Adjusting coilover suspension
 

Hi revscene,

At the revscene meet I had a lot of people recommending me to lower my car more as there was quite a bit of wheel gap between my fenders, so here I am in my garage trying to figure this stuff out for the first time. I also do realized there is another sub forum which would fit this kind of post more than van auto chat.. but as I only have 1 day out of the week off work I want to get this done soon and auto chat does have more people coming and going. Thanks in advanced.

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SO my main problem is i'm not too entirely sure if I am lowering my ride correctly.
Coilovers in question are cusco zero 2r's and the car in question is a S14 98' 240sx.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...2/IMG_0511.jpg

As you can see in the above pic, there are two blue adjustable collars on the coilovers.

What I did / am doing is breaking loose the BOTTOM blue collar, and spinning that collar down to the designated ride height, THEN twisting the TOP blue collar down to the first locking blue collar, then tighten everything in place. Is this the correct way to lower my car?, because as I am twisting the TOP blue collar down.. the springs are making a clunking / boinging noise and I am wondering if this is normal.

Also, from which point to which point would I measure to make sure my suspension has the right height all around, ALSO is it okay to have the front coilovers lower than the rears? Looking to eliminate the wheel gap from all 4 wheels.

Thanks in advanced once again!

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Secondary question:

I also have aftermarket rear upper control arms installed as per pic underneath.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...2/IMG_0512.jpg

Which part of the control arm would I adjust / how would I adjust it to camber my rear wheels in to make it flush? Thanks.

You shouldn't touch the blue collars since they adjust your spring-preload.

Break loose the bottom "gold" collar and using the "upper" blue lock nut and spanner, rotate so that the threads are going into the lower shock housing.

*edit

Ah shoot QQ

If I have already adjusted the blue collars.. how would I go about putting them back into the correct pre-load or rather how do I know I have them set back at the correct prepload (I assume I just reverse what I did as a mistake but how would I know if I have them set back correctly?)

So, a bunch of random people at a car meet told you to lower your car because of wheel gap and you are listening to them because....?

you dont have adjustable rear camber. unless theres threads on the inside end?

you pretty much f upped the preload unless you can go back to the original setting it was at

cause it's obviously about what OTHER people thinks of his car, not what he wants!

Can adjustment be made while its on the car or coilover has to be separated?

S14 should have a camber bolt where the RUCA bolts to at the back, mine I does atleast.
With the after market RUCA, you should be able to shorten/extend the arm at the back giving you much higher range of adjustment.
Either way, you should get an alignment done after changing the height of your car as well as leaving the camber adjustment to them.

I have been meaning to lower my car for a long time also :P

It looks pretty weird running 18 x 9.5 rims + stretched tires + vertex style aero with 2 inches of wheel gap on an S14 lol.

Yeah it looks like a changed the pre-load by accident, looking for the orginal preload specs online now.. Thanks AVS_Racing and ryugeeh for the help, making alot more sense now!

i made the exact same mistake once...

don't forget to do alignment after you're done -- you could actually go to a shop like Dale's Alignment and ask them to lower/do alignment all at once

Searching around for cusco zero 2r preload specs, nothing can be found. Does anyone know if I can just apply the methods in the BC coilover video to adjust my preload?

What I do is tighten the lock rings until the spring is snug, no wiggle. Then I tighten the upper ring 3-4mm and lock it with the lower.

It looks like you have helper springs so it makes things easier with adjusting preload since you're just loading the helper spring.

Ah that makes sense, thanks for the quick info once again.

I have a pic of my coilovers before I made any adjustments actually.. from what I see the springs you called the "helper springs" are actually squished together completely, I suspect that the cars previous owner has already changed the preload before I have

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...2/IMG_0509.jpg

So from this should I just lower both collars until the helper spring has some wiggle, and then tighten it until it is snug?

did you already adjust both sides? if not just replicate what was set on the other side...

Looks like at this point all 4 of my coilovers preloads have been changed incorrectly

Meh, don't even have preload on my corolla, just don't get airborne, either way it still seats fine. If you're trying to lower it because of fitment, then you're doing it for the wrong reasons, honestly your car might handle perfect the for the way you drive now. But back on point, you can only lower it so much before you lose all your preload, if you want that max amount of low, and right preload, I have a a feeling you'll need shorter stroke shocks to go with it. I don't understand exactly how your coilovers works, but usually coilovers drop the car a significant amount with preload. Pics of car before?

Edit: just watched that informative video, the locking collers at the bottom, they look like they loosen and lower the entire coilover. That's a way better designed than I'm use to lol, video pretty much said it all. Forget everything I said, feels like I just came out from the dark ages... Time for a new car

^
You had it spot on.

(Until you watched the video.) Cuscos are just generic, off the shelf coilovers mass produced with a label and some blue colours on them.

Ahh, wasn't too sure if the basic principles no longer applied because of how advance technology has leaped since the 1980s.
Saw things that weren't there and my imagination filled in the rest :/ lol

^yes my cuscos are two way adjustable in terms of preload/height, meaning i can adjust the height without it affecting the preload.

I actually just figured this out yesterday when I started messing with it.

At this point im looking to set my preload back to the recommended settings (cusco does not give any info on this however) and to get my actual height adjusting collar to loosen/unlock so i can start adjusting the height properly. The thing is seized on pretty well though (broke my c spanner already). Thinking of taking the coilovers off the car and pb blast + vice grip + hammer + chisel =_=. If that doesn't work will probably need to look towards investing in a new set.

so much headache cause some rsers told you to be more low LOLOLOL

But i feel for you brotha! accidental fuck up and now caused a shit load more work for you. I let my gf try to finish priming my bike for me...worse idea ever T_T

kouki_monster,

I'm not trying to shit on you or give you a hard time so please understand that it is in my intention of helping you understand how this all works.

Do you know what "preload" is and its relationship to height?

There should be no 'recommended' preload setting. Optimal preload is vehicle and condition specific.

Unless you're racing or you've developed issues with suspension travel, you don't need to concern yourself with preload. Set the adjustment rings so the spring is snug, this is equivalent to zero preload and suitable for your purposes. If this answer isn't sufficient, hop on google and begin researching the purpose of preload so you understand the concept and are able determine the optimal setting for your unique vehicle set-up and personal preferences.

To release the locked adjustment rings, spray PB Blaster, or Kroil if you can find it, routinely for a week, allowing it to soak in and do its job. Once the penetrating lube has had time to take affect, use a robinson screw driver (because it has a blunt end) and hammer to break the adjustment ring free. If the screw driver and hammer isn't effective, use a monkey wrench, just be careful not to apply sustained force that could cause the metal to flex and shear. Once that's all taken care of, buy some marine grade bearing grease and coat the threaded section of your coilover body to prevent corrosion.

You'll need an alignment following this height adjustment.

Thanks for the support bcrdukes,

From what I understand, adjusting / changing the preload results in effecting how much the spring on the coilover is compressed thus affects handling. I also understand changing he preload will affect the ride height as well, however.. for my coilovers I should be able to have a SET unchanging preload and be able to change the height of my coilovers independantly and that it is not recommended to change height by adjusting preload.

From what I am suspecting now also added to my previous post, is that the previous owner adjusted the preload to change the ride height of the car, as the helper springs on my coilovers were fully compressed with little to no room inbetween the coils and that the suggested preload setting should be just so that the spring does not move up and down, but still be able to be spun around.

Is what i am understanding correct? Still very new to adjusting coilovers / coilovers in general.

Yes you are understanding correctly.

The helper springs doesn't do anything besides keeping the main spring at zero preload/ rattling around. They are a soft spring rate so you can fully compress them but they won't affect the main spring until you're actually compressing the main spring with the helper spring/lock rings -- if you can understand what I mean...

Just snug up the spring assembly (main/helper springs) until there's no wiggle, then preload 3-4mm or a couple of threads.

Also as the others have suggested, get an alignment after you're at the ride height you want. :)