1964-1974 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I have KYBs on the back and some generic "Classic" gas shocks from wrenchead.com (made by Gabriel) on the front. There might be a few other options for the front, but I haven't found anything but the KYBs for the back (and I've looked, so even if there are others they're not 'easy to get hold of'... if they were, I'd have got hold of them!)
Actually the KYBs seem pretty good. I don't have any problems with bottoming, and even if I did, I don't know that I'd blame the shocks. Remember, shocks just provide damping (they cut down on the amount of bouncing AFTER the car hits a bump.) It's the springs that do the actual springing. In other words, if you hit a bump big enough to compress the springs so far that the suspension hits the bump stops, it wouldn't matter what shocks you've got installed. You're still going to bottom out.
So I wonder if you might be getting all that bottoming because your springs are weak. Sonett springs are notorious for sagging over time -- they get less resilient and lose some of their springiness. (Or technically, the spring rate is reduced -- if you put a load of X hundred pounds on one of them, it would collapse farther than a new spring that's "springier.")
If your springs are weak, two bad things will happen: (1) the car will sit lower on the suspension because the springs compress more under its weight, reducing suspension travel. (2) the springs will deflect more when you hit bumps. Both of those things add up to bottoming -- the suspension wants to move farther, and there's less room for it to move before it hits something.
As a temporary fix (or quick way to check) you can get rubber spring blocks at an auto parts store -- they wedge in between the coils of the springs and lift the car up a bit. I wouldn't like to use them for any length of time, though, because they concentrate the stresses on the spring (meaning it could break) and they might pop out unexpectedly. So if the springs have sagged, your long-term solution is to replace them.
I don't know if they still have them, but you used to be able to order a variety of springs from Motor Sport Service in Jamestown, NY. The rear springs they recommend for a street Sonett maintain the original ride height but are 25% stiffer than stock, which ought to solve any bottoming problems in normal street driving unless your roads are incredibly bad!
MSS also used to sell custom springs in your specified rate and length, so if you wanted a softer spring with more ride height for rallycross, or a lower, stiffer spring for a race car, they would make it up for you. I hear they've scaled back their operation, so I don't know if they do this any more. But you could check into it if you don't think the regular springs would do the job.
I've read that you also can use FRONT springs from a Model 96 on the REAR of a Sonett. Supposedly they're stiffer and also raise the ride height a bit. Haven't tried it so I don't know for sure -- I bought the MSS springs instead.
Replacing rear springs on a Sonett is incredibly easy -- you just jack up the car, take off the wheels, loosen the stop strap so the axle tube drops down, then pull out the spring by hand. Replacing the fronts is harder -- they're under compression even when the car is off its wheels, so you need to use a GOOD spring compressor to get them off. Some spring compressors will fit in under the fender, but it's a lot easier to do the job with the nose cone off the car.
posted by 68.13.13...
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