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Nivo's w/ normal springs in IRS cars

Rockmonton

Rockmonton

New member
Joined
Sep 7, 2006
Location
Yarbo, Sk
hey guys, stuck on my front IPD bar in the 88 IRS 760 today, and now it's understeer city... As it feels like it's in need of another hundred or two pounds of spring in the back, I was curious if I could use the good nivomats in combination with some of the IPD springs i've got sitting here from a conversion and stiffen things up appropriately. I am aware that it could be TOO stiff, but I quite often have the car fully loaded, and wouldn't mind the harshness too much. Any suggestions/ideas?
 
IPD springs for IRS are way to soft mate, you need hypercoil 13x5x5 for stock height or 11x5x5 for lowered about an inch and a half.

The Nivo's won't like it though.
 
I've got the springs from the conversion to normal shock configuration... hence why I was thinking of doubling them up rather than replacing the shocks with normal bilstien tourings...
 
IMO, convert from Nivo's to a normal spring/shock setup is better than mess up with improve the Nivo's.
 
well, i'll be running the conversion anyways, but without replacing the nivomats to get a much firmer ride... is there any issues with this?

basically, i'll be running the standard non-IRS spring with the nivomats...
 
What springs are they exactly? The IPD ones are too soft for anything.

Running stiffer springs with the the Nivo's can make it a bit stiffer, you should've went with the bilstien HD's like they do in the Brickboard article though.
 
I was thinking of trying something similar with my 940. The plan was to use non nevo rear springs of overloads with the nivo shocks. I wasn't sure about how they would react though and was told by a few people on the UK owneers club forum not to bother.
I think it would probably work if the running height with the new springs was that same so the nivos see that same operating range but I haven't got hold of some springs to try it.
 
ravennexus said:
the last person who ran nivo's with a normal spring setup ended up with a nice post shaped dent in the side of his car
Click to expand...

That sounds a very good reason not to do it then !
What do the nivo's actually do then, are they just to stiff. I couldn't work out what would happen. If the car was at the correct height the nivos would just act normally, any weight in the back would then be compensated for, they just wouldn't have to do so much work.
If the novos work depending on how much they are compressed then this should work, but do they work on frequency of movement as well ?

At the end of the day it's probably better to just get the correct rear shocks.
 
hah explain by "post shaped dent" I'm looking to counter some of the severe understeer caused by the front IPD sway without any roll resistance in the back.... This is also in an IRS car... so Just curious...
 
First, Erik, bring the car in and get that nasty ~1" of toe-OUT on the front corrected, then see how it feels. Then give it moar throttle through the turns. Understeer be gone!
 
of course, I still know it'll be wayyyy too loose in the back though mang. we'll see.. i guess... soon as you guys open up i'll bring it in to get the toe fixed :p
 
A while back I googled a procedure for installing the lower mount from the Nivo onto a Bilstein HD shock. It amounts to basically pushing out the lower bushing in the shock, getting the inner eyelet out of there, and stuffing the lower mount along with Billy bushing in place. I've lost the link, though.

FYI, I've got a set of '91 Previa rear springs in my 780 - not the normal Previa, but a progressive rate version. I don't know if it's the trailer towing package or what, but I've seen a couple in the JY equipped like this. They're fairly stiff - a good match for the IPD lowering coils in the front. If you've got stock springs in the front, these would give you a much stiffer rear end. Of course, you need to come up with shocks.

When I got my 780, it came with Billy HDs that had the lower eyelet chopped off and a Nivo lower eyelet welded in place. I was skeptical, but a year later and so far so good.
 
Rockmonton said:
hah explain by "post shaped dent" I'm looking to counter some of the severe understeer caused by the front IPD sway without any roll resistance in the back.... This is also in an IRS car... so Just curious...
Click to expand...

guy called nebor back in 2004 ordered the full roadholding kit for the facelifted 960. i think he ended up fitting the upgraded composite leaf spring for the rear end but kept the nivomat shocks for a short time.

back end was so stiff he lost it and side swiped a large wooden pole. thankfully hit the rear drivers side door not his door so he made it out ok. the dent was a good foot into the body
 
ravennexus said:
guy called nebor back in 2004 ordered the full roadholding kit for the facelifted 960. i think he ended up fitting the upgraded composite leaf spring for the rear end but kept the nivomat shocks for a short time.

back end was so stiff he lost it and side swiped a large wooden pole. thankfully hit the rear drivers side door not his door so he made it out ok. the dent was a good foot into the body
Click to expand...
Was this the Volvo kit?
Is this the same as the SAM kit?

I know that Volvo in .SE takes about 1600 SEK for the lowering IRS NIVO composite leaf spring. However, volvo no longer sells the shocks.

The leaf spring is way more expensive at SAM, but they have the pair of lowering-nivos for about 3600 SEK, if I dont remember wrong.

You can divide the SEK on maybe 6.7 or so to get $. (I'm just guessing this conversionrate).

Yes, it's pricey!
One could also consider the GE Motorsport kit for about 4000 SEK, which includes new struts up front, new (red, boo) springs up front and new rear shocks.. frpe82 runs on this kit and he says it's not too stiff and not too soft.

This is all for hte MK2.
If I had the MK1, I would do:
* Bilstein
* 11x5 325 lbs springs
* lesj?fors springs up front
* bilstien shock inserts up front

Another option:
* Convert to the 960 95+ front suspension (you have to change "everything")
* Convert to the 960 95+ rear suspension

It's very much better handling than the MK1....
 
yeah, i've been keeping an eye out for a MKII+ rear suspension, but i doubt i'll come across one here in the frozen north. I think i'll run the conversion springs for a bit, and see how it is while i save up for some 5x11 springs and decent shocks, or make some mounts for strut bags....

if it doesn't work out so well, i've still always got the option of putting in the bilstien touring shocks i have with the IPD springs... they've even got the proper bar pressed in, but I do think i need a LOT more rear spring or else a bit of a swaybar back there.
 
ravennexus said:
back end was so stiff he lost it and side swiped a large wooden pole. thankfully hit the rear drivers side door not his door so he made it out ok. the dent was a good foot into the body
Click to expand...

Oh ok. Possibly not a fault of using stiffer springs with nivos then. I would imagine that stiffening up the rear to such an extent would make things interesting noivs or not.

On the 940 at least I reasoned that standard non nevo springs would be slightly stiffer and it migh then be nessasary to cut them slightly to get the ride height correct.
A few people in the UK said don't do it but didn't give a reason but one guy was running like that and didn't have a problem.
Perhaps I will give it a try as it's really handy having the nivos on for towing stuff on the odd occasion that I do.
 
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