Slight handling improvements on a VN V6 S

[crazybiker]

I was just speaking to Morton before, who, thankfully, completely changed my train of thought about what I was going to do.


He basically ended up suggesting that I should get whiteline swaybars front and rear.

I spoke to dad, and he reckons that the cars stiff enough, but if I did want to do something, maybe just change the rear sway bar to a whiteline bar.

What I wanted to know is, what difference will it make if I ONLY change the rear bar to the whiteline bar?

I was also suggested at pedders, that 1.2 degrees of negative camber will also do wonders. What do you guys think about that.


Thanks

[greenfoam]

Yes let the suspension guys setup the castor and camber the best they can on the stock setup then get heavier swaybars, your FE2 springs will be allready pretty good so that's all you should need (but I would get both bars so they are matched and you don't upset the handling of the car). That setup wont be over the top and should be more stable and safer than the factory fe2 setup you have (which itself is 100 times better than stock)

[crazybiker]

That's what I thought about the swaybars.

Though with the camber, I'm not sure if -1.2 is too much that'll start causing bad inside tyre wear.

Is FE2 really that much of a difference? Pedders said they're atroscious actually.

[neet_wagon]

Don't listen to pedders.
Fe2 is, like greenfoam said, 100% better than the stock set-up. Getting just the rear done will increase rear stiffness (obviously) will increase the chance of oversteer occuring, whereas getting both will keep the car neutral or slightly understeer-y which is how cars should be set-up.

Pedders are crap, and will cost you a fortune.

[crazybiker]

Thought FE2 was pretty good. The guy tried to argue that mine didn't even have FE2, even though it says it on the complicance plates.

Yeah, I definitely don't want the car oversteering anymore, it does it a bit too regularly as it is.

Don't know how good pedders products are, but I know they're cheaper for me. The guy at the pedders I go to, gives me discounts, so I'm happy about that.

[wortus]

I agree don't listen to Pedders there just there to try and sell you a whole lot of stuff that in effect will not do much and also tell you a lot of stuff like rubbers etc need replacement when they are perfectly roadworthy. I know they have tried it on me twice from 2 different Pedders. If you make the sway bars stiffer your going to increase understeer. FE2 front sway bar is actually slightly thinner than the standard one and from memory the only other difference other than the springs is the stiffness of the bushes in at least one of the upper rear control arms. Early VN's had 2 differnet types of bearing plates but later on the STD one was deleted and they all had the same as FE2.
Why don't you just try the Nolothane sway bar links with the shaped bushes and bent arm there supposed to make a big improvement.

[greenfoam]

There's only one good setting on the factory strut top plate and you can pretty easily stick it in that spot yourself (the one that gives you both the most castor and camber) and then get a wheel alignment to a good setting and your done

[crazybiker]

What figures should I get the front end adjusted at?

[greenfoam]

You can't adjust them much, you can only spin the strut top around a few spots, you want it so the top of the strut is both the furthest in and toward the window it can go. That's the best position, chances are that it's allready in that spot but you can check. With the wheel alignment just ask for something sporting, if they are any good they will know what works on commodores and what to do

[crazybiker]

Well, I'll head to pedders and get that done once I've come to a final decision about swaybars, and install them.

[creesy]

I installed a strutbrace from whiteline and noticed a small difference in handling corners and takeoff speed maybe try that

[crazybiker]

already got the strut brace. That made a huge difference

[Shearer]

I still favour adjustable strut tops more then the factory ones. There is more freedom of adjustment too. If come across a good wheel aligner that listens to their customers, get them to put more caster in, that makes difference in the way car tracks on the road.

[Shearer]

I still favour adjustable strut tops more then the factory ones. There is more freedom of adjustment too. If come across a good wheel aligner that listens to their customers, get them to put more caster in, that makes difference in the way car tracks on the road.

<Double post..:/ >

[crazybiker]

Well, I've pretty much decided that the swaybars is what I'm going to do, though only when I get the money (Thanks to morton), and get a camber change soon.

I found out the sizes I'm getting on the sway bars, 27MM (Heavy Duty) front bars, and 20MM (Heavy Duty) rears, from whiteline. I also just got the vernier out and found the size out on mine, and they are 25.45MM on the front and 19.6MM on the rear.

What I'm asking is, will those minimal 1.55MM, and 0.4MM changed, front and rear respectively, make that much of a difference?

I'll head to pedders in the next couple of days, and see what price they can do for me with my discount.