Hello, when restoring the 308QV '85 I removed the front shocks and took out the Kona schockabsorbers. Then a saw that the left spring is about 1inch (2,5 cm) shorter than the right one. Is this normal with a Ferrari? And if not, what can be cause? New spring? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Definitely not normal They should be equivalently even, I know the euro car springs are shorter than the US car. But I think it’s totally different Springs because the one on the left has 12 coils and the one on the right only has 11 coils
Fronts and Rears are also different free lengths (we just had a case of a 328 getting wrongly assembled with the longer rear springs used at the front: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/1986-328-gts-front-ride-height-too-high-after-full-rebuild.703550/#post-150020599). Or maybe the car had one spring replaced and someone wanting a front spring got sold a longer rear spring. Front and rear springs are actually matched in pairs side-to-side for having a certain load at the working length so the free length may be slightly different -- but not 2,5 cm different.
It’s hard for me to see the difference in turns (coils). Looks the same to me. One is rotated a little. And the one on the right looks like it has some preload? The spacing between the coils is different which makes me think one has some preload or the damper is binding.
The shock on the right does look more compressed to me. I don't know if it's 2.5cm lower, but compare the bottom of the "dust boot" on both shocks. - Dave
That shock is probably just less tired than the other one. When I put in new Konis... those suckers open up with just a little gravity, unlike the ones I took off which were basically not moving at all unless you pulled on them.
