Hi guys. My car has landed in Australia and been on the hoist for a couple of months. One of the prior owners obviously found some rust in the floor, soldered some tin plate in and then covered it up with 5mm of tar underbody sealer so it looked good enough to sell!
So for the last two months I've been fabricating a drivers front floor, new sill, front LH inner wheel arch and numerous other bits. My abilities to weld sheet metal with a MIG welder and an oxy torch have improved out of sight!
Anyway she hit terra firma yesterday and it was a nice sight to see her back on her own four paws again after so long in the air.
My next step was to adjust the suspension height and setup the shockers properley as this hasnt ever been done and it drives terribly, pitching fore and aft like a wallowing fishing boat.
The car has ALDEN Eagle alloy shockers fitted with both rebound and compression control. Compression via a 6 way knob on the bottom and rebound via a 12 way knob on top.
These were purchased in 2004 via a group buy arranged by Niles Swenson of the Jersey Panteras, so I'm presuming that other members here may have similar shocks and can assist with setup.
First step was to try and establish a base position to start from. There is no marking on the shocker body to align the numbers on the knobs, so I can only presume that straight UP is the adjustment position. Ie: turn the bottom knob till 6 is at the top of the knob and hopefully this gives you position number 6 on the compression.
With the car on a four post hoist and me bouncing the rear bumper from under the car, I think I can feel a difference in compression between number's 1 and 6, but it's not very much!!
Then I tried fiddling with the rebound. There is actually 11 positions and 11 is supposed to be the strongest rebound. Frankly, I can't seem to get much of a change between 1 and 11! When I bounce the rear of the car, it takes 1.5 / 2 bounces to stabilize once I let go. Generally I would try to get the car so if I let go when pushing DOWN and let the car come UP under it's own volition, it should not continue to bounce at all and should stabilize immediately.
The original springs fitted were Alden with rates: Front 350lb / Rear 550lb
In 2007 these were changed to Front 400lb / Rear 650lb Alden springs in an attempt to get the car more level with finer adjustment.
It has always been my experience that the heavier springs go in the front, but in the Pantera case, this may not be so.
Here's the low down. Are my spring rates correct or are they arse around? Are the Alden shockers up to the task and if others have used them with joy, please pass on your settings and let me know if the numbers are at the top of the knob to get things right.
Rob Hayden - Melbourne, Australia.
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