Wet shockers
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360gts
- 1275 Cooper S
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Re: Wet shockers
Fitting shocks on the front is a fairly straightforward job. You will need to acquire the upper shock brackets (the holes are already in the body for these)
Also, you will lower stub shaft/pins for the shock. https://www.somerfordmini.co.uk/pin-sho ... ension-arm
The hole in the upper arm will need enlarging for the for the stub shaft.
There are bump stops for the rear trailing arms https://www.somerfordmini.co.uk/rear-su ... ydrolastic
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Peter Laidler
- 1275 Cooper S
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Re: Wet shockers
Lower the hydro pressure will simply lower the car. It makes no difference whether you've got dampers or not! The hydro units ARE dampers! Your car is at its mechanical very best when the drive shafts are horizontal
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360gts
- 1275 Cooper S
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Re: Wet shockers
Just a follow on to what Peter stated.
First, shocks on a wet car...this was done back in the day when the early cars were all fitted with "green" hydro units. The early S's suffered from a great deal of 'pitching' when used for rallying/slaloms etc. However, a lot of the 'pitching was eliminated with the introduction of stiffer hydro units...blue...silver etc.
The pitching and rolling (Early cars) under competition became a tad unnerving...created a term we called 'yawing'.
I have driven both.....cars with shocks and cars without....it did seem to help with the early cars......didn't seem to make much difference on the later cars.
Lowering the pressure is not a good idea....as Peter noted...the cars designed with the hydro units provided a really good all round unit.
If you really want to lower the car....it should be done by changing...machining suspension arms....not by lowering the pressure of the sytem.
Remember what Peter said...best geometry is when the drive shafts are close to horizontal.....
For me....I do like a nice later S with hydro....they ride nice and perform great...
First, shocks on a wet car...this was done back in the day when the early cars were all fitted with "green" hydro units. The early S's suffered from a great deal of 'pitching' when used for rallying/slaloms etc. However, a lot of the 'pitching was eliminated with the introduction of stiffer hydro units...blue...silver etc.
The pitching and rolling (Early cars) under competition became a tad unnerving...created a term we called 'yawing'.
I have driven both.....cars with shocks and cars without....it did seem to help with the early cars......didn't seem to make much difference on the later cars.
Lowering the pressure is not a good idea....as Peter noted...the cars designed with the hydro units provided a really good all round unit.
If you really want to lower the car....it should be done by changing...machining suspension arms....not by lowering the pressure of the sytem.
Remember what Peter said...best geometry is when the drive shafts are close to horizontal.....
For me....I do like a nice later S with hydro....they ride nice and perform great...
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Allen Brzeczek
- 850 Super
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- Location: Gorleston - East Coast
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Re: Wet shockers
I fitted front shocks to my hydrolastic "S" some years ago, the interconnection front to rear transmits some shock-absorber effect to the rear which is sufficient to give adequate damping. As with advise already given it is a relatively straight forward project and in my opinion well worth the effort.
Originally I fitted some fancy branded adjustable ones which were amongst a job lot of spares i bought but binned these in favour of a basic pair from Minispares which to me have proved to be more than adequate.
At the time I used the top mounting brackets from a scrap dry mini. The pins for the top arms came from Minspares but in my case I needed to reduce the length of the integral spacer to achieve a straight drop.
I did not make any pressure change and still pump the system to achieve the ride height as before.
However, from my experience when using the shocks I would avoid using competition bump stops, certainly on the front as I found that with this combination the front suspension was too hard and caused the front to "bounce" on uneven surfaces and wander at speed.
Originally I fitted some fancy branded adjustable ones which were amongst a job lot of spares i bought but binned these in favour of a basic pair from Minispares which to me have proved to be more than adequate.
At the time I used the top mounting brackets from a scrap dry mini. The pins for the top arms came from Minspares but in my case I needed to reduce the length of the integral spacer to achieve a straight drop.
I did not make any pressure change and still pump the system to achieve the ride height as before.
However, from my experience when using the shocks I would avoid using competition bump stops, certainly on the front as I found that with this combination the front suspension was too hard and caused the front to "bounce" on uneven surfaces and wander at speed.
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Allen Brzeczek
- 850 Super
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