Strut damage

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At about stock ride height there was 5 inches of droop in front meaning it's on bump stops at static and only 2 inches of droop in rear.

This sounds consistent with another car around here running those, except instead of running the fronts near the bump stops they are jacked up pretty high. Makes the car look a little odd. (GC impreza).. I'll see if I can find some pictures.

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This isn't floor mat anarchy

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NoCoast
Front and rear side by side.
Rear top pins looked weird. A little hourglassy almost.
Interesting that the rears are same length as the fronts.

Is that what you call it?

I call it sumpin else.

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At about stock ride height there was 5 inches of droop in front meaning it's on bump stops at static and only 2 inches of droop in rear.

(groan)

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They should be on their way to John today along with the bent pin insert out of Merkur.

OK. we spoke on the phone, easy job on the repair of the threaded part...
A bit more involved is setting right what somebody couldn't figure out when copying stuff and seeing what guess was made at valving..

He said the fronts are all sunk down and the rears jacked way up with nearly no droop, that is just flat wrong, somebody should be embarrassed.

We'll get it right.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

speaking of damaged struts and getting them fixed.

Any chance you'll be able to cut off that stuck spring perch, and slap on that temp replacement spring perch and send it out to me Before North Nevada ?? (the rally that is in 10 days) Ideally you could do this NOW, send it out today, and I'll have time to install the coilover, correct my ride height And get an alignment. (I'll be able to run the event on jvabs either way) But i would prefer to raise the car back up a little bit. NNR is usually good for a random rock or two. esp the Friday night stages... there's 1 small section that ruts up a bit .. its all soft sandy stuff and smaller rocks if not...

I'm planning on taking aparts all my coilovers this weekend and greasing them back up. Hopefully only the 1 front is stuck.. (i have 3 corners that Do still adjust, or at least they did prior to HDT & Idaho)

Oh i'll be getting some uber top notch coilover covers before NNR. I'm actually tempted to only run 3 of them so i can see how much dirt/ debris they keep out... (thinking i would leave the corner that is stuck, un covered) But i'm not sure about that silly idea yet...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2012 01:19PM by A1337STI.

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A1337STI
speaking of damaged struts and getting them fixed.

Any chance you'll be able to cut off that stuck spring perch, and slap on that temp replacement spring perch and send it out to me Before North Nevada ?? (the rally that is in 10 days) Ideally you could do this NOW, send it out today, and I'll have time to install the coilover, correct my ride height And get an alignment. (I'll be able to run the event on jvabs either way) But i would prefer to raise the car back up a little bit. NNR is usually good for a random rock or two. esp the Friday night stages... there's 1 small section that ruts up a bit .. its all soft sandy stuff and smaller rocks if not...

I'm planning on taking aparts all my coilovers this weekend and greasing them back up. Hopefully only the 1 front is stuck.. (i have 3 corners that Do still adjust, or at least they did prior to HDT & Idaho)

Oh i'll be getting some uber top notch coilover covers before NNR. I'm actually tempted to only run 3 of them so i can see how much dirt/ debris they keep out... (thinking i would leave the corner that is stuck, un covered) But i'm not sure about that silly idea yet...

get 'em here.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

will do =)

I can send you 2 fronts with stuck perches (after nnr) 1 of them is on the car and the other is my spare.. hehehe



I think once i can raise the front 3/8 an inch, and i do the same to the rear i wont need the helper springs in the back.

http://www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?46349-Ojibwe-results&p=420528#post420528

Scott ended up having to borrow some DMS 50s as the new/repaired stuff wasn't back from JVAB in time.

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Grant Hughes

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NoCoast
http://www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?46349-Ojibwe-results&p=420528#post420528

Scott ended up having to borrow some DMS 50s as the new/repaired stuff wasn't back from JVAB in time.

IS THIS:

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Somehow I tapped a tree ever so slightly that it gave me a tiny dent on the rear quarter panel, but knocked the lens off the taillight. Housing is still intact. o_O

A strut ripping from the strut mount (nut stripped right off the strut) ended any chances of being competitive for us. Had to limp through stage 4 and 5 to get back to service, lost over 9 minutes. Was able to swap in a new strut assembly and back out having some fun.

Whatchoo linking too? Too fucking bad you can't like cut and paste so we don't have to clink and link..
I demand instant results, grant, why can't I see instantly what you mean?

IF that is what you are linkining to, then there is definately a problem with this guy being some sorta savage.
His strut tops from that evil guy were all damaged on the top mount pin threads, now he has a second brand strip the pin threads..
Problem has to be him..

Oh and tubes not done at the platers. Grrrr.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
alosix
This sounds consistent with another car around here running those, except instead of running the fronts near the bump stops they are jacked up pretty high. Makes the car look a little odd. (GC impreza).. I'll see if I can find some pictures.

They end up looking like this:


The overall lengths don't seem correct, the fronts are too long.

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.

That link goes directly to the relevant post...

Here's another...

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It was really weird. I thought I just hit something hard enough it punched through the Subaru Group N tophats, but nope, they were in perfect shape. It is All Wheels Driven coils. Already in contact with Barrett to figure out what went wrong, as it lasted through 100AW and some RallyX's just fine. Dampers and such were great on the roads, just until it fell out.

That could have been Scott. Odd that Scott's dampers had 100AW and a few rallyX's on them.

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Grant Hughes

That's me. Same forum name throughout. Not hiding.

When I get home I'll post up some detailed pictures. Strut mount is in perfect condition (Subaru Group N ones) but it appears the nut just plain ripped right off. Didn't hit any big jumps (backed off on the !! Big Jump on Stage 2), hit a few rocks, but nothing serious, was keeping it clean since I had seen SO many cars off on stage earlier. About a mile or two before the end of stage 3 (ran it before it was red crossed) I felt a strong pull to the right. Thought it was just a flat that had finally popped up from a rock we hit a few miles back, and kept in it until the end of the stage. Control crew said all my tires were fine. Pulled out of control and got out of the car to see that the front right was cambered out at 20*.

Jacked the car up quickly and saw the strut had fallen out. Thought it punched through my strut top like it did on some KYB AGX's I had at Perryville after my wreck (old stock rubber mounts) but when I opened the hood was very suprised to see the strut mount in perfect condition. Centered the strut into the mount and lowered the car down and babied the car through the next two stages to get to service. I ended up losing 9 minutes and essentially any chance of winning or placing in class, but didn't get a DNF.

Swapped in one of my spare KYB's that I had in 5 minutes and went back out in a weird handling, but still fun to drive car. The roads out there are incredible.

Anyways. Just about to step outside to get on the phone with Barrett to discuss the issue.

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MConte05
That's me. Same forum name throughout. Not hiding.

When I get home I'll post up some detailed pictures. Strut mount is in perfect condition (Subaru Group N ones) but it appears the nut just plain ripped right off. Didn't hit any big jumps (backed off on the !! Big Jump on Stage 2), hit a few rocks, but nothing serious, was keeping it clean since I had seen SO many cars off on stage earlier. About a mile or two before the end of stage 3 (ran it before it was red crossed) I felt a strong pull to the right. Thought it was just a flat that had finally popped up from a rock we hit a few miles back, and kept in it until the end of the stage. Control crew said all my tires were fine. Pulled out of control and got out of the car to see that the front right was cambered out at 20*.

Jacked the car up quickly and saw the strut had fallen out. Thought it punched through my strut top like it did on some KYB AGX's I had at Perryville after my wreck (old stock rubber mounts) but when I opened the hood was very suprised to see the strut mount in perfect condition. Centered the strut into the mount and lowered the car down and babied the car through the next two stages to get to service. I ended up losing 9 minutes and essentially any chance of winning or placing in class, but didn't get a DNF.

Swapped in one of my spare KYB's that I had in 5 minutes and went back out in a weird handling, but still fun to drive car. The roads out there are incredible.

Anyways. Just about to step outside to get on the phone with Barrett to discuss the issue.

OH, OK so you're yet another guy who had threads on Barretts struts die..

Well, there's a lot more problems than that...there's solutions though..

Would you like to see some photos of what the problems in the basic design ---for which there's some possibility to solve---are, and comparisons?
Piccies speak clearly

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
KTurner

Quote
alosix
This sounds consistent with another car around here running those, except instead of running the fronts near the bump stops they are jacked up pretty high. Makes the car look a little odd. (GC impreza).. I'll see if I can find some pictures.

They end up looking like this:


The overall lengths don't seem correct, the fronts are too long.

Yup that's it, and yet not even the other 2 cars I was thinking of. Amusing since I know the car in the pic as well.

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This isn't floor mat anarchy

Lets everyone be perfectly clear whose car and whose struts are having issues. No one should get hurt feelings but it gets a bit confusing for old people (me) to follow the trail of broken parts.

If Barrets struts are stripping tops then we need to know, his customers need to know, I need to take an extra peek at Olympus during tech.

Parts, designs, materials can all fail... otherwise guys like me would have nothing to do all day long.

Scott's were Barrett struts that on first disassembly looked as pictured in the first post. Scott's appeared to us to have been stripped then rethreaded and top mount modified to make it work.
Matt's were Barrett's and failed on stage. However, I have seen this exact thing happen before on different struts so am not saying or implying that it had the same issue Scott's did just that it may be worth looking at the other top pins to see if they do.
Matt's strut did what Scott was afraid his would do if he tried to ignore the stripping and ran them at Ojibwe. Oddly pre-Ojibwe both had 100AW and some RallyX on their cars.

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Grant Hughes

Not to troll here but it looks like the nuts were over tightend. Maybe used an impact or something. I would hope the springs were backed off and they didnt try tightning up the top hats with spring pressure on them.

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First rally 2013
Rally car type AWD subaru
Total rallies as driver 6
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Total rally cars repaired from offs 4
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