyres down the straights rather than chasing laptimes)

Only other option I have is looking at a cheaper set of coilovers out of Asia (say XYZ's for example) - understand they probably aren't anywhere near the same league as your products in terms of design. Having said that, if they offer an acceptable ride and handling characteristic at a price point around you're OE shock package and also do give some of the adjustability you described I can't rule them out (bearing in mind the saying the poor man pays twice!)

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond to my question

[900dukess]

Hi 'Old_mate', just a quick note.
I went with Brett's package for my FPV GT.
I have also driven a XR8 sedan, with a cheaper coil over package.
They shockworks package offers a much better ride in terms of feel and steering response.
So I would highly recommend their package.

[FPV8U]

What model XR8 & GT are you referencing?

Shockworks are on my shopping list, I've decided if I'm making the proper handling investment, I'm getting the best.

[900dukess]

Hi FPV8U
BA MK II GT
and the XR8 was a BA MKI
You wont be disappointed with the shockworks package.
Fantastic looking product that performs great.
Also great after sales service and Brett sounds like he knows his stuff.
Give him a call and he will gladly have a chat to you, or send him a PM.

[Wolfinsheepsclothing]

hi mate do you have a supplier in NZ?

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by Wolfinsheepsclothing

hi mate do you have a supplier in NZ?

Hi wolf,
At this time, we don't have anyone in NZ that sells our product. Would be good though. If you have any ideas mate would love to hear!!
Cheers

[SIRGTP]

where are the pics of these on a car with suspension as low as can go... ie. 345mm hub to guard?

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by xr6tonboost

where are the pics of these on a car with suspension as low as can go... ie. 345mm hub to guard?

Hi Xr6onboost,
I am currently in Korea testing so will get some photo's up when I return.

Cheers
Brett

[furiousgibbon]

!!!!!! < this was me 15 minutes ago

First mod to my F6, I've done 5000km which is enough to appreciate that the stock suspension setup, while very comfortable, is the weakest part of the car. One word to describe the car's cornering attitude is 'aloof'. After a fairly responsive initial turn-in, the front end would pitch in and be followed by excessive body roll, which created a feeling of lag. Everything felt distant, like I was playing a video game. I never felt a sense of connection with the car or the road, and as such never felt confident in corners.

These coilovers have completely transformed the car, I can't think of a better first mod than this. My first drive was with them set to 3 clicks from fully soft, and even though the weather was dire and I wasn't able to really test them, the ride was still perfectly damped (would have been acceptable OE setup) and the cornering response was markedly improved even at mild speeds.

Tonight I set them to half way. I can now feel every change in the road surface, I wouldn't call it entirely comfortable but ride quality is basically on par with my stock mk6 GTI (non-ACC) but still with more progressive damping which smooths out some of the more severe undulations.

The handling now belies the near 1800kg kerb weight. The car feels completely in contact with the road, no more sensation of floating. Turn in is much more direct, mid corner changes result in an immediate response, and the level of body roll is significantly reduced. The car remains composed through quick direction changes, and the stiffer rear end means less squat when powering out. I can't say I've got an adrenaline rush from this car yet, until now. Bloody awesome. The real test will be at the next Rallysprint in July, but I don't think I'll be disappointed!

[Nish1980]

Hi Brett,

Just wanted to say thanks for the help in setting up my fg ute. Peter at WA suspensions was really impressed by the quality of the kit and the initial handling when he installed it.

Now that I've had it on the road for a couple of months I still can't believe how much better it handles over stock. Doesn't bounce any more and doesn't have any body roll.

[OCTANEBOSS]

Thanks Brett & the Shockworks team. The new suspension set up is spot on. Anyone wanting to upgrade there factory set up should seriously consider these .
cheers Dean