As far as I know, yes the lights would work just the same only to check them you have to get out of the car.

 

Thanks!

 

Taken from forum member Eddie 70:
The fiber optics is like a light pipe. When you put a light on one end light shows up at the other end. The front fiber optics monitor the headlights, low and high beam, and the front turn signals. The rear fiber optics monitor the brake lights and tag light. Each light is represented on the dash by a different colored lens. It is pretty neat when it is working correctly. The "eyes" or "lenses" can get dirty and less light is transmitted to the dash. This is not a great picture but you can see the front and back lenses on the console.

 

Thanks.
That would be cool.

 

Yes as said it’s a discrete system to monitor bulb status front and rear.

if It’s not functional it can be repaired or even replaced. I ran a new fiber from one of my tail lights and just cleaned the ends of the others. They all now seem to work ok.

The fiber is readily available.

 

So I have been busy testing the cars new suspension and various settings with both my 18” and 15” wheel sets.

Put a few hundred miles of testing over last month.

I now have accumulated a few sets of 9” and 8” springs, couplers helper springs etc for the VanSteel coil-over rear suspension I have installed.

Overall, what a transformation to how the car drives. So controlled and just eats up the road.

However when I want to run the rear of the Vette “low” I have heavily reduced the amount of travel in the shock.

I have cut down my bump stops by 1cm and only have 1.8cm gap before they touch.

So I have had a thud over high speed bumps like bad road joints.

What to do !!!

Talk to Dan at Van Steel and do a few more tests and it is the shock bottoming out.

Luckily QA1 have lots of shock body length options so next step is to work out what one would work best when the Vette is sitting down low.

If I screw the coilovers up 2 cm it has no issues whatsoever but...I like it lower...!!!’

So I come back to how great the Vette drives now.

- Borgeson steering box
- Semi coil-overs on front with QA1 dual adjustable shock,
- Global West tubular upper and lower (extend version) with Del-A-Lum bushes
- VanSteel coil-overs, offset trailing arms with johnny joints, QA1 dual adjustable shocks
- VanSteel Delrin differential crossmember cushions.
- Heim joint smart struts - to be replaced with johnny joints (once they arrive from VanSteel)

Lots of changes over time but wow does it all add up in a better controlled ride.

 

So have done some measuring and discussed with Dan and we will be swapping out the existing shock from the coil-over with a shorter one. This is to handle high speed bump situations, low speed undulations do not cause the same issue. I have a section of road that has a few bad joins that I can duplicate my testing on. The stock Van Steel coil-over body is 14" extended and 10.125" compressed (3.875" extension). The new coil-over body will be 12.75" extended and 9.5" compressed (3.25" extension). If your running your vette at a normal or semi lowered height its all fine with the existing setup. However if you want to wind it down low it could be problematic depending on how far you go and what your roads are like. My setup gave 1cm clearance to the bumpstop tip at the height I wanted. examples28" road to guard lip- 11.8" eyelet to eyelet measurement once in car and at road height- 2.2" of drop and 1.675" of compression available- Suspension won't bottom out shock 26-3/4" road to guard lip- 11" eyelet to eyelet measurement once in car and at road height- 3" of drop and .875" of compression available- Suspension will bottom out shock before bump stop fully engaged (I am testing with a bumpstop cut down 1 cm so even a stock one would be in trouble) Spring removed for testing Note: my car runs 255/45-18's on the rear so these are my measurements and we know how different Vettes can be. example with shorter coil-over body26-3/4" road to guard lip- 11.125" eyelet to eyelet measurement once in car and at road height- 1.625" of drop and 1.625" of compression available- Suspension should not bottom out I imagine larger or stronger bump stops could somewhat fix the issue but thats not how I wanted to resolve it. So Dan is shipping me 2 new coil-over bodies and I will likely need to use 8" or 7" springs. Van Steel have been great to deal with in every way and help me out with how I want to run the setup.

 

Are you having to run with negative preload to get it down that low. I have to with my Ridetech setup once I went to some stiffer springs. They say it is no problem. Car looks great.😀😀

 

The standard setup has 9” springs that are fully captive once you wind up a cm or so from the lowest perch position so no negative preload.

But I went to 8” springs to get it lower and they were not fully captive at full drop, so yes negative preload.

I resolved that with a coupler and helper spring as I don’t like non captive springs at full drop.



The new setup probably won’t need that.

 

Package from Van Steel turned up yesterday.

9.5"/12.75" rear coiler bodies to swap out.



Together with 8" rather than 9" 500lb springs we should be close to where we need to be.

Turned up from Florida in 4 days so can't get much better than that.

 

The car looks amazing

 

So the new approach to the coil-over mounts from VanSteel is to use a 5/8" spherical bearing top and bottom with 1/2" inserts.





Previously they used a rubber mount on bottom and a 1/2" spherical bearing on top with conical washers on each side.

If you have taken them in and out as much as I have you will know that the conical washer works but is not the best option for frequent assembly/disassembly.

Dan shipped me some of the new spherical bearings and the inserts.

The inserts need to be sized to fit in the top shock bracket and the lower mount.



I imagine in their new coil-over kits they may size them already.

 

So I was thinking about how to make the new inserts narrower without a lathe and not wanting to just use a file.

I came up with this. a drill bit with a 1/2" shaft to slide the insert on and mounted to my bench sander.

Crude but worked great.

 

Top and bottom now fit perfectly.





One side done one to go then i can fit up the coil-overs.

 

Mocked up new shorter body coil-over.

Full drop (not as much as before as body is shorter.)



On the bumpstop with some shock travel still remaining.





Possibly ride height

 

Very nice.
What is the tire diameter?

 

Exactly 27”.

255/45-18

 

Hi Craig
Car looks great and I admire the creativity with your lathe there

Can you show more of whatever that jack is you're using under the wheel there, red with the ratchet on it
Thanks
M

 

Hi Brett

They are cheap bike lift stands from ebay.

Fantastic to work on suspension as above or anything that need support or lift under car.









And a tip, only use an impact on them when they are not under heavy load. Use a hand ratchet when loaded as you can lock and damage the control thread. I had to buy another when I wrecked one.

 

Thanks Craig, appreciate that
I've been using an old scissor jack with a ratchet because you can really control the height when trying to line stuff up, but what caught my eye with those you have is the big platform on the top.
I'll have to see about adding some to my inventory of stuff
M