Syncro 4&4 Discussion and Q&A last answered over 2 years ago.
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Hmmm. I can remember doing some research on stronger and longer shafts a couple of years ago.
I think i found a company in america that produced them for Scooby powered Sands Rails kicking out over 500bhp...
I'm sure there were options on number of splines, and that you could go the Porsche 944 CV route using these extra tough shafts. (though that might just have been wishfull thinking!)
I'll try and find the link again when i get a chance.
Hmmm. I can remember doing some research on stronger and longer shafts a couple of years ago.
I think i found a company in america that produced them for Scooby powered Sands Rails kicking out over 500bhp...
I'm sure there were options on number of splines, and that you could go the Porsche 944 CV route using these extra tough shafts. (though that might just have been wishfull thinking!)
I'll try and find the link again when i get a chance.
Thats great, but it doesnt tell you jack sheet about the box... what ratios available, difflock, is it made for sand rails with ve engines then? what st the price???
Funny though Aidan and I spoke to a UK manufacturer of a "transaxle" that would be prepared to build what we (syncro) want... 6 or poss even a 7 speed, with an ultra "G, G2, and 4 or 5 road gears.....
I'll of course have them built when I win the lotto tonight.....
Mate rallys a Mk2 escort and the Quafe box for that was about 5 - 6 K so they dont seem like huge figures.
Think the ones I linked to were around the $25k mark, so at that price I'd hope you'd get what ever you asked for, they were chatting about them on one of the yahoo Syncro lists a while back.
it was the having to pay for 10 sets upfront that was the problem ! would have been sequential shift too so more straightforward gear linkage but we'd have to design and engineer that too
interestingly they use our pinion bearing in their scooby rally boxes but they have shorter pinion shafts than us
I jacked the front of the van on Sat... I uded the 20mm spacers I aquired off Bussman... its sitting well high now.. did the 8mm spacer on the top of the shock too, to get a tiny bit more travel... havent driven it yet (apart from in the garden over a couple of lumps and bumps to settle things).. but its "nose up" standing on level ground... Camber still looks ok...
I am hoping that with me, the wife and the 2 kids, with all sorts of other stuff on board it will sit level... but then putting my tool box and bits and bobs in the locker might bring the ear back down a fraction..... already have the "TD" spacers in the back... but suppose could fit another set of rubbers on the top of the springs... really need to fit the Brickwerks longer shocks then and the HD cv joints...
Just fitted a 35mm spacer to the rears that lift it 50cm from wheel center to the top of the arch. I have ordered the 40mm (30mm spacers) lift kit from syncro services and expect to fit the front ones with 2wd springs at the weekend. The front spring on the drivers side looks well shagged and the bottom two coils are sitting on each other so i got some free 2wd springs off PEET and will sell the remaining new 30mm syncro services spacer to Axeman saving him postage and bank fee's as his van sits arseend down like a good un. I made the rear 35mm ones so for about £60 it should sit pretty. I will have to wait till syncropendance to see how it handles off road though. If it feels ok then i will buy the stiffer standard size syncro springs to stop the front end waving around over hills also i can use the same shocks. I just cant afford the sekiel springs ome shocks or the gowesty freight and import tax costs.
2wd springs are longer and softer so sticking a spacer in might mean they go coil bound pretty quick... and I reckon it will worse than what you have now....
spacer and syncro spring is the way to go up front... oh and shed some weight
2WD springs are great if you have a lightish van.
I do get confused though, why people seem to want stiffer springs when going off road, surely that seems counter productive as it's more likely that you will ""cock" a wheel" and have less contact with the surface.
Today, I made some enquiries about getting some syncro springs made, to replace the stock ones.
Full kit after the initial enquirey I reckon would retail about £200
This would be fron springs and tapered wire rear springs, so nice and progressive and made by a company that makes springs for all the big boys.
I'm quite happy to get more or less anything made, so I'm just after some feedback as to what you want as regards lift and firmness.
I personally think that going too stiff is daft, how much lift are we after? 40mm ish from stock?
Just a new spring would probably sort most vans out, if you look at the Siekel equipped Jaegar van rallying around, his springs are meant for landing jumps. As Si says soft springs = articulation.
I understand what you are saying Si (both)... there is too stiff (seikels ) but when there are some heavy campers they need a bit stiffer spring.. say 15%?
Jed has quite a bit of weight on the Doka so fitting a softer spring (2wd) thats longer and a spacer is surely going to cause grief.... certainly at Shipston it rolled and bottomed out quite a bit so a slightly stiffer spring would help... (perhaps new shocks would slow the dive and bottoming out too)
A longer spring in stock weight would help in most applications if it doesnt go coil bound before max travel reached.. (maybe thats the first try?? I am sure they would do a set or 2 for testing... could do some testing with empty/medium/full loads to see what they behave like...)
A longer softer spring would be great if we could get more suspension travel to take advantage of it, but we cant... (not a lot in any case)
SB... got your message... going to send 20 as not many left and dont know when I will get another batch made.. am skint.....!!!!
But are the heavy campers off roading?
I would say not, yes there are a few, but syncros are getting expensive to maintain, people with a decent syncro camper in my opinion do not tend to off road that much.
I would say the people who do off road are more likely to have a lighter commercial, Pick ups and Panel vans.
The Go Westy ones are too hard in my eyes, never driven Siekels but they were designed for twatting accross deserts a'la Paris- Dakar stylee and not for general use with a bit of off roading.
I think a modest lift and maybe a bit firmer, but not too much.
Simon Baxter wrote:But are the heavy campers off roading?
Some of them do...
I have the Seikel's fitted, along with OME shocks, had them a few years now. Had them fitted on my old Caravelle, too stiff for that application, unless you have enough chubby friends to take everywhere with you. However on the Westy, especially fully loaded with water and extra fuel, they are ideal. They also help with side winds and some body roll on cornering.
Its all about finding the right compromise between road and offroad - I'm more than happy with my setup, its tried, tested and proven for many miles of 'heavy campering' .
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