Project SC300 Road Racer: Part 29 – You’re in Figs Army now.
close up of bottom of shocks showing compression adjuster embedded in body
On this particular configuration of the 7500DA shock, the compression damping is adjusted at the bottom.

 

shock upper mounting plate with three studs and central shock shaft sticking out
The rebound is adjusted up top by sticking a hex key down in the shaft. This damper configuration is a “shaft mount” design, in Penske terms.

On both the front and rear dampers, a standard (SAE/imperial) hex wrench is used to make the adjustment damping. Which is sort of annoying, because almost everything else on this car is metric. I guess I’ll make a dedicated damper toolkit.

The compression adjustment is a “click”-type, with 40 defined positions. The shaft mount rebound adjustment is infinitely variable, with 4 1/2 turns/rotations across the range. Penske recommends making adjustments 1/4 turn at a time.

FIGS designs and manufactures the top plates for the front and rear in-house. They feature really sexy studs and a custom fit spherical bearing to allow the damper body to move around as the suspension articulates.

 

right rear of car with wheel off and rotor/brake showing, sitting on several jacks, with several jack stands, and tools littered about
OK, time to get started! I chose the back first.

You will want every jack that you have, and all your jack stands because you’ll need to move the suspension around quite a bit to make the removal and installation of components easier.

 

blue aluminum racing jack holding up rear suspension by knuckle, with orange lower control arm and big stoptech brake in view
Like I said – all the jacks.

Moving the knuckle up and down using the jack makes it easier to get the damper off the lower control arm. You’ll also want to make sure the swaybar is disconnected so that you’re not fighting it.

 

looking inside trunk at shock tower with fuel filler tube in foreground
Once you’ve got the shock disconnected from the lower control arm, you can unbolt it from the shock tower, and then it drops out.

Don’t forget to hold onto the coilover when you’re unbolting it or it will fall out!

1 comment

  1. Those Penskes are nice, but pricey. A set of 4-way adjustable ones for my FR-S is like $11k! Definitely a pro-user setup.

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