My 2011 Vitz

[ezhacker1]

Originally Posted by 1.5

@ezhacker1 regarding your post about shortening rear shocks for preload/length. If you have the shock too long and once lowered at ride height the inner valve pushes down pretty far towards the bottom of the inner tube, wouldnt you call that preload too?

Also if the shock is set so long that once the car is lowered to its static height if the valve is resting agains the inside of the bottom of the tube, wouldnt that hold the car up anyways? in that case, shortening the shock would allow the valve to move back up the inner tube at static height and then that would allow the car to settle down more.

just like discussing these things with other suspension experts lol

i read and re-read this a few times. LOL gets confusing. Front is easy to visualize how the whole system works, rear takes alot of my brain cells HAHA.

This is just my understanding of how suspension works.
The front shocks have preload abililty which is just pre compressing the spring even before the car is on the ground, but that spring will push against the shock hat, tugging on the shaft

The rear struts need to be set up in such a way at static load with wheels on ground that the shaft has enough travel both up and down without bottoming out. I measured static shaft length, compared that to how much shaft is left with car on ground, and calculate at max load how much more the shaft will travel. Then i adjust the strut height accordingly, making sure that with wheels off ground the spring and perches don't fall out.