My bus is slightly lowered on adjusters, not slammed (got 2inches between tyre and wheel arch) with 195/60x15 tyres up front. Rides fine over speed bumps and undulations in the road but crashes and bangs down little potholes, in fact the missus suffers from a bad neck and yesterday we went down a pothole and it actually hurt her neck. Also, when you do go down a pothole, the steering wheel jolts to one side (jolts to the left I think if the left wheel goes down a pothole). Where should I look and how can I test? Do I need new shocks (still running standard ones as far as I know) or could it be a ball joint or something loose on the suspension? Any suggestions gratefully received before the wife makes me sell the bus! Thanks.
My ex used to say similar when in reality the suspension was softer than the golf - just noisier! If it rattles and bangs over, say, bits of road where the tarmac is missing the top inch or 1/2 inch likely it's a worn ball joint (s). But the steering thing sounds like bump steer - do you have bumstop arms without the bump stops?
the tyre profile won't help old car's were designed with tyres with big side walls and a lot of the suspension take up was the side wall stick a low 60 profile tyre on the bus and there is a lot less give meaning the suspension has to absorb more of the bumps try going up to a 70 or even a 75 profile tyre
thanks guys - couple of questions.. (1) Can I check the condition of the shocks other than visual inspection? (2) Machine 7 website says u need to take the shocks off the bus to measure between the mounting bolts to determine the shock length - is this because some of the weight of the bus is taken by the shocks so bus will be lower with no shocks on? (3) Will I be able to tell the condition of the ball joints just by rocking them by hand? (4) What are the bumpstop arms (probably being thick again here)? oops - more than a couple of questions, but thanks
1 bounce test 2 your making sure the shocks aren't bottoming out and runing out of travel 3 use a pry bar and leaver them (just like the MOT man) 4 look for a small arm on the front beam between the top and bottom arm
as mini bungle says could be that your bump stops were removed when bus was lowered, mine were. although I still have stock tyres so not as big an issue as for you.
ball joint [bang] -jack wheel ,scaffold bar underneath,move wheel ,look at ball joints for movement...
Lowered 4 inches, 185/65 R15 tyres and banging - SGS fitted shorter gas shocks to mine , reduced banging as the bump stops were removed and the standard shocks were acting as hard endstops. With antiroll bar bus went straighter at speed but sort of 'flicked' when one wheel went down a hole at lower speed. After trashing and removing the antiroll bar, high speed a bit harder to keep on track, but rough roads much more pleasant.
OK guys, manages to find the time to have a look at this now.. Bumpstop arms have been removed. Took shock off and did took some measurements - 12 inches from top to bottom sock mounts with shocks removed, shocks measure 10.5 inches fully compressed and 16.5 inches fully extended. Can't see any obvious play in anything (although I only shook the various steering/suspension components by hand) although there is a bit of play where the pitman arm is connected to the beam (bushes in the beam maybe?) - apologies if I have used any wrong terminology! Any ideas - are my shocks bottoming out and acting as the bumpstop? Many thanks.
Is there more or less than 1.5 inches from the tyre to the top of the wheel arch?. According to your measurements: Roughly speaking if its more then the shocks are your bump stop. If less then you are dubbin' as in "if it aint rubbin you aint dubbin." Just checked I have measured 12 inch shock length at rest and 1.75 inches between the tyre and the shiny spot on the inside of the wheel arch.
