tail drag getting worse

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azruss
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Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:24 pm
Your car is a: 80 Fiat 2000 FI

tail drag getting worse

Post by azruss »

I walked up on the car from the side from a distance and noticed the tail drag looked worse. I measured it to confirm. When I first put on new KYB shocks, I measured the distance from the wheel well arch to the floor. I remeasured and the fronts have dropped 1/4" and the back 9/16". This took my tail drag from a 7/8" difference to over an inch. If I drop the nose, that creates clearance issues for the air dam. I do have some old tires I may drop the air pressure to give me the height and see what kind of problems it creates. I think i can find critical height issues without leaving my driveway. im thinking of trying to raise the tail by double donut-ing the top of the shock. The question will be whether that would actually make a difference. Before anyone asks, I did check tire pressure. It varies the height by .016" per pound.
DanD
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Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:03 pm
Your car is a: 1972 Fiat 124 spider

Re: tail drag getting worse

Post by DanD »

What kind of springs are you running ?
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azruss
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Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:24 pm
Your car is a: 80 Fiat 2000 FI

Re: tail drag getting worse

Post by azruss »

I am running OEM 71 springs with close to 400k miles on them. I did some more measuring and the bottom door line is parallel with the ground. I took a pic from the side and drew lines parallel with the ground to see how it all lined up. (top pic). the bottom pick is photo shopped to see what i am faced with dropping the nose. As you can see by the index lines, the car no longer sits parallel to the road.

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seabeelt
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Your car is a: Fiat Spider - 1971 BS1
Location: Tiverton, RI

Re: tail drag getting worse

Post by seabeelt »

How does it sit with passengers in it?
Michael and Deborah Williamson
1971 Spider -Tropie’ - w screaming IDFs
1971 Spider - Vesper -scrapped
1979 Spider - Seraphina - our son's car now sold
1972 Spider - Tortellini- our son's current
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azruss
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Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:24 pm
Your car is a: 80 Fiat 2000 FI

Re: tail drag getting worse

Post by azruss »

good question. you sit pretty close to the center of the car, but the rear springs are lighter, so would expect the rear to go down more than the front. Now you have my curiosity. I'll try it.
ClarkTheShark

Re: tail drag getting worse

Post by ClarkTheShark »

Think about it This way Azruss, adding a "Double Donut" forces the shock down another 3/8", but how much does that actually change the force thats pushing up on the shock tower.

Easy test would be to get a scale, compress the shock on it to its normal riding height, take a measurement. Then compress the shock another 3/8" on top of the scale and take another measurement.

I really doubt this is going to raise you up at all though You may can shim under the upper Spring mount though. Or do the NASCAR thing where they shove big rubber cheese blocks between their springs. :P
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