Bouncy Ride

Ghia Nut · Post by **Ghia Nut** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:00 pm

Ive been driving my car a little here and there and have noticed that when I go over bumps in the road, it is very harsh and bumpy. I have it lowered a good bit, it has 24mm sways on the front and koni yellow adjustables. The rear end has the largest whiteline sway bar and bilsteins and no problems. It gets to the point that the stuff in my trunk gets airborn and you can hear it jumping around. Any ideas?

volkdent · Post by **volkdent** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:26 pm

A few things to think about:

-You're balljoints could be binding, depending on how low you went, which may necessitate the need for extended travel balljoints.

-You could be bottoming out the shocks...Pull off the tire, jack up the spindle, and see how much travel you really have left on your shock when the front end is fully loaded. Shorty shocks may be needed to allow for additional travel.

-The swaybar is too thick, so when one wheel hits a bump, the whole car bumps up instead of being able to handle the travel on it's own. Also check that the swaybar isn't binding when the front end is in it's fully loaded position.

-I don't know how adjustable "Koni Yellows" are, but you may have the compression dampening turned up too high, so the shock can't react quickly enough when you hit a bump. For light cars like KG and Bugs, they need quite compliant shocks to not make them skittish.

That's pretty much the extend of what could be binding. You're probably just completely out of travel, and once that happens you are just bouncing on your tires.

Jason

Teeroy · Post by **Teeroy** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:34 pm

Too much air in the tires can also cause this.

Ghia Nut · Post by **Ghia Nut** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:22 am

hmmmmm
I am thinking that the sway bar may be too stiff. Im thinking of taking it off and seeing if it plains out for a bit. I do not have the lowered ball joints. The konis are small enough as my old shocks were bottoming it out and these are konis for an opel GT. Ozzie had the same problem and they work. Sounds like I need to do some tinkering.

Brent Bousman · Post by **Brent Bousman** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:48 am

x2 what Volkdent said.

Hopefully you didn't drop the front too much or you will never get it to ride properly.

I bet you can't put your weight on the front fender and compress the suspension. If yes then pull the end links on the bar and try to compress the suspension. Still nothing? Pull the shocks and compress. Still nothing? Your leaves are binding and maybe rusted.

helowrench · Post by **helowrench** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:11 am

Ghia Nut wrote:hmmmmm
I am thinking that the sway bar may be too stiff. Im thinking of taking it off and seeing if it plains out for a bit. I do not have the lowered ball joints. The konis are small enough as my old shocks were bottoming it out and these are konis for an opel GT. Ozzie had the same problem and they work. Sounds like I need to do some tinkering.

You need to get in there with an inspection mirror while you have the weight on the wheels, and find out if your ball joints are binding up.
In the stock balljoints, the slot is only cut so far, while in the clearanced ball joints, the slots have been cut further to allow for more range of movement.
NOTE: I am assuming that the ball joints are installed correctly with the slot facing front/rear, please check.

Rob