Shock-ing! Calling all Calmini UCA for feedback

Basically my front end is rough as guts after getting the UCA fitted. Yes I sort of brought it upon my self, by levelling the car out at the sacrifice of bump stop clearance. I have sweet f*** all bump stop gap... See pics below. The car looks nice and level but she rides horribly. Every bump with a drop off, like a pot hole, or the exist side of a speed hump is not not a nice feeling. I need to attack them at super crawling speeds if i don't want my front end to sound like it's about to crumble to bits from the massive knock I get from underneath. It sounds like a massive pile-driver hammers my car from underneath. This is on-road, I had a go at slight off-road after the UCAs got fitted, and i tell you it's not nice...

Now when the knock happens i'm unsure what it's actually knocking. Is it the car hitting the bump stops or is it the shocks at full stretch and about to be ripped apart...
After i got the UCAs fitted and car levelled out to where it is now, everytime i jacked it up at the chasis, the wheels would be pulled up by the shocks and not by the dump stops... So my Old man emu shocks were too short. As time went on the front must have settled, because now when i jack up at same point, the wheels are somewhat assisted by the dump stop but not much, meaning the shocks are still assisting the wheels being brought up.

Mate of mine is running the same set-up, but hes got the Calmini shocks to replace his OME ones... When he got the shocks he dropped his car by a bit as well, to give a bit more room at the bump stops. His is very smooth. But i don't know what fixed his, the shocks, or lowering the car a tad, or perhaps both...

I'd like to know what shocks everyone is running with the Calmini UCA and how much gap do you haver at the b.stop, and more importantly how smooth is your car at drop-off points... I need to do something about this, as it's doing my nuts in, so doing some home-work as to where to start with.

Cheers!

I dont have these but it looks like you have an allright gap between arm and stop to me. I reckon shocks are topping out. Pull a shock out and jack it all the way up and measure distance from eye to eye on the mounts then the shocks. It will give you your answer

Ps do you have a full pick of your car

What rear springs are you running? I don't understand why you've had to crank them up so far? Either way that will not help if your shock is too short. Best bet is to get the entire front end up and support it as necessary and put a scissor jack above the wheel and see if it has anymore movement downwards..
Remove the shock of one end and see if it makes a difference. Then open it all the way and compare to the other end.. You'll know then you'll need longer shocks.

yeh, i think u might need longer shocks to allow for more travel.

shocks are too short.

qqc d22 said:

Ps do you have a full pick of your car

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Yes, heres a full full pic. All levelled out. I have a heavy duty old man emu setup all 'round. The fact that i have not carried much weight in the back to soften the leafs doesn't help. And the car road-sniffing, really pissed me off, hence why the front is so high to match the rear.

Edit: And it's still not level. Front is still pointing downwards when looking at it from the side. Very noticeable.

If you measure bottom of rim to flare lip you'll find if it's set so all 4 corners are the same the back end will be maybe 10mm higher than the front, it's just how they are. The gap above your upper stop doesn't look too bad (mine has about 12mm and rides smooth) I'd say your shocks are too short just as others have said.
Borrow 200kg-300kg of something you can leave in the back for a week or two to settle the leaves in with, like pavers or bags of mortar etc if you know anyone with that kind of stuff.

Pity your rear leaves arnt genuine nissan you could throw a pair of shoes in the back for a few weeks that would make them sag 40mm lol.

qqc d22 said:

Pity your rear leaves arnt genuine nissan you could throw a pair of shoes in the back for a few weeks that would make them sag 40mm lol.

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Which is exactly why i had to upgrade them lol. I've had the car for about 9 months until i got the upgrade and the factory ones were rooted, and the car until then has not even sniffed off-road, or carried anything heavier than the esky at the back for that matter so i know exactly what you're talking about lol.

I've carried 10 slabs of spring water in the back for about 2 weeks at one stage, this was about 300kg, we estimated. It's done sweet fark all to the back in terms of height or softening up the leafs. Maybe i need to up the ante a little bit or something...

But on a serious note, i'm gonna jack the car up this weekend and have a play and a good look around to see whats up.

Did you ever sort out the clunk? My d22 runs snake Uca with bilstein shocks and lifted so there is 1600mm from the bottom edge of my 16" wheel to the underneath of the front flares uppermost point. This gives me about 20mm between arm and bumpstop. It runs ironman torsion bars and rides very smooth.

Turbo54 said:

there is 1600mm from the bottom edge of my 16" wheel to the underneath of the front flares uppermost point.

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That sounds a bit high to me, i think for memory mine measures 805mm, from the bottom of the 16" rim to the guard.

Turbo54 said:

Did you ever sort out the clunk? My d22 runs snake Uca with bilstein shocks and lifted so there is 1600mm from the bottom edge of my 16" wheel to the underneath of the front flares uppermost point. This gives me about 20mm between arm and bumpstop. It runs ironman torsion bars and rides very smooth.

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Didn't sort it out yet mate. Pretty sure it's the combination of shocks too short, with the bump stop being too small. But more so the shocks. The OME shocks are designed for around 30mm lift, which i'm way above. I ordered a set of rancho 9000xl so i'll swap them out when they arrive and then i will go from there.

Also your lift sounds a bit too extreme. I'm unsure how you got to 1600mm. That my friend is a big ass lift lol.

F--k me predictive text that would be a huge lift. I meant 760mm from bottom edge to under wheel arch! Sorry bout that.
T54

I have the same problem with my Ute, rides like shit but I also think it has to do with the shocks topping out. I have the 3" calmini kit with bilstein shocks. Front is 790mm high and rear is 810mm. Will look into bigger shocks when im home from work in the next couple weeks.

Brett

Would shocks being too short cause that amount of noise in the on-road situation Hodge has explained?

I have Caloffroad UCA's and had OME shocks and the bump stop clearance looks about the same - but I will check.

My OME shocks tore the mounts from the lower control arms after a couple of days on the Oodnadatta Track and hitting a washout between Mt Dare to Dalhousie Springs, and then another 150 kms to Purni Bore. Diagnosis was the shocks were stuffed and weren't working - with some belief they may have been too short. There were small cracks in the mount surrounds which were a major contributor to the mounts coming away. The only time I heard any noise was when the mounts came away. The bloody thing rode better with no shocks!!

I now have Bilsteins and everything is sweet.

I'll be interested in the outcome of the Rancho shocks. I certainly hope it works.

What Ridgie described is my worst case scenario. Ripping the mounts off. No sign of that yet on my Nav fortunately. But then again, i haven't been on any serious off-road since getting UCA's. Considering the number of people i've now heard swapping from OME to some other longer shock, and getting a smoother ride, is comforting somewhat, hopefully, i'll have the same fortune with the Ranchos.

Get back to us with the bump stop gap you have ridgie if you don't mind. Keeping in mind that there is a ratio of bump stop gap to down travel . So even 5mm of gap at bump stop would give 15-20mm extra down travel. Due to the angle.

Mine sits with 750mm from bottom of rim to highest edge of flare.

Here's is a pic of my bump stops. I haven't wound up the torsion bars all the way so I still had clearance and kept the CV's at a good angle. (EFS HD torsion bars)




Apologies - mine ain't as clean as Hodge's after a drive in the bush on the weekend.

Ridgie said:

Mine sits with 750mm from bottom of rim to highest edge of flare.

Here's is a pic of my bump stops. I haven't wound up the torsion bars all the way so I still had clearance and kept the CV's at a good angle. (EFS HD torsion bars)

Apologies - mine ain't as clean as Hodge's after a drive in the bush on the weekend.

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Yeh you got a heap more room at the bump stops as me, maybe thats why its a smoother ride too.

if anyone decides to measure the extended length of their front shocks, post it up for comparison. might help a few guys out.

ive got 12 month old blue max shocks, they have been good so far, just had uca's fitted last week so im going to have to check theyre long enough when i get a chance.