Fox Shocks preliminary installation notes and review

Jon_slider · Last edited by Jon_slider on Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:00 pm; edited 4 times in total

First installation, GoWesty 2" lift springs, with Fox Shocks on a Syncro Westy with 5cyl tdi and spare tire on gary lee rack on Driver rear, using CLK rims with 30.5" tire needs spacer, studs and front bearings also?

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remove the shim on PassRear. One shim needed on DRear side only, to level the spare tire and westy closet side of the van.
Rear Trailing arms have lifted perches to help level the heavy motor. GoWesty progressive coils are compressed to touching each other, by the weight of the spare tire, motor, and westy cabinets on my 5000lb van. But the ride is excellent!

lower the front spring perch to 20" ride height if possible to reduce from current front 20.5" ride height and excess upper control arm droop that is causing tire contact

.

if 30.5" tires still rub front upper control arm, grind upper control arm edge, or wait for shims and run smaller wheels in the meantime.

Axle angles are all near 18 degrees,

Ride height is 20 7/8" on driver rear, lowering ride height to 20.5", or less than 17 degrees, is desireable with stock axles

Im currently loving the Fox shocks ride set to marshmallow number 3 in front, and slightly solid 4 in rear.

I really like the damping options, and the great ride, even over speed bumps. The ability to go super soft over obstacles is fantastic, can be set much softer than OMEs.. My OMEs were similar in damping to Fox at setting 4, but Fox has better dampening and better travel. For me, OME's were bottoming out, and topping out.. I dont think they could handle my wheel weight.. turns out, one each of a front and rear OME were blown, easily compressed by hand, not normal resistance or damping..

Other changes, 2" more ground clearance, huge improvement in approach and departure angles, and now my ground clearance is just 2" below my wheel centers, all great improvements

I will post a sideview of the whole van showing the wheel wells after it gets leveled and dialed tomorrow.
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My Soapboxes: Inflation; Handling; Gearing; Decoupling; Swepco

photogdave · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:57 pm Post subject:

Thanks for this post.

purplepeopleeater · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:58 pm Post subject:

Man, those ball joints are rubbing worse then rosie o'donnell's thigs in blue jeans.

Get some spacers on.

And before/After pics of ride hight.

syncrodoka · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:59 pm Post subject:

I wonder if Burley's upper control arms would help your rubbing and/or the ball joint touching the spring issue? I thought about that after I left.

VWhead · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:12 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the club Jon!

syncrodoka · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:14 pm Post subject:

Yup, it looks like they definitely fixed the upper ball joint contacting the spring issue.

must....buy....fox....shocks

Jon_slider · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:16 pm Post subject:

> How do you lower the spring perch?

you cant. I can because its part of the Fox Shocks front design

you need shims in the rear

> I wonder if Burley's upper control arms would help your rubbing issue?

yes, but I would rather fix the excessive width and offset of the CLK rims first. They are moving the tire inwards, closer to the the upper control arms than stock spacing.

A good temporary fix till the wheel spacers arrive would be to run smaller tires, on narrower rims, with lower offset, such as your 225x75x16's on 6" ET30 Mefros.. instead of my 245x75x16's on 7" ET37 CLK's..

> Burley's arms will work a lot better than those spacers

did you mean the upper control arm spacers GW provides? or did you mean the wheel spacers loogy provides.

It certainly looks like the Burley arms solved the spring contact problem, thanks for the photo, it shows a lot more spring perch lift than I have, without spring to ball joint contact.., very helpful. Looks like it might not rub my bigger tire either.. not sure.. my rims and tires are different than yours.. I think I can already run your size tires and not rub the tire on the upper control arm without wheel spacers..

what is your front and rear ride height? wheel center to fender lip bottom..
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My Soapboxes: Inflation; Handling; Gearing; Decoupling; Swepco

syncrodoka · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:18 pm Post subject:

We can try my 3mm spacers and see if that is enough. They go right on without longer studs. Loogs parts, so they are legit.

Jon_slider · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:42 pm Post subject:

3mm spacers would certainly help
I checked my lug nuts, and they have 12 full turns right now.. I dont know how many turns 3mm takes up, maybe 3?, which would leave me 9 turns, and I think 7 is the minimum safe nut turns..

I still need to know how many turns a 10mm spacer will use up.. would be good to try the 3mm and get an idea..

I dont think Burleys arms will solve the offset and wheel width problem of my rims and tires..

looking at this pic,

the distance from spring to tire is tight enough that if burleys arms dont touch the spring, they are going to touch my tire..

Burleys arms are certainly nice, but the photo of the springs not touching VWheads ball joints, is with much more spring perch height. Mine would not touch at that height either..

otoh, burleys arms will probably rub my tires lower than my current stock arms rub..

imo the problem is my rims stick in too far, not my upper arms..

I also want to limit my front ride height to 20", not 21", for sake of my stock front CV's.. so I want the front spring perches as low as possible.. without the springs rubbing..

VWhead, it looks like your front spring perches are much higher than mine, I would be curious to know the dimension of the exposed threads below the perch..
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My Soapboxes: Inflation; Handling; Gearing; Decoupling; Swepco

syncrodoka · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:55 pm Post subject:

VWhead is running .org springs it looks like. The 2" GW springs may not let you come down any farther without hitting the front axle.
I thought that these were all made to work together? Does one have to run a big lift with those springs, the adjustable struts cannot be lowered under 21"?

VWhead · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:59 pm Post subject:

That picture was when ride height was about 21.5"

I lowered the spring perch to acheive a comfortable ride height at 20.5"
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81' Single Cab Syncro 1.8T GMW
88' 2wd Westy 1.8T GMW
www.gmwerks.com
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VWhead · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:02 pm Post subject:

If you want it to ride lower you could use lower springs.

These Fox shocks are also designed to work with stock syncro springs.
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81' Single Cab Syncro 1.8T GMW
88' 2wd Westy 1.8T GMW
www.gmwerks.com
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hans j · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:10 pm Post subject:

Yup I am definitely leaving what ever old suspension is on mine there until I can get those! Looks great!
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1986 Canadian Syncro Westy TDI - 1989 Syncro Single Cab - 2001 Audi S4 - 1981 VW Caddy ABA - 1980 VW Caddy EV - 1973 VW T-181

madspaniard · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:14 pm Post subject:

There is a lot of contact in that pic. I had less contact with my Burkey UCAs and Loogys 3mm spacers didn't fix it
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1991 Westy auto w/ Peloquin TBD

"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad” - Salvador Dali

syncrodoka · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:18 pm Post subject:

Jon_slider · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:27 pm Post subject:

...
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My Soapboxes: Inflation; Handling; Gearing; Decoupling; Swepco

syncrodoka · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:32 pm Post subject:

No problem borrowing the rims and tires off of the perpetual project syncro

madspaniard · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:56 am Post subject:

AnmlMthrM60 · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:16 am Post subject:

Jon_slider · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:39 am Post subject:

....
_________________
My Soapboxes: Inflation; Handling; Gearing; Decoupling; Swepco


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Fox Shocks preliminary installation notes and review
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