Boxer suspension questions

Since I am waiting for my dist cap carbon piece to arrive I have been taking a closer look at my suspension.

Looking at older photos of the car when it was online before I bought it, the rear suspension was sitting much lower it seems, I had the rear on jackstands for a few weeks when replacing my clutch as this seems to be the cause for my very high rear ride height now, the car has been driven at least 60miles so it should have settled down by now.

Is something possibly stuck in the shocks or do you need to loosen the wishbones so it will settle down again?

The rear almost appears to have positive camber when youc eyeball it, I have purchased some shims to do a rough rear camber alignment myself and add more negative camber to see if this helps my large wheel gap as well but before I do this I want to make sure the car will not settle more further down the road.


Also any thoughts on the factory settings? I know Ferrari wanted these cars to be safe for normal drivers and not suprise them with a quick spinout so much understeer was put into the car, so what would give sharper handling with less understeer?

Factory settings are Front
Camber min value 0 max +0 20
Toe in .04" min .12"max
Caster 3 + - 15'

Rear Camber min -.40 max -1
Toe min -.197" max -.256"max

Thanks

The pic on the left is before the repaint and a different side mirror, same skinny diameter 235/60/15 P6s on the rear

Jeff, that seems way too high with the picture on the right even if you do not have 70 profile tires in back. The only guess I could offer is that the shocks got stuck from when the car was up on a lift. Somebody better than I is going to have to comment.

By the way where did you find the distributor cap carbon brush? These were never sold seperately to my knowledge. When I replaced mine a friend sold me a carbon brush that was just a tad too wide. I ended up "sanding" it down by putting the brush in a dremel tool.

Drew

Drew,

GT car parts used to sell them but they are on back order,thats where the tech got them that used to service my 328 for the previous owners in S.California-Bill at Enzo Motors and is sending it to me.He mentioned about the rotors being NLA for carbed BBs also and tried to have some made but I guess they didn't work out well according to him.

Regards

"I know Ferrari wanted these cars to be safe for normal drivers and not suprise them with a quick spinout so much understeer was put into the car, so what would give sharper handling with less understeer?"

In general, oversteer/understeer in cars like Ferraris are controlled by the front to rear ride heights. Raising the rear induces oversteer, dropping the rear induces understeer. Of course, changing the tire footprints also change the oversteer/understeer relationship, bigger rear induce understeer,... Also, in general, tire pressures are used to make the last trim of the oversteer/understeer relationship.

Some Ferraris, F348 and F355s at least, have a sensitivity to a front end ride height. If it is set too low, a high speed braking instability is present that can make for some overly exciting deceleration events. This front end instability requires running pretty close tot he factory recommended front ride ehight, thereby, making O/U relationship to be controlled by the rear ride height.

I have found that you need to get the car sitting at the correct ride heights before caster/camber, toe adjustments do much to the feel of the car. Save these adjustments for after you get the oversteer/understeer relationship set where you like them. It is unfortunate that, in the years these cars were built, that fully adjustable suspensions were not the norm.

What camber generally does is to make the car respond faster (more) or slower (less) to steering input, but has only a minor effect on total sideways grip, and does little to oversteer/understeer if the O/U relationship is anywhere near correct.

If you follow the body detail line on both pictures, you will notice that in the orange-ish picture the body line intersects the rear wheel at the bead line. If you look at the picture with the red car, you will notice that the body line intersects the rear wheel at the top of the beed line. A difference of less than 1/2 an inch (a big number in a car as sensitive as a Boxer).

Also, looking at both pictures, the total ride height is taller in the red picture than the orange picture.

The boxer that frequents the Austin shop (Moorespeed) has a similar rear ride height as yours.

Jeff,

I've never seen a normal, correct Boxer with the huge gap in the back, butt-up position as yours.

I agree that either the shocks are frozen extended (likely), or that someone has been doing some "rigging".

The car looks normal in the first picture.

Thanks Mitch and JR,

To clairify the pic on the left is just before I trailered the car back from California with normal height, after having left the rear end up on jack stands for my clutch repair for a few weeks it was noticeably higher when I lowered the car, I assumed the rear suspension just needed to settle, this was last June and its had the same rear height since, the suspenson rebounds on the rear so its not frozen but perhaps the shock rods were slightly bent from the weight and sitting off the ground for so long or possibly the springs streched?


It would seem odd for the springs to be easily streched or the rear shock rods bent just from leaving the car off the ground, not only that but both sides are equal high height on the rear.I have since jacked the rear end up several times and it will settle back to this same height each time.

Looks like I need to remove the 4 shocks and have them checked, either that or hit a good dip in the road at about 100mph catch some air and have the car slam down hard.


Regards

looks like its ready to "cruze" the BLVD.

Well, I tried to remove my rear lug nut with no success as the rear wheel just spun on the ground, this was the first time for me trying this with a cheater bar using the factory wrench and that side settled at bit lower compared to the other, looking underneath it appears the CV joints may have bound the car up somehow, is this normal for cv joints to do this or are they worn?

They seem okay with slight play moving the tire back and forth off the ground.


Either that or something else moved to lower the car somewhat.
Thanks

Jeff,

The CV joints on the BB are very durable...with typical wear (looseness) occuring more so on the inner joints than the outer one. To have one seize would be highly, highly unusual.

By attempting to loosen the wheel, you are, in effect, compressing the suspension. The shocks are notarious for seizing...I've had three seize and or stick badly over the years. Check them first.

Regards,
David

(Message edited by fastradio2 on April 01, 2005)