FK coil over fitting instructions

[JUDGENINJA]

Simple question really, does anyone know if fitting instructions should come with a set of FK coil overs or atleast an explode view of the assembly? The FK website is pretty rubbish.

I think that the fitting is fine, but I was aware that I needed 2003-04 suspension tops. I assumed it was fronts that I needed, but the assembly on the front looks OK it is the rears that seem odd?

[lozccw]

I have the FK coilovers on mine, They do not come with any form of instructions (unfortunately)

For the fronts you will need phase 2 top mounts (assuming they are going onto your yellow v40 I think they should already be the correct front mounts)
If you are going really low you will probably need the shorter phase1 drop links tho.

at the rear (which is what confused me for a long time) you need to retain and fit the top 'cup' (which I initially discarded).
This fits on top of the silly little washer thing, before the main rubber top mount
part number 30870529 (the pair cost me £6)

[JUDGENINJA]

Don't worry I figured it out this evening... I hadn't removed the spring seats from the top mount.. I've taken photos to help others.

[lozccw]

Any chance you could post the pics, just so that I can double check mine are correct? Cheers!

[JUDGENINJA]

OK No Problem... This is what I started with:



I can Fly!!!


....I'll put the assembly up in a few moments..

[JUDGENINJA]

1. I Started with this:


2. Disassembled:


3. These are the bits I needed:

(I did cheat and use new parts)

4. This is the top assembly used:


5. The top mount close up:


6. I wasn't sure where to start, so I tighened one leg up to somewhere in the middle and marked a square rule, then copied it to the second leg.


7. The finished assembly:


So I just need to fit them...

[JUDGENINJA]

1. I started with this:


2. I disassembled the top mount:

This is what I'd got wrong. I was trying to re-use all of it...Throw away the rubber spring seat.

3. This is what I actually needed:


4. So using the top assembly I started to put things back together:


5. And now it is put back together and bolt up:


6. Following the same principal as the front measured and guessed somewhere in the middle.

[JUDGENINJA]

The only thing that I needed to modify was I needed to file the brake pipe holder as it wasn't the right size..

[JUDGENINJA]

This is the first setting....

It only looks about 20mm drop at present, but that I'lm going to allow the car to settle for a few days before I start adjusting and leveling out.

[JUDGENINJA]

So anyone who has met the Yellow V40 Since I swapped over to FK's wil have heard my Clunking sound everytime I turn the wheel. I had got used to it and wasn't that bothered, however whilst Gary (SiamBlue) was visiting we had a interesting discovery, which may assist people in the future who have just bought FK's whilst they are dirt cheap.....(git's mine were £250)..


So first post is SiamBlue's fitting

So today SiamBlue and I had a mini meet at my house to fit his FK's. 3.5 Hours job done!!.

The fitting was exactly the same as above and following a bit of advice from other we manufactured a couple of rubber pads, just to create a bit of friction to reduce the clunking sound...

This is what we made from a piece of innertube:



For Gary's car I made the inner cut out slightly narrower to ensure it didn't move too much, but it turned out not to be that important..

Once fitted it looked like this..(the more observant will quickly realise that this is a pic of my suspension without the rubber bushes not Gary's, but you get the drift).



So as described above I don't need to repeat all of the rubbish above, and Siamblue's car:



Just taken off the stands.. still looked good


following a run....finished product.


We took the car for a 8mile drive...it was nice. Shorter travel does mean a bit of bottoming out, but it seemed a good balance of height vs. stiffness... so I guess it was job done.... one happy customer!!. (I earnt a new steering wheel for the V70...)

SO whay was Gary's quiet and mine wasn't it was time to find out...

So for the interesting discovery...

The weather was just holding out, so we decided to unbolt my suspension completely to assess if we could see anything....

Following dismantling we found this on the suspension top:


If you look closely you can see a small amount of scoring on the angled section of the top mount which wasn't supposed to be there??

Now we are talking millimetres but now to play spot the difference:

THIS IS BAD..


THIS IS GOOD..


We are talking fractions of a millimetre difference, but I hope you can see the minute gap which made all the difference.

We bolted mine back up and guess what... Silence!! All the difference is is a small white cover that sits on the Volvo original suspension top plastic bearing.

SO IF YOU BUY NEW... REMEMBER TO SAVE THE PLASTIC BEARING(or atleast the white plastic lid from the old units)..

I hope this helps people explain just what the issues were and we all have nice quiet cars in the future..

THE RESULTS..

It's OVLOV love...





THE REAL STAR OF THE DAY...This little baby..



got to be the one of Gary's best Ebay purchase for a while...

[lozccw]

We bolted mine back up and guess what... Silence!! All the difference is is a small white cover that sits on the Volvo original suspension top plastic bearing.

SO IF YOU BUY NEW... REMEMBER TO SAVE THE PLASTIC BEARING(or atleast the white plastic lid from the old units)..

Or if you lose the part, or want to buy new the part number is: 30616677

Part 9 on the schematic below:



From the looks of the pictures/description this part really does make ALL the difference, as I fitted new 'pressure rings' when I installed mine and they have been silent from the start!
From memory I think they were about £6-7 each

[Chad]

nice one!!

Both look better with a drop.!!

[JUDGENINJA]

I just hope it helps, as I heard of a member taking the car to multiple mechanics for the same issue and not being able to solve it.

Maybe the more adventurous would consider adding a chamfer to the top spring mount with a file anyway as the tolerances were minute. This would probably negate the need for the rubber, which maybe adding a tiny bit of flexibility which you don't want on a race car.

[antz]

Thanks for the advice! Ill be following this when I fit my coilovers so its good to know and have pictures.

Never changed struts before so Im a bit nervous as how to do it....or weather to let my garage do it haha

[merc85]

Good write up, Both cars looking Mint

[JUDGENINJA]

Good write up, Both cars looking Mint

Mine's far from mint... Gary's cleaned the inside of his wheels so he wins on the anal front..

[JUDGENINJA]

Suspension is easy to do..
Fronts
3 x bolts top
2 x bolts bottom
1 x drop link nut (can be a pain, so I'd buy new)

Rears
2 x bolts top
2x bolts bottom (need a big lever to lift the leg out)

Then legs can be swapped round.

[antz]

Suspension is easy to do..
Fronts
3 x bolts top
2 x bolts bottom
1 x drop link nut (can be a pain, so I'd buy new)

Rears
2 x bolts top
2x bolts bottom (need a big lever to lift the leg out)

Then legs can be swapped round.

Cheers mate. I had new front top mounts fitted about 3 months ago so it should all come apart easily enough.

Ive never dealt with suspension before and the idea of a spring going PING into my face scares me even though I do have spring clamps.

Do I need to get it all aligned up again afterwards or will it still be OK?

[JUDGENINJA]

Cheers mate. I had new front top mounts fitted about 3 months ago so it should all come apart easily enough.

Ive never dealt with suspension before and the idea of a spring going PING into my face scares me even though I do have spring clamps.

Do I need to get it all aligned up again afterwards or will it still be OK?

Getting a good step spanner would be the only thing we could have done for the top mount. I keep planning to buy some, but they need to have a quite deep drop, anyone got any suggestions for a generic tool set for suspension legs?

Our fit ment is a bit of a F/O tight method using an imperial set.

Of course spring compressors really are needed and a bit of a sensible head will keep you safe.

The theory is that you do change Camber as ride gets lower. Steering geometry won't change much at all, but you could always get them checked.

Setting the legs

To be honest each suspension leg will have slightly different characteristics so declaring points of measure. For Gary's car I started at a slight higher point:
Fronts - I exposed about 70mm of thread below the lower bolt
Rears - I exposed about 100mm of thread below the lower bolt.

That'll give you a starts...

Then once fitted and run for 10 miles or so we measured the gap using a plum line down the centre of the wheel to the wheel arch.

Gary's ended up within 1-2mm of each other.

[siamblue]

As i said to Wayne yesterday,it helped having 2 sets of correct tools,plus 2 DIY mechanics knowing what they were doing,as we worrked opposite each other and it went well,also i had a spare set of front struts already disassmembled so it went a bit easier,if your top mount bush has come away from the mount,then you will struggle getting the strut apart,like we did on one of the spare struts for Waynes car.
I didn't want to go too low,i just wanted the back to sit near to the top of the tyre and the front a inch higher than the rears,the car is amazing,on high speed bends it just goes round on rails and the stability and speed combined in the bends is quite amazing over standard.

Gary

PS I am not sure how low Wayne went on my struts he will be able to tell you the measurements as he adjusted them.