Leon Speed

Is it possible the threaded ring is installed upside down? Or the lower spring plates hangs on the threaded ring.The lower spring plate should sit on the adjuster nut.

Mrmerlin

by unscrewing the nut the lower spring perch will rest on the threaded collar thats on the shock body, the collar nut will fall to the the lower connection point of the shock body < BUT the spring perch will rest on the threaded ring so need to worry about it flying downwards.
To lower this can I think your going to have to cut 1 coil off each spring, or replace these springs with your old springs as the newer springs have a slightly heavier lifting capacity.
If you do swap out the springs this will give you a chance to inspect the assemblies to see where they dont match

Fabio421

I've got a set of eibach springs I can swap them with if I need to disassemble these things. I'd rather not cut them. I'm hoping I don't. Does anyone have a picture of all the pices so I can see how they fit together?

BTW, thanks for all the feedback so far guys. I really appreciate it.

GlenL

Possibly both, from the sounds of it.

Someone recently posted pics of a disassembled strut. Search!

blown 87

I wonder what would happen if the control arms were not bound up on the bushings?

That is the only thing that makes sense to me, hell, the spring is not even touching the bottom perch.

I am not even sure that is possible for them to be bound up, but something does not look right.

Is the spring hitting anything like the part that bolts to the body and the arms?

Fabio421

Actually, the spring is on the perch. The perch is not touching the adjustment nut. See the pic above where I've added text. Theres an arrow pointing to what I call the perch.

LT Texan

If the coil is not decompressing and forcing the perch against the nut, I think you have a big problem.

When I put Bilsteins on mine, I had to cut 1 1/2 coils each from the stock springs just to get the adjustment nut range in the ballpark. And the coil is still under load at full extention of the assembly.

With a later model coilover on an early car, I expect the spring is of a higher rate to support the increased weight of the newer model. I wouldn't expect the adjustment to have adequate range to lower the frontend where you want it.

Fabio421

The springs are compressing because I can see them decompressing somewhat when I jack up the car.

Can someone who has put S4 springs and shocks on an OB comment on whether or not they were able to get the proper ride height without cutting? I know theres got to be someone out there who has done it.

Last night I tried screwing the adjustment nut up to see what that gave me. It only went up about one inch before it just started spinning without rising anymore. I put the wheel back on and went for a drive to settle the suspension mashing the brakes hard to get the suspension down. The suspension dropped 1/4" but I feel that that was mostly attributed to spinning the spring a little so it was properly seated in the notch in the top spring perch. If you look at the pics further up in this thread you can see where the spring wasn't quite where it was supposed to be in the upper spring perch.

Here is a pic of the shock with markings for it's total adjustment travel. The lower black line is where the bottom of the adjustment nut was located when the adjustment nut was engaging 3 threads on the threaded collar. The upper black line is where the adjustment nut is at now that its all the way up and just spinning without moving upward anymore.

76FJ55

The adjuster should have significantly more preload adjustment than what you have detailed in you last post. if you look at the second photo you will see threads on the ID of the adjusting nut. You should be able to continue compressing the spring with the adjuster until the threaded collar on the shock body protrudes out the bottom of the nut. The reason it is spinning and not raising the lower spring perch is that the threads in the nut are dirty and corroded and the friction between the nut and threaded collar is greater than that between the collar and shock body. When this occurs the threaded collar will start spinning and no further adjust will occur.

Fabio421

Thanks. So, this is probably a stupid question but I have been told conflicting methods. Do I turn the adjuster nut UP or DOWN to lower the ride height?

Lizard928

turn the adjuster nut counter clockwise to lower the ride height.

The threaded sleeve does have a proper way to go on, if on upside down it could result in a 1/8" or so higher ride height.

Fabio421

Counter clockwise from the bottom, so "loosen" it? Thats what I thought but someone told me that I needed to raise it to compress the spring therefore lowering the car.

I'm beginning to think I'll need to take it all apart again in order to correct this. Then theres all the WYAI stuff like new shocks, eibach springs, etc. What a PITA.

Leon Speed

The spring pushes the wheel assembly down and the body up. So it is: loosen the nut to drop the ride height. Maybe the threaded sleeve is not in the right place.

svp928

Fabio, I don't know about the Boge's but the Bilsteins have a little pin that fits into a slot on the threaded tube that fits around the shock body- this keeps the threaded collar from turning on the shock when turning the adjusting nut. If, as 76f says, the threaded collar id turning on the body, it may mean its on upside down and the slot is on the wrong end. Also, I agree that the lower spring perch is sitting on TOP of the threaded collar and can't fit over it, so the adjuster nut is not setting the spring height- its stuck at the top of the collar.
Looks like you are going to have take them apart and see whats wrong- if the threaded collar has a stop to keep the nut from coming off the bottom, and it is now upside down, then the stop is why the spring won't come down over the collar....and why the collar spins on the body.
You can see from my sig pic that you can get the front way too low if the adjuster is working correctly...

Steve

AO

I know there are different part numbers for the OB vs. the S4's. That could explain different lengths, springs ratings, etc. The nut getting loose at the bottom of its travel is normal from my experience.

I think if you want this setup to work, you'll need to cut the springs.