Ive got some monroe (?) shocks that were out of my coupe. Between the shocks and the springs the ride was real hard so i replaced both. Now ive got the 2 door im looking at upgraiding from the original chopsticks and im thinking of using the monroes to save money. BUT i want to know what will happen if i use hard shocks with soft springs. will the ride be ok or will it mess things up with a soft spring and hard rebound.
Cheers.
Quinn

soft springs and hard shocks is good!
i have stock springs but good hard gas shocks, it rides quite well and has good handeling, it also holds traction on the bumps

i go over speed humps at 50-60 no probs

but i learnt my lesson when i launched it right up on two wheels off a roundabout at similar speed and busted the gearbox crossmember and created an exhaust leek somewhere

wont be doing that again..... on such a steep roundabout

What if the shocks are too stiff?

Quinn
Shock absorber theory says that the shock should have only a little resistance to the compression stroke to allow the spring to absorb the impact of a bump smoothly.A shock with a lot of resistance will limit the amount of spring compression, but will transmit more of the bump into the chassis. Ouch!

Now that the spring is compressed, it has a lot of stored energy which it is about to release, pronto. Since the wheels can't go down if they are in contact with the road, the only thing left is to propell the body skyward. This is bad.

The most important part of the shock's function is to CONTROLL THE RATE OF STORED ENERGY RELEASE. A firm shock will allow this to happen more slowly & is prefered when suspension control is the highest priority, as in rally driving. The downside is a harsher ride.
Softer shocks are prefered for a "boulevarde" ride at lower speeds where a smoother surface is normally encountered & when comfort is more important.

The moral to this story? I suggest that you check to see if Koni's are still available, & if they are, hawk your sexy body on the street corner for a night so you can buy a set. They are adjustable for wear & for ride quality, so you will get just what you want after just a little bit of trial & error. This is what i have for my KB10.

For the record, i'm old, so i kinda lean towards softer springing with firm, not hard, shock settings for street duty. Your back seat passengers will love you for it.
Chris

in honesty how often o you have back seat passenger, prob 1% of time for me and prob 5% of time i have front seat passenger

prob cause dont have gf and mates like to drive their own cars though

no wait i just remembered they all #### em selves when im driving........

1200RC
Like i said, the Koni's can be adjusted to whatever style of driving you do. In my case, i cruise, as in touring long distance, so i tend to use a medium to firm setting.. I have used Koni's in most of the cars i have owned in the last 20 years. One set outlasted three of my work Falcons.
When i had my 1000 sedan on the road, i had small children & i had back seat passengers a lot.
Chris

my 2door is going to be a very nice road car so i dont want a hard ride. thanx for the advice dodgeman, my girlfriends mk1 esky has adjustable spax and they are very good and a little cheeper than bilies or konies from memory but there not free like the monroes. now i think ill wait till Ive got the $$ I like to only do things once.
Any one want a good pair of monroes and springs set up for rally?

When have you had a passenger in the back of a 1200 sedan where they haven't hit their heads on the roof after a short drive?
All of my friends (pretty much all) are over 5ft10. They ALL hit their head. I think 1200 Sedan back seats need shock absorbers in them. The seat springs are wicked. This is why I chuckled when I read 1200s and passengers in the same statement. Front seats are ok, but the factory ones are also over sprung. Is this because of significant improvements in shocks since 1970?

Chris

Hey Dodgeman!

The best compromise is to have the damper soft on bounce and somewhat harder on rebound.
You can probably remember when a lot of dampers could be re-valved to get this action. Even though they were not "fully adjustable", they were heaps better than standard which is the same rate of damping in both directions.
It might be worth asking some of the suspensiom specialists if this can still be done and the price will be less than a set of Koni's
Lastly, why do my responses to your posts become as long as "War and Peace"?

Only joking!