jdmfiend

i need to drop the rear a lot more than the front. thinking #2 pads in the rear and 3 in the front. the rear has about an inch or so gap but because the wheels arnt flushed with the fender, im not looking to tuck tire.

rear;



front;


how much does each spring pad lower, 1-4?
=)

mgw_300e

do a search. I was talking to Chris (?) recently about this same topic. I can't remember the answer, though.

jdmfiend

its weird bc i did search. i was in class when i made this thread. came up with nothing. =(

chris! where art thou?!

natural_person

Ryan, your car looks beautiful! Congratulations! Modded but discreet, veeeery nice.

The spring pad thicknesses are: 8 mm, 13 mm, 18 mm, 23 mm, corresponding to 1,2,3, and 4 bumps.

Now the spring pads, and the springs, are not at the tire edges, but at about halfway between the pivot point and the tire edges. That means there is a multiplication or leverage factor involved. I found that for a change in 5 mm results in about a 7-8 mm (1 inch = 25.4mm) change at the tire edge.

Hope that helps!

perzbenz

just put 1's

jdmfiend

thx bro.
how many mm do you think a 1 pad will drop compared to a 2 pad.
how does the thickness differ from the drop given?
im assuming the #1 pad is 8mm thick, but how much would that lower the car more than the stock pad.

ashman

I believe it is either 5 or 8mm per pad in difference.

I believe they start at 8 and go up to 23 mm. not 100% sure.

May want to search on mercedesshop there is probably a post on there.

you can also check the fastlane on mercedesshop they are called spring shims or something like that, and I believe it has the mm measurements.

mgw_300e

Sounds like about 7-8mm difference.
Think of a wheelbarrow, you have to lift the handles pretty far to get the feet off the ground so you can roll it. The farther away you get from the pivot point, the more you have to rotate to achieve the same angle difference as you would if you were closer to the pivot point. In this case, the spring pad is much closer to the pivot point (where the suspension meets the body) than the hub of the wheel is, which means that if a 8mm pad produces a X degree change in the suspension angle, then farther out on the suspension arm, the same degree change is happening. But, because it's farther away from the pivot point, the distance the arm has moved to produce the same angle is actually farther.

I'm starting to confuse myself now...

Just remember that suspension travels in an arc, not in straight lines.

Wait, here's another analogy:

Picture your trunk lid. When you open it it moves maybe 3 feet upwards (the part where the lic. plate is) But if you had a trunk that was 15 feet long, then if you opened it to the same angle as the first trunk, the plate would be like 10 feet in the air.

Am I making sense to anyone here, cause i think I've actually UNLEARNED geometry now.

jdmfiend

hahahah matt i get the concept. but i just wanted to know if anyone knows the exact mm difference each pad brings it down as opposed to stock.
but yeah, i get what youre sayin. haha

mgw_300e

so when do I get to see your car in person?

mgw_300e

Figures, I'm wasting my time again...

At least I'm becoming a faster typer

mgw_300e

PS - ghey secks

CDP

Ryan,

I would just got with #1's in the rear unless you want to roll without spring pads. I took out mine in the front of my car and it lowered a little.

Matt,

the only reason why you're a faster typer now is because you ***** the forums too much! get a life!! LOL jk

ashman

like I said the spring pads start at 8mm and go to 23 and there are 4 of them for the front so do the math.

8 +0 = 1 bump
8 + 5 = 13 = 2 bump
8 + 5 + 5 = 18 = 3 bump
8 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 23 = 4 bump

this is for the fronts. Rear stock goes to 3 bump only as far as I remember so

8 = 1 bump
8 + 5 = 13 = 2 bump
8 + 5 + 5 = 18 = 3 bump

I am pretty sure that is how they are. how much it will actually raise or lower the car is not something I know, but I am pretty sure the spring pads come in those sizes.

according to my check...

Product Fits

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Coil Spring Shim
Front : 8mm



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coil Spring Shim
Front : 18mm



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coil Spring Shim
Front : 13mm

so based on that we are looking at a 5mm difference between each pad.

so if 1 bump is 8 mm then the other size which are according to my list go up in 5mm increments.

mgw_300e

this coming from the guy with 3200+ posts.

It takes a ***** to know one.


PS - where's the SEMA pics?!?!?!

CDP

haha yeah but I've been a member for over two years.

I'll post the SEMA pictures later. There are a lot!

mgw_300e

Yay!!!!!

Saijin_Naib

Hey, he said no gay secks talk :| Way to **** it up matt

mgw_300e

I would have never mentioned it except he said not to.

Bigpete123

matt, I believe the concept you are discussing is called leverage.

So if you were really really curious how much a 1mm change in spring pad thicknes changes the height of the car at, say, the outer edge of the wheel arch, you would want to figure out the equation for calculating leverage.

The difficult thing is that the spring pad sits somewhere between the outer edge of the wheel and where the control arm attaches to the frame (well, I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know whether 124's have frames or unibodies, but you know what I mean).

Okay, I just got ambitious cuz this problem got me excited. See the drawing below



This is a very basic drawing of what you have. Please keep in mind I'm far from a mechanic and far from a geometrist. I'm gonna throw out a theory about how to calculate this, and I might be way off, so correct me if need be.

The issue is that an increase or a decrease at point "A" results in a larger increase or decrease at the outer edge of the wheel due to leverage... which is all we really care about in the end. In order to truly figure this out, you need to get under your car and measure two distances:

1) the distance between the pivot point where your control arm connects to the car and the inner-most edge of where the bottom of the spring sits on its perch.

2) the distance between the outer edge of your wheel and the pivot point.

In my illustration, the first distance is 12" and the total distance is 24". 12/24 is 50%. So perhaps you could conclude that a 1mm increase or decrease in spring pad thickness results in an increase or decrease of 1mm x 1.5 (a factor of 50%). Obviously these are random numbers, and this is actually more of a hypothesis than a theory (or fact). But at least it gives you a rough idea of what will happen.

Discuss.

516mbtek

agreed

YNVDIZW124

Nice drawing but the spring pad goes on top of the spring not at the bottom...

Bigpete123

Whatever, the principles are the same.

516mbtek

good call pete

mgw_300e

Pete, I ran your theory using the equation for right triangles a(squared)+b(squared)=c(squared), where c is the hypoteneuse. If b and c are doubled, then a is doubled. I'd have to do a little more work to REALLY make sure this works for all proportions and not just for 50% and 100%, but it seems at least like a good rule of thumb. If the center of the spring pad is 50% closer to the pivot point on the body than the center of the pivot point at the wheel is (like in Pete's theory), than the spring pad will have double the effect in drop (or lift, as the case may be) - meaning that a 5mm change in pad height would result in a 10mm change in drop (or lift).

The spring pads are a lot closer to the wheel than the body, so it's not really a 200% difference, but you get the idea. If someone could get some real measurements, we could do the math on this.

NOTE: If you go measure your suspension, you HAVE TO MEASURE FROM THE CENTER OF THE SPRING PAD AND THE CENTER OF THE PIVOT POINTS OR IT WON'T WORK.