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Section : Suspension
Suspension and steering.
Posted By : Michael Russell, 13-Jun-2003,
07:57am
Two nights ago I was driving round the Oxfordshire country roads in my GT6 with a big smile on my face and all was right in the world until I realised that
the front end was making one hell of a noise
whenever I went over the slightest bump or pothole of which there are many!! I stopped the car and lifted the bonnet to discover that on the drivers side
when I pressed down on the car the top of the damper just went up and down through the top of the spring, in other words the only damping on the drivers
side was by the spring! The top collar on the damper was not there, only the rubber bush with a loose collar underneath. The shockers are Spax adjustables
and about 10 years old although the car has not had much use in those 10 years. My question to the group is:- Can I resurrect the damper by replacing
collars etc or should I change both dampers to Konis or AVOS as I know that most of the groups opinion of Spax shockers is pretty negative? I had a look at
the Koni web site and the recommended shockers for an early Mark 3 GT6 is the 'Koni 80-1388', is this the part number that this group recommends. They work
out at about 136 pounds a pair. Is it a straighforward job to just replace the Spaxs with Konis?
Thanks
Mike
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Posted By : Don Cook, 13-Jun-2003, 10:42am
I spent yesterday afternoon fitting some spax and new springs on the front of mine- I'm amazed as to what could have happened to the collar though. I
suppose the spring must lose contact with the top mount and the collar slipped out but then there are the collar studs...
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Posted By : Colin Lindsay,
09-Jul-2003, 06:45pm
By collar do you mean the metal plate with the three screw mountings, or the small metal discs which fit around the rubbers? These can sometimes
break if tightened up too much. I'd replace the collars plus new rubbers but do both sides - I'm a firm believer in keeping the suspension (and
brakes) balanced. check the condition of the metal plate; I'm surprised if the entire shocker is going up and down through this. The centre hole
must be very badly worn. I use Spax front and rear set around 6 or 7 and find them great with standard road springs.
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Posted By : Michael Russell,
10-Jul-2003, 01:34pm
Colin, It was me who posted the original question. I haven't got a clue what happened but the top metal disc which fits around the rubbers was
missing and the bottom disc was pushed over the fixing nut!! I posted the same question to this group and another GT6 newsgroup as I wondered
whether to fit Koni or Avo shockers instead of the Spax that were fitted and I got a reply from John Kipping who now lives in New Zealand. He
told me that he personally questions the need to fit anything other than bog standard front shockers to the GT6 and I must admit that it was
easier to spend £30 from Paddocks on standard shocks rather than £100 plus on Konis! I have now driven the GT6 quite
hard over the three weeks since they were fitted and the car is a pleasure to drive. Of course I also admit that now that I am in my 50s I
don't drive like a loony but in my case bog standard shocks did work fine. The car still has Spax on the rear. It also has 5.5J Wolfrace Alloys
with 185x60 Pirellis all round.
Mike