Great write up.

I have the KW V3 too. With the bump and rebound adjustments you can dial in the ride you like. I replaced the KW springs with H&Rs with 700F/1000R for track duty, still rides pretty good on the street.

 

Do you remember the dimensions of the springs you got? I'd like to change my springs as well.

 

The fronts are 100mm in length and 60mm ID. Not 100% sure about the length for the rears, but they are 60mm ID also.


Look at the RF series of springs from H&R.

 

nice write up. those KWs look sweeeeet. hows the ride?

 

So far I really like it. I did notice the rear end bounced a little bit today. I need to take it to a shop that really knows suspension and have them help me set it up.


I'm very impressed with the quality though. I can tell they are already a big improvement.

 

Right now I set them in the middle. I don't want to go really extreme either way.


I did notice a big improvement over the H&R Springs. Car feels more planted and I'm still low. I did the springs mainly to just improve ride height and get away from the 4x4 look.

 

Thanks. Did you keep the tender spring in the rear?

That bounce may be from have the coilovers set too low. I know mine were way too low out of the box.

 

I know the fronts have them. Will check tonight on the rears to be sure.

 

Make sure to have enough travel from the top of the coil overs to the bottom of the bumpstops. I had to trim mine down because the lower ride height.

 

Nice, I used the same trick of unscrewing the springs over the perches to remove the fronts as well. Seems to me this method is much easier than removing the axel nut or removing the axels from the front diff.

 

Yes. Just checked.

 

I have KW V3 on my car. Can anyone point me to some setup information? I've started with the standard recommended settings but have noticed a little bouncing on certains sections of road. I plan to do some trial and error testing when it warms up a bit. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

I used this post to help me tune my setup.

http://www.renntrack.com/forums/show...e-As-requested

 

I had KW CS.... this is the tutorial i completed when making changes.
Hope it helps you V3 guys.... never mind- the tables did not transfer over correctly. email me and i can send with table i had setup. If you need specifics i can also assist w what settings worked for me.
enrique@ebwerks.com


Adjusting Bump:

Before performing any adjustments, the valve must be closed by turning the adjuster in the full
clockwise direction or clicks. In this position, the shock will be at full hard, or “maximum power”. From
here, the adjustment range is 4 x ½ turns (2 full revolutions).
To avoid the mismatch of the dampers when actively changing settings, you should close the valve from
time to time to re-calibrate the settings from side to side.

Adjusting rebound:
The rebound adjustment is positioned in most cases at the end of the piston rod (top of strut).
1st step: Place the KW adjuster or 2mm allen key on the adjustment tab/allen bolt.

2nd step: Turn the adjuster clockwise until it stops. This is now adjusted to full hard (clockwise=harder).

3rd step: Turn the KW adjuster or 2mm allen key counter clockwise to soften the rebound setting to the
desired level. The effective adjustment range is from 0 - 18 clicks open.

Attention:
Never drive the vehicle with the shock absorbers set to full hard or full soft!
Never apply force to the adjusting mechanism of the shock absorber. As soon as you reach the end of the
adjustment range, you will recognize a certain resistance. Stop turning to avoid damage to the bottom
valve.

Rebound Adjusting principles:
In general a soft rebound adjustment provides a comfortable ride at low vehicle speeds but the vehicle will
have less stability at higher speeds, especially on the front axle (vehicle will tend to float at higher speeds).
A hard rebound adjustment offers more stability but could reduce vehicle grip (i.e. the vehicle will tend to
skip across road imperfections, reducing traction).

Setting
Front Left
Front Right
Rear Left
Rear Right
Soften front 4 clicks /rear 5 clicks




For rebound and 2 clicks for




compression

For those rough roads use pretty soft compression setting to begin, say 3 clicks from full soft depending on your tire, but you can at the same time keep the rebound around medium or mid+1 towards hard for good body control and to avoid the nose bumping up and down, floating around etc on freeway etc. This gives a measure of compliance and at the same time should feel really predicable yet fun in the curvy roads.

Use similar settings front and rear to begin, maybe slightly harder rebound front than rear since it's good in these cars to let the rear move a bit (more predictable and better traction). The KW baseline is very good.

So front:
Rebound 7-9 from full soft, depends on how bouncy your tires are (the bouncier the nose is the firmer you tighten rebound - it keeps the nose in check)
Compression 3-4 from full soft, test it out what gives enough compliance on the rough roads but yet doesn't make your steering feel vague.

Rear end when driven up to 90% is pretty in-sensitive and no probs to let it float around a little, usually adds a lot of body comfort with a bit soft rear and it doesn't hurt spritited driving. Only at 90% and up, racedrive style it will really matter.
Rebound 6-8 (of 14) from full soft. The less you do the more the rear will allow harder trailbraking action - until a point where the rear end just feels totally like swaying aorund.
Rear compression I'd start at 5 from full soft.

This should give pretty good comformt, yet spirited feel. , I used those as baseline for street setting and it worked great. This car was lightened a bit so if you are at stock weight you have a little more mass and may have to add 1 click at each corner. But hopefully gives you an idea how to get a nice ride.

Then for track, general rule of thumb is pretty much:
Cold, green track, low grip tires = soft compression.
Clean track, good grip, sticky tires = stiffen compression.

Don't mess to much with compression if you are unsure about what to do. Think of it as a "comfort tool" when street driving, set it where car swallows bumps well and leave it alone.

For handling (like over/understeer) instead fine tune rebound to make the car handle the way you want into and out of turns. A couple clicks here or there make big difference on traction, push, corner entry. Post up feedback and ppl in this forum incl myself will be happy to help what next clicks to make. In a couple of weeks you should have a good idea how small changes affect the car.

The separate adjustability between compression and rebound sets these shocks miles apart from other alternatives that uses combined - both for track and street.

 

Okay so this is what I use on V3s. It took a lot of trail an error to get there.
I think every car is different and you will have to go though the process as posted above. Too many variables, suspension, alignment, tires, car weight ect.

I am on a full GMG suspension, R888 tires and car weight about 3100lbs.

Bump ------------------------ Rebound
Front 1/2 turn open----------- 6 clicks open
Rear 1/4 turn open ------------ 6 clicks open

Cold tire pressure
Front 30psi
Rear 34psi