Otter's Fourth Mod: QA1 Shocks & Springs Install Tips

The stock SS coilovers are not bad for agressive street & track use but they can be rough on your dental work if you have to drive on rough roads frequently (and I do!) Looking for a solution I wanted something that was easily tunable for street or track use so decided on the QA1 coilovers. The cost is reasonable (about $900 for the dual adjustable versions) and available from several sources. Got mine from Summit Racing.

The shocks and springs are sold separately but don't worry about assembling these yourself, it's dead simple and easy and requires no tools. There are a few minor snags when installing on the Slingshot so here is what I encountered and the workarounds.

Should be obvious but Always jack up the suspension so all weight is off the coilover you are working on.

Rear Coilover:
First make yourself aware that you don't need to remove any body panels to change the rear shock. Access the upper bolt through the access hole in the passenger side bagage compartment.

The rear setup required no changes to the QA1s except that you will find that neither of the supplied steel bushing inserts fit the bolt size on the SS. To fit up properly, press out the steel bushing insert in the old coilovers. Install the large steel inserts supplied in the QA1 shock bushings. The Steel insert from the old shocks will fit nicely inside the large QA1 insert. It is a slip fit so you might want to put some heavy grease on them to hold the stock insert in place during assembly.

The upper bolt is removed last and installed first so you can tilt the shock bottom forward out of the way far enough to get your hand through the hole to remove & reinstall the bolt. I would recommend using a die grinder or similar to smooth the edge of the shock pass-through hole. You will know the edge I mean the first time you reach in there for the bolt It's a close fit.

You also might want to use a piece of wood that fits between the legs of the upper mount to spread them out just a bit since they were squeezed together during factory assembly. This will make slipping the new shock into place a bit easier. When you get the upper shock bushing in place it helps to have A helper to push the bolt in as you blindly wiggle the shock around trying to line up the bushing insert with the mount hole. I was able to get it in place working solo by using a mirror to look through the baggage access hole and seeing where it needed to move to line up. The bottom mount bolt is a straight forward job after that.

Front Coilovers:
These are pretty straight forward and fitting the bolts to the inserts is done the same as the rear coilover. But note that the BOTTOM insert is longer than the upper insert on the stock shocks. The front upper shock mounts are narrower than the bottoms. The QA1s fit fine on the bottom mounts but are slightly too wide to fit into the upper mounts so a small mod is required here.

After you press the large inserts into the front QA1s, make sure it is centered in the urethane bushings. Now take the shock over to your belt sander and sand away the urethane on both sides of the bushing (top end only) until it is flush with the steel insert. Do a trial fit on the upper mounts. I had to sand far enough to remove a few thousandths off each end of the inserts as well to get them into the upper mount. I had already assembled the shock & spring when I did this but it might be easier if you do it before. Now insert the inserts from the old shocks inside the QA1 inserts remembering to put the longer one on the bottom. The rest of the installation is obvious from there on.

QA1 Coilover preload adjustments:
To be at stock SS height, the rear spring needed very little preload, about 1 inch of threaded body below the adjusting collar. The fronts needed much more, right at 3" below the collar. I did use the optional needle thrust bearings and that made the fronts much easier to adjust.

Results were well worth it. Ride can be adjusted from 'land barge' soft to race car stiff and anything in beween. They look great too! The QA1s are each 2 pounds heavier than stock but it's 'two pounds of goodness'



Honest, they really are pretty when clean. This is after drifting in the dirt for a few miles. You Orange guys will really like the color.

Note the direction of the two shock adjustment knobs. Fronts have to be facing out to fit. Fronts need about this much preload to sit at stock height. You can easily lower the SS for better handling but I need all the suspension travel I can get on my way home.

BTW, Kudos to Mark (GPcustoms) for pioneering the use of QA1 shocks.

EDIT: 06-02-15 Here are the exact Summit part numbers I used. Thanks to @gpcustoms & @Pigmanfu for this info.

Front shocks: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hal-dd502/overview/

Front springs: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rsc-pac12x25x185/overview/

Rear Shock: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hal-dd602

Rear spring: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rsc-pac14x25x350

Recommended but not required : http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hal-7888-109/overview/ (2 sets)