Coilover/Bypass mounting ?

[Cache96]

Im in the process of installing coilovers and bypasses on the front of my zj and i had a question..

I know most of the King of the Hammer rigs have their shocks at an angle like this..

And in these pictures the shocks are straight up and down with maybe a little bit of an angle.

I know in A arms suspensions they do it to get more travel, but what about here? Is it because of how the solid axle moves? What would be the best way to mount the shocks?

 

[time2getdirty]

I think most set it up at full droop is straight or they do whatever they need to package.

 

[rockclimber]

vertical at full droop. but it depends on how your CAs are working and what arc they travel in too.

 

[Skullver]

Optimally you want it such at that full BUMP(shock fully compressed) they are at 90*. That is how it is done, whether it is leafs, links, a-arms, you set the shock and arm at 90* at full bump, no shaft showing on the shock, and cycle everything such that it is as close to that as possible.

I mean, every one of those pics above, draw the arc the suspension travels and you will see the more it droops, the less that angle becomes from 90*, and compress that tire and I would bet you each of those is 90* when the tire is stuffed and the shock is fully compressed.

Those answers above, make absolutely no sense whatsever. The shocks don't care at what angle they sit, straight, vertical etc. You want what the shocks, and what they are damping, making a right angle to eachother at the end of it's compression stroke/travel.

 

[crazyjim]

vertical at full droop. but it depends on how your CAs are working and what arc they travel in too.

Huh?

Optimally you want it such at that full BUMP(shock fully compressed) they are at 90*. That is how it is done, whether it is leafs, links, a-arms, you set the shock and arm at 90* at full bump, no shaft showing on the shock, and cycle everything such that it is as close to that as possible.

I mean, every one of those pics above, draw the arc the suspension travels and you will see the more it droops, the less that angle becomes from 90*, and compress that tire and I would bet you each of those is 90* when the tire is stuffed and the shock is fully compressed.

Those answers above, make absolutely no sense whatsever. The shocks don't care at what angle they sit, straight, vertical etc. You want what the shocks, and what they are damping, making a right angle to eachother at the end of it's compression stroke/travel.

Exactly this. The reason you're seeing XJ guys with vertical coilovers/shocks is because that's where they have the room to package them and/or they don't know any better. Like Chris said, you ideally want it to be 90* (Perpendicular) to your travel arc at bump. While maybe not much, every one of those shock setups are losing valving as they compress through travel.

 

[Vanimal]

there isnt much room in an xj for longer shocks unless you have no uptravel. i have mine as far back as they'll go before they interfere with the brake master cyl.
ive been thinking of how i'd shove some bypasses in there but there is no ideal way to do it.

 

[Skullver]

there isnt much room in an xj for longer shocks unless you have no uptravel. i have mine as far back as they'll go before they interfere with the brake master cyl.
ive been thinking of how i'd shove some bypasses in there but there is no ideal way to do it.

Have the bypass off the front of the front axle, and I have seen some pretty clever remote master cylinder set ups, with cantilevers etc to engage the booster. It has been done on lots of class 3 xjs. without doing such though so I know there is room.

 

[rockclimber]

Optimally you want it such at that full BUMP(shock fully compressed) they are at 90*. That is how it is done, whether it is leafs, links, a-arms, you set the shock and arm at 90* at full bump, no shaft showing on the shock, and cycle everything such that it is as close to that as possible.

I mean, every one of those pics above, draw the arc the suspension travels and you will see the more it droops, the less that angle becomes from 90*, and compress that tire and I would bet you each of those is 90* when the tire is stuffed and the shock is fully compressed.

Those answers above, make absolutely no sense whatsever. The shocks don't care at what angle they sit, straight, vertical etc. You want what the shocks, and what they are damping, making a right angle to eachother at the end of it's compression stroke/travel.

every race rig I have ever seen has been the opposite of that. vertical at full droop.

unless you mean 90* from the CAs on full bump.

 

[supertubesocks]

Re: Re: Coilover/Bypass mounting ?

every race rig I have ever seen has been the opposite of that. vertical at full droop.

unless you mean 90* from the CAs on full bump.

Yes, he means perpendicular from the plane of suspension travel.

 

[Skullver]

every race rig I have ever seen has been the opposite of that. vertical at full droop.

unless you mean 90* from the CAs on full bump.

Talking about the shocks position in space is meaningless. To be concise, you want the damping forces of the shock to be vertical, in line with the shaft at full bump, fully compressed. For cantilever/mazzanine set ups the shocks are horizontal in space, yet the cantilever system transmits the forces to the shock such as I described above.

 

[rockclimber]

Yes, he means perpendicular from the plane of suspension travel.

thats a really confusing way of wording it, but I get what you/he is trying to say.

and that's why I said it matters as to what your CAs are doing.

OP asked about mounting them vertically which Is why I said what I said.

 

[Skullver]

thats a really confusing way of wording it, but I get what you/he is trying to say.

and that's why I said it matters as to what your CAs are doing.

OP asked about mounting them vertically which Is why I said what I said.

I think what you said is more confusing and misleading. The rule of thumb for setting up suspension is, compress shock all the way, mount them at 90*, right angle, perpendicular, to your control arms(or leaf springs at full stuff etc), and go from there. It depends a lot on shock length, mounting point locations on both upper and lower etc how they end up at full droop. But none of that matter to the shock, if you follow that rule of thumb, your shocks will be working optimally and thus easiest to tune etc.

 

[ashmanjeepxj]

Its leaned back just for packaging. On our Jimmy's4x4 cherokee we have a very low hood line and need to lean the shocks back so they dont come through the hood. We only run a 14in shock on the front.

The lean back gives us room to mount the bumps.