Rear Body Mounts..CHEAP MOD!!!!

instead of the lower portion of the shock attaching to the control arm with the stock hardware like in the pics. ill have a small bracket made for the lower shock mount. this will improve the strength of the design.....

update on the bilstein mod. i took her for a long drive in town with alot of bumpy corners and i found that the bilsteins do their job but there was a thumping that i could not account for. what i found was the r.s.s.a moving up and down without the support of the stock air system to stop it. apperently they work together. i can think of a lot of reasons why. until i afix the r.s.s.a to the chassis this mod wont work as eficiently as it could. i also noted with out the proportioning feature of the stock air ride this car really needs a rsb! omg she wallows like a drunk cow in the back! ill hold off on buying a rsb until i can get the r.s.s.a buttoned down............

I didn't experience any thumping without the rear STB. Think you're problem is elsewhere, the car does fine without air shocks.

The rear STB will do a good job of taming the wallowing you're talking about.

I you sure the rear shock isn't pivoting at the upper mount point where it goes into the square tube adapter.?
Wouldn't that cause some issue's?

Rickw wrote:

I you sure the rear shock isn't pivoting at the upper mount point where it goes into the square tube adapter.?
Wouldn't that cause some issue's?

that's what I was thinking - the upper shock mount needs to be able to pivot to allow the shock to change angles as the suspension geometry changes over bumps and corners and such.

Agree. Looking at that picture is a little scary. I'm surprised something hasn't bent or cracked from the resultant leverage of putting the pivot point so far below the mounting flange.

If the shock is leveraging the bracket around, I'd be worried about fatiguing or ripping out the metal where the bracket mounts. Then the car is ruined.

Maybe it'd be a good idea to get the Bilstein's off.

The racing shocks have a sperical rod end(I think thats the correct terminolgy). You might be better of using those type shocks. But that would require some pretty serious fabricating for the upper shock mount. You can buy the racing shock mounts at any circle track supply store.


Bert

Will that get the upper pivot point a few inches higher up to the factory position?

Just another thought -



Could the clunking sound be coming from the lack of a shock mount?

I think you may be on to something, Jack!

I think there is something fundamentally wrong with mounting the shock to an extension tube that is what 8"-10" long.
The shock absorbs the energy of abrupt movement and has to transfer the remaining energy to the frame or structure of the car.
Every shock installation I've seen be it a traditional shock or strut mounts from the control arm to the frame or body structure that is designed to accept that transferred energy for dispersion.
In this application you have moved that point of dispersion to a place somewhere below the upper body mount and now the energy has to travel through the rigid steel extension and then try and disperse itself to the body through a rigid mount. This changes or adds a lot of geometry to the equation.
I'm no auto or shock absorber engineer so I can't mathematically evaluate this condition, but my gut tells me something is wrong with this type of mount arrangement.

great observations people! i dont believe that the shock is pivoting much. the stock shock is allmost vertical and from observation it goes into activation vertically. the stock mounts allow some play but not much. the bilstein has poly bushings and can move several degrees on its axis,as it were. the design of the bracket is sound. what im afraid of is that the shocks are bottoming out. im more concerned about that. i made the brackets a little longer to allow for the rssa brackets, that will close the 1" or so gap that i think might be the cause of the noise. . but until i can get her on a lift i wont know exactly where the bumping is coming from? i dont believe that the lack of a mount is making any trouble. the bracket is solidly mounted to the body ( the fact that its leaning aways a bit from vertical has me thinking a little but thats an easy fix),which is double steel reinforced and way strong. and the bracket doesnt move at all. i think i might have tried to be too clever by leaving the bracket longer for the rssa mod. but this longer bracket idea might pay off in the end. tomorow with the help of my bud we,ll get to the bottom of it. until then im obeying the speed limit....

If you're dead set on keeping the bracket, what about bolting it on with 4 or six bolts arranged radially, just in case it is tilting?

absolutely j r . thats coming too. when i shim the bracket to kill its lean,2 more bolts are going in there..

Keep us posted!

Maybe you could use something like this to fabricate a upper mount that would allow you to locate the mount in the factory location.


http://www.stockcarproducts.com/susp13.htm

Bert

i was thinking about that one ibmoses but they dont make them long enough. but what i have is the same thing just longer. ill make it work just might end being more involved than i thought it would be. but no worries im having a good time doing it.....

update: cut 2.5 " off the bracket and she is fine now! no bumping ,no bottoming out no topping out wheww! the problem is that i left the bracket too long and the bumping was the shock bottoming out. luckily i only drove into one drainage way( tons of em in vegas) to see how the bilsteins would handle them and bam! just that one. until that point i was pussy footing around around to feel the shocks. so no permanent damage done. lucky lucky lucky! the shock is firmer than stock but not uncomfortable. i can feel the rebound and compression of the shock and they work fine with the front and the pucks that are still holding strong. a stiffer sb is in store for the back soon. the brackets are square against the underside of the wheel well in the stock location and dont move at all. but the nose is sitting higher than the front because css made the rears 1" shorter but miscalculated the fronts and somehow left them stock height. no prob they will replace them. cant wait to put the lower ones in and then ill have total balance. im sticking with this mod and will remove all supporting hardware and compressor related to the air ride system tomorow. this aint a mod for the faint hearted thats for sure. im happy with what i came up with ,despite the mess i left in the drivers seat when i hit that divot. all is well in rivi land and shes loving the new shoes!

That is good news.

People who fabricate their own components should be commended for the ingenuity involved not to mention the cost and labor required to develop and fine tune parts.


Bert

Quote :

People who fabricate their own components should be commended for the ingenuity involved not to mention the cost and labor required to develop and fine tune parts.

I agree, this site has some VERY talented people that are breaking new ground every week with new and improved mods. Keeps me coming back.....

yap! it was fun to do when all was sed and done. the beauty of this bracket is that i can use any performance shock with double eyelets out there. and if i ever need to revalve the shock bilstein does it for $65 each.

What about the body mounts; front and rear ?
What is the status of that Mod.??

the fronts are hangin tight with no dicernable movement that i can feel. the rears are going the way of the dodo all together. as soon as my buddy has the time we are going to bring the riv into the shop and weld up bracing plates for the rssa and then ill just remove them .they wont be needed since the plates will disallow their existance...i love the word "disallow" say it five times loudly with a russian accent...lolz all around!

What is going on with the rears that you want to get rid of them? Did you ever notice a difference with the front? Please be as specific as possible 'cause I'm thinking about doing it...

robotennis61 wrote:

update: cut 2.5 " off the bracket and she is fine now!

What are the final dimensions. Can you get another pic with everything assembled, please?