Suplex Suspension - How to fit.(But Don't!)

Excellent information David!
I have just spent the weekend fitting lowering pins to my F. Now I know to store my stock pins away for future Suplex use.
Just a couple of points.... If you are binning your old front shocks there is no need to remove the fuse box for clearance, Simply grasp the outer tube of the old shock with a pair of water pump pliers and use a ratchet to undo the top nut. I was also able to remove the rear shocks without moving the ECU. Awkward but do-able with some circus training!
My last point is to not be surprised if the plastic portion of the knuckles breaks when removing. Of my four, one came out as it should, two suffered some damage (one was able to be glued back together), and the right front was totally destroyed while being removed.
It was a nice touch using non-corrosive plastic for these but unfortunately the metal arm casting does rust and jam the plastic into place. My suspension, particularly the front looks like it came off the Titanic!
David, If your old front spheres are still serviceable would you be interested in selling them? They look 10X better than my rusted lumps!
If your suspension looks like this!

Your knuckles may come out like this!

MGF MARK wrote:

bryan young wrote: you should never leave bits out !!!!! :whistle:

thats a bit harsh bryan :bust: every one likes to experiment :broon:

nice one just a pitty they are the price of an F :omg:

David can take it !!!!!

The price of a scrapper yes, but David's car is so nice i would spend that sort of money to keep it going, and its love of the car too

OK, here's an admission, but don't tell Sheila.

When I got the hydragas off I found that the actual problem had been that the union where the pipe attaches to the nsr sphere was only finger tight.(Not me, I hasten to add)
So I could have saved £750 and used a spanner. :coat: :rant:

However, I had budgeted to do this eventually, so now it's done, and Sheila is very impressed with the ride...of the car!

So Rich, I have 4 spheres in pretty good nick, even got the short pipes with the valves - maybe MOWOG could bring you them over, as he's staying with us in July?
Make me an offer.

Luckily all four knuckles came out with no damage, but my suspension is considerably less rusty than yours, Rich. That's been sitting at the seaside if I'm any judge.

Good advice about removing/replacing the standard dampers, but the fusebox has to move to put the new one in anyway and it's only two bolts.

Why do they make the top of the rod like that anyway? Why not a nice hex nut you can get a socket onto instead of having to fanny about with a tiny 7mm open ended! :rant:

Incidentally I dropped my only 7mm open ended while tightening up the first damper(the fusebox one), and by the noise I knew it hadn't hit the ground, but could I find it? Could I Hell! :rant:

I had to buy another to finish the job. Just putting everything back together and tinkle tinkle, the spanner reappeared from somewhere and fell to the ground. :rant:

I could be persuaded to put four spheres into the luggage...for a price

Thanks for a really thorough how-to David, I'm sure I'll be doing the same procedure one day on my F.

David, I bought my car from Weston, but judging by the paper work it spent most of it's life in South Wales .I imagine that explains the generous amount of rust on the suspension. Fortunately the body is in pretty good shape, other than a horrendous number of stone chips on the front bumper. (Which I am hoping to take care of this summer)
Maybe we can make a deal to get those out of your shed, but I'm not sure if we should get Mark to put them in his luggage.
The X-Ray machine at the airport may get him into hot water!
I will PM you to talk about price.
I think the top stud of the shock is shaped that way because they have always been that way. :rant: I agree, a hex would be a very smart evolution.
I have a special wrench that works very well on the shock studs, (Much better than a standard 7mm wrench) although of course if someone has used mole grips on them previously you are in trouble. Unfortunately my daughter has my good camera at school today, and daughter #2 let the battery run out on the backup camera so it will be a couple of hours till I can get a pic of the wrench for this thread.
OK, camera chartged...Here's what I have found is the best wrench for the top of the shock. It is a Snap-On B1351A 3/16-1/4" brake wrench. The jaws are very thick and get a good grip on the shock stud. The wrench is also much longer than a standard 7mm, at over 20cm, giving very good leverage. Along with a ratcheting box end wrench it makes short work of removing the upper end of the shock.

:broon:

After a few hundred miles, the suspension has settled by 5mm all round , so is now 345mm front, 340 mm rear.

Apart from that the car has handled OK, but much softer, so better at handling speed humps and potholes. There is, however, an annoying clonk on speed humps and rough roads, which seems to be getting worse.

The overall ride is comparable with the hydragas but different...if that makes sense?
The best comparison I can come up with is that the ride is more like I'm running on 15" wheels with bigger sidewalls on the tyres, even though I'm actually on 16"s.



What does the team think on the subject of tyre pressures? I am tempted to nudge them up nearer TF levels; this may stiffen the ride a bit.:shrug:

Interestingly, the Suplex document makes no mention of altering tyre pressures.

David that sounds really interesting :broon:

One thing I havent seen mentioned anywhere is does fitting this kit have any effect on the tracking settings and if so where would you find the new settings?

The system shouldn't affect the actual tracking settings, but worth having it checked for alignment after changing.