Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

[NORCAL SS]

Well after years of toying I think im going to pick up my typhoon here shortly.

Now question is out of the sportmachines and jsm coilover conversion which is a better way to go?

Also looking at the Proforged Heavy Duty Steering Component Upgrade Kit.

The rear will be simple belltech leafs and belltech street performance shocks.

 

[SYCLONE#1531]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

Good luck with your Typhoon.

You can also check with Calvert racing for your rear springs. Just purchased their entire rear suspension kit. Monoleafs, shocks, and caltracs.

 

[Damian]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

JSM just came out with their setup recently. I have the Sportmachines AFCO coilovers in the front. If I could do it all over again, JSM would have my money.

 

[Sean Krupa]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I run the Sportmachines AFCO Coilovers in the Front with stock arms. The Spring is 3" in Diameter which is rather large for the width of the shock tower. Massaging of that is needed along with grinding which a lot of people ask about. I've been in Ty's with QA1s in the Front and drove the same.

I'd like to try the JSM setup with the Viking Double Adjustable Coilover setup since the Springs are smaller.

 

[JSM]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I designed the kit both myself and sportmachines sell back in early 2000's. We differ on shock and hardware options. The arms themselves are identical unless Tom has made some changes I am not aware of.

Either vendor will provide great support.

 

[HighPerformanceTrucks]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I'm still on the fence on both the front and rear kits as they are currently offered. The upper mounting points of a stock truck were originally designed by GM to handle shock dampening load not as support points for suspending the chassis above the axles. Unsure of the long term consequences of repeated suspension cycling particularly during spirited driving or racing use.

Originally my truck had the PEP kit which resulted in a front suspension collapse due to the lower coilover mount contacting the CV shaft. The failure was caused by poor suspension geometry and urethane bushing compliancy and subsequent component interference. The mounting angle of the coil over was not ideal, so we ended up scrapping the PEP kit altogether.

Our situation is a bit unique since we road race the truck hard and the loads are typically higher than most street driven trucks.

We ended up building a one off front/rear suspension with custom pick up points that were engineered to support the loads and distribute the load properly through throughout the chassis to prevent/minimize chassis flex/distortion as well as optimize suspension travel and ensure suspension cycling/travel would not result in unwanted binding or sheer loads. Of course we had to fortify the chassis around the suspension mounting points as well to prevent further chassis flex.

After some hard testing some infant mortality reared its ugly head and we made several modifications to improve the design including converting to delrin bushings that eliminated most of the deflection and then ultimately to spherical bearings since the truck wasn't going to see much street use and I wasn't too concerned about noise transfer into the cabin.

We also determined the loads on the lower a-arm started to bend the mounting face where the lower ball joint attaches, so we added gussets to strengthen the area. All tubing was boxed in and we used conical spaces on either side of the spherical bearings to distribute the load properly as well as converted to uniball for the upper a-arm/spindle attachment point. We also modified the upper a-arm to allow for increased caster.

I have raced the truck hard without any further issues since these improvements.

I am certainly not knocking the current suspension kits being offered to the Sy/Ty community, but I am curious to know if anyone has experienced problems after long term hard use.

I picked up another Syclone recently which will be driven spiritedly as a street truck only and don't want to have to alter or modify the stock chassis in the event I were to revert the truck back to stock.

My race Syclone is simply not practical for daily driving anymore and I really miss the days where I could daily drive my Syclone including road trips out of town.

I am considering purchasing one of these kits as an economical alternative to custom fabrication which requires permanently altering the chassis.

Any input is appreciated. Thank you!

 

[liquidswords88]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I was considering doing the coil over setup on my ty. I did a whole bunch of research, looking for the same answers. I could not find a single person that had a failure, under normal driving. That being said, I am still running the stock torsion bar setup. Looking at the shock mounting points, I would not ever dream of placing the entire load there. I thought about capping the original mount with some plate steel, and extending the "cap" length wise on the rear of the frame to try to spread the load out. Again from what I have seen, nobody on here has had a failure from the coil over setup.

 

[TYTILIDIE]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

There has been a cracked shock tower or two if I remember right. Renz made a brace for it but I don't believe it addressed lateral stress. I'm sure it helps though.

I only got to put about 10,000 miles on my Ty with the coil overs and love them but definitely did not get to put severe stress on them since I do all street driving and rarely got to race anyone through turns.

 

[JSM]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I don't want to give an unbiased opinion, so will try here.

I have yet to see any cracking proof of the shock towers. When I ask for pictures I get silence. Not saying it hasn't happened, and that GM quality didn't vary significantly I just have yet to see any proof beyond "rumor".

I have built and sold I am guessing 50 kits. I know of 1 truck with 100k miles on my product without issue. I suspect if anyone of my customers had any issues a large percentage of them would contact me directly. To date I have had ZERO customers contact me with any failures or cracks of any kind.

As to the flange, I did some testing back in around 2004 time frame and my prototypes did bend. Being a test truck and prototype I abused it to find flaws. With that issue I made 2 changes to the design to combat that and as stated has not been an issue since. I will say someone that copied a portion of my design created a defect I saw in my testing and fixed. (NOT SM) That happens though when any companies R&D department is RIPOFF AND DUPLICATE. One thing I personal do is test all my own products in house before anything is released. We design, test, and manufacture it here.

If someone has info to contradict what I said and it involves my arms I would very much like that information. jsmachineandfab@gmail.com

 

[0966Sy]

I have had a JSM kit on my Ty sense 06 and it has been the best bang for buck I've done to the truck besides the BS3. I have the QA1's and did not have to grind much inside the shock tower. I've put my truck through years of daily driving, drag racing, previously some pretty intense 16mile road racing courses. Multiple alignments, at least 4, still on the moog suspension components I used with the original install and ploy bushings. I frequently check my front end parts when I do oil changes. I've had to replace the front HUBs, but otherwise a outstanding kit.

I've seen 3 RPM kits and have installed 1, nothing but issues with the springs and spacers hitting the shock body even when loaded properly. I haven't been told a real fix for this other than replacing the spring and spacer combo with a new longer spring similar to the JSM design.

Sense all the QA1 and hypercoil setups, the Viking shocks stand out the most to me vs the original QA1/hypercoil setup. I have a RPM setup I'll be changing out to the Viking setup shortly and will report my results. I'm not knocking the arms, just the shock/spring combo just doesn't jive.

I've also recently installed a SM kit with the AFCO shocks and springs and think the OD of the spring is way to big for the tower. I'm not a fan of the afco shocks/springs. Way to close tolerances vs the QA1's and Vikings. The arms are quality, just was not happy with the fitment of the shocks. Makes for a difficult install and the OD of the shock body does not match the ID of the spring. There is a 1/4 gap on each side which allows for the spring to ride on one side of the spring cup/perch and put the spring in a bind/curve when loaded. I wasn't pleased with the decision to use that combo.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents. And I hope to hear more regarding people fixing there issues with the RPM shocks and afcos provided in the SM kit. I know the Vikings have been integrated into all three of the applications, I'd like to hear what shock and spring people are using with the Viking setup.

 

[HighPerformanceTrucks]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

This is good to hear. Thank you all for the input.

 

[0966Sy]

Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I'm bumping this thread back to veer off subject a bit. It's seems after a basic search I have been unable to find a part# for a replacement QA1 shock for my 10yr old JSM kit with hypercoil springs. I was under the truck doing some regular PM maintenance and found the right front shock leaking. No big deal as I put those old shocks through hell before I parked it a couple years ago. All those hard left turns maybe did it in. Looking for a part number for the matching QA1 so I can swap it out. All the info is much appreciated. I fellow SyTy'r with a RPM setup gave me a number but he wasn't 100%, just looking for some more info.

 

[SEL777]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I'm bumping this thread back to veer off subject a bit. It's seems after a basic search I have been unable to find a part# for a replacement QA1 shock for my 10yr old JSM kit with hypercoil springs. I was under the truck doing some regular PM maintenance and found the right front shock leaking. No big deal as I put those old shocks through hell before I parked it a couple years ago. All those hard left turns maybe did it in. Looking for a part number for the matching QA1 so I can swap it out. All the info is much appreciated. I fellow SyTy'r with a RPM setup gave me a number but he wasn't 100%, just looking for some more info. The number I have is a DS501

Why not send it back to get rebuilt?

 

[0966Sy]

Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

I measured the shock today, I'll be contacting QA1 tomorrow to get the part number for a replacement. The DS501 as pictured above is incorrect, Jeff did provide me the part number to the Viking shock he uses which is a C205.

I'll be updating another truck with RPM arms and QA1's over to the Vikings soon and will report my results. As for now I'm just looking for a replacement for my Ty. The QA1's have served me well these last 10 years.

The specs on the QA1 (measured from center eyelet on each end, as QA1 suggested)

Collapsed 10"
Extended 13.75"
1/2" bolt hole
1" bore for mounting bosses

Update, QA1 replacement is DS401

 

[Mephisto]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

Quick question on any of these coil over setups... the stock front sway bar mounts on the underside of the stock a-arms, does the front sway bar still mount up to the coil over a-arms or are these kits so bad ass that we just remove that sway bar and throw it away?

I've looked on JSM, Sportmachines, and RPM and from the limited amount of pics I can't tell if there's a mount for the sway bar.

My stock bar is in pretty shabby shape could use some new bushings and some clean up... but I didn't want to waste my time on it if it's not needed with the coil overs.

Can anyone confirm or deny its use in this setup?

 

[Beavis]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

sway mounted to the bottom of the Sportmachine arms I just installed on my Ty.

 

[Damian]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

Quick question on any of these coil over setups... the stock front sway bar mounts on the underside of the stock a-arms, does the front sway bar still mount up to the coil over a-arms or are these kits so bad ass that we just remove that sway bar and throw it away?

I've looked on JSM, Sportmachines, and RPM and from the limited amount of pics I can't tell if there's a mount for the sway bar.

My stock bar is in pretty shabby shape could use some new bushings and some clean up... but I didn't want to waste my time on it if it's not needed with the coil overs.

Can anyone confirm or deny its use in this setup?

They all have the swaybar mount. Mario has a full JSM kit for a Ty at his shop. The Viking shocks are a million times better than my AFCOs.

 

[Mephisto]

Re: Sportmachines front coilovers vs jsm??

Thanks for confirming guys! ...and yeah definitely going viking.