Shock terminology

#1. Drag race shocks have compression and extension. No rebound.
#2. No matter if the shock is upside down or right side up the knobs do the same thing.
#3. Single adjustable shocks only adjust extension. Unless ordered differently.

whatbumper wrote:#1.  Drag race shocks have compression and extension.  No rebound.
#2.  No matter if the shock is upside down or right side up the knobs do the same thing.
#3.  Single adjustable shocks only adjust extension.  Unless ordered differently.

#1 It kinda depends on the shock maker. IIRC Koni still calls it bump & rebound even on the SPA-1 drag stuff.

#3 Can also depend on the age of the shock/technology too. IIRC the old steel bodied AVO's "single adjustable" shocks had a single knob that adjusted both extension valving (much larger % per click) & compression valving (much smaller % per click) at the same time. At first you think "hey that's gonna be kinda helpful"........but in actual use it was a PITA.

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

whatbumper wrote:#1.  Drag race shocks have compression and extension.  No rebound.
#2.  No matter if the shock is upside down or right side up the knobs do the same thing.
#3.  Single adjustable shocks only adjust extension.  Unless ordered differently.

#1 It kinda depends on the shock maker. IIRC Koni still calls it bump & rebound even on the SPA-1 drag stuff.

#3 Can also depend on the age of the shock/technology too. IIRC the old steel bodied AVO's "single adjustable" shocks had a single knob that adjusted both extension valving (much larger % per click) & compression valving (much smaller % per click) at the same time. At first you think "hey that's gonna be kinda helpful"........but in actual use it was a PITA.

I know one of the Koni engineers. They don't like their drag type stuff at all but keep it because there is so much aftermarket support. They keep the same lingo inter nelly and on literature because he says most of their people believe a shock is for controlling a tire on a rough road. They feel that compression/extension would confuse them more than help the aftermarket. Chris Bell, McAmis, Bickel, and Jones are the majority of the aftermarket support that the company recognizes and they all use the compression/extension names because it keeps all tuners on the same page.

Those multi variable orifices sucked. That's why everyone changed.

But I do agree, my list are not facts. I was just on the phone all day explaining one of my builds to a person who bought a car from a customer and I couldn't get him on the same page at all. It didn't help that my Texas accent was a barrier too since he's from Canada.

He took it to a big time tuner in the northern US and they managed to take a car that went 1.15-1.16 60' and 3.12 to the 330 on 28x10.5 slicks and slowed it down to mid 1.20's and mid 3.20's. Said our setup was all wrong and went to work. All I can say is hmmm.

Nothing like working for the public !

I've got a set of older Koni 8211's on my car.  Not even sure if they make them anymore.  This is the normal SPA1 double adjustable.  The 8212 is the aluminum body that is still their std drag shock.  The 8211 is the same internally but with a nickle plated steel body.  Weigh 11 oz more per shock but a little cheaper and ok for when minimum weight is not a concern.  They were on the car when I got it.

They work and don't leak but just wondering if there is anything to gain (or lose ET wise) be going to a modern AFCO, etc.  I can say they ARE a pain to adjust on the extension with their "sweeps" using an allen wrench in a hole to turn the whole shock top a little at a time vs simply turning a knob.

I'm going to give you the tuner speech instead of the salesman speech.

If they are working the only way to see if something is better is to test it but that cost a lot of money if nothing changes.

Now, the salesman in me will say yes they are MUCH better but that would not be telling the truth IF they are working sufficiently. The AFCO's are very easy to adjust and we can make them in ANY configuration so don't limit yourself to what you see in a magazine or catalog.

I tune a mustang drag radial car in a power limited class with out of the box QA1 shocks that runs 1.08-1.10 60's every pass and the front shocks had their knobs broke off years ago but don't leak. Would we be able to tune easier with good shocks, YES. But as you can see they are working pretty well.

whatbumper wrote:I'm going to give you the tuner speech instead of the salesman speech.  

If they are working the only way to see if something is better is to test it but that cost a lot of money if nothing changes.  

Now, the salesman in me will say yes they are MUCH better but that would not be telling the truth IF they are working sufficiently.  The AFCO's are very easy to adjust and we can make them in ANY configuration so don't limit yourself to what you see in a magazine or catalog.  

I tune a mustang drag radial car in a power limited class with out of the box QA1 shocks that runs 1.08-1.10 60's every pass and the front shocks had their knobs broke off years ago but don't leak.  Would we be able to tune easier with good shocks, YES.  But as you can see they are working pretty well.

that sounds like the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" speech!

whatbumper wrote:..........I was just on the phone all day explaining one of my builds to a person who bought a car from a customer and I couldn't get him on the same page at all..........He took it to a big time tuner in the northern US and they managed to take a car that went 1.15-1.16 60' and 3.12 to the 330 on 28x10.5 slicks and slowed it down to mid 1.20's and mid 3.20's.  Said our setup was all wrong and went to work.  All I can say is hmmm.

That's why I usually go overboard here & often type many/multiple ways of phrasing things (like typing extension/rebound & compression/bump) hoping to cover all the bases. Or I try to remember to type from which direction I'm counting shock clicks/sweeps from since not everyone starts counting from the same point (full-loose vs full-tight). Or when adding vs removing preload & remembering to mention which side (driver vs passenger) to use vs which action (adding vs removing) since not everyone uses the same side of the rear suspension for adjusting preload.

But yea, even that doesn't guarantee everyone is going to be on the same page every time.

whatbumper wrote:

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

whatbumper wrote:#1.  Drag race shocks have compression and extension.  No rebound.
#2.  No matter if the shock is upside down or right side up the knobs do the same thing.
#3.  Single adjustable shocks only adjust extension.  Unless ordered differently.

#1 It kinda depends on the shock maker. IIRC Koni still calls it bump & rebound even on the SPA-1 drag stuff.

#3 Can also depend on the age of the shock/technology too. IIRC the old steel bodied AVO's "single adjustable" shocks had a single knob that adjusted both extension valving (much larger % per click) & compression valving (much smaller % per click) at the same time. At first you think "hey that's gonna be kinda helpful"........but in actual use it was a PITA.

He took it to a big time tuner in the northern US and they managed to take a car that went 1.15-1.16 60' and 3.12 to the 330 on 28x10.5 slicks and slowed it down to mid 1.20's and mid 3.20's.  Said our setup was all wrong and went to work.  All I can say is hmmm.

Spill it. NY, Maine, hmmmmm

yellowhorse7 wrote:

whatbumper wrote:

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

whatbumper wrote:#1.  Drag race shocks have compression and extension.  No rebound.
#2.  No matter if the shock is upside down or right side up the knobs do the same thing.
#3.  Single adjustable shocks only adjust extension.  Unless ordered differently.

#1 It kinda depends on the shock maker. IIRC Koni still calls it bump & rebound even on the SPA-1 drag stuff.

#3 Can also depend on the age of the shock/technology too. IIRC the old steel bodied AVO's "single adjustable" shocks had a single knob that adjusted both extension valving (much larger % per click) & compression valving (much smaller % per click) at the same time. At first you think "hey that's gonna be kinda helpful"........but in actual use it was a PITA.

He took it to a big time tuner in the northern US and they managed to take a car that went 1.15-1.16 60' and 3.12 to the 330 on 28x10.5 slicks and slowed it down to mid 1.20's and mid 3.20's.  Said our setup was all wrong and went to work.  All I can say is hmmm.

Spill it. NY, Maine, hmmmmm

Not going to do that. He was just using a different strategy and wanted to change a bunch of stuff. Called and I emailed him time slips and I bet he's still scratching his head.