Ok i\'ve bought myself a nice set of coil overs. I\'ve done a search on here on fitting the but all i\'ve come up with is this.
http://mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30483&highlight=fitting+coilovers
Im quite handy with a spanner so im sure i\'ll manage one way or another but any help that you guys can give (On fitting them) would be really apreciated as im a suspension virgin!
Once they are on the car im gonna have it 4 wheel laser alighned but is there any basic settings I can set them to for camber for the drive there?
Here is the suspension i\'ve bought.
http://mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47284
to start with the fun will be getting the old stuff off and them on
brett said the back are the easiest - and the fronts - well ... good luck !! LOL
That wasn\'t the response I was after. It should have gone like this,
It really easy all you do is undo this and it all comes off then you hit the new one into place with a hammer and its job done!
I think its just gonna be a case of just getting on with it and figureing it out as I got. I\'ll try and take some pic\'s along the way and do a write up when im done. I just don\'t know the correct names for things so i\'ll have to look them up so I don\'t look like a numpty!
The rears are a 30min job, the fronts are more difficult. If you have aadjustable top mounts then you are in for real fun and games. (Hence why I have not yuet fitted my front coil overs! :)
Yep there pillow balls up front.:evillaugh
When you\'ve done yours, come and do mine :yes
Whats the fuss? fitted mine in about one hour for all four corners???!!!
I have fitted Teins front and rear and fronts are camber adjustable,mind you everything fell off so easily, quite a joy to do actually. The only trouble I have is that the Brake hose attachment to the strut is different so i shall have to make a new metal brake pipe but shorter.
Not sure why the difference, came of a FC. The only thing I was not sure on is which way round the top camber plate goes, its 50/50 and i\'m sure i got it the wrong, just need to see a pic of some fitted.
QuoteWhats the fuss? fitted mine in about one hour for all four corners???!!!
Now thats the responce I was after! All I need now are some spring clamps. Gonna have to go and scrounge some off my Dad. Gonna give it a go this weekend so I\'ll let you know how I get on. Think its gonna be a bit harder than i\'m used too but I don\'t mind that too much.
On a seperate note I borrowed a mates Thermal imaging camara lastnight and had a good look aroung the FC. Looks really cool (or hot!) seeing the different engine temps. Its a bit like how the Predetor see\'s things if you can remember the film. I\'ll post up the pic\'s in a different thread when he emails them to me. Watch this space!
You may not need spring clamps, certainly not for removing them and then the coilovers should just pop in. Even if they arrive in bits you can still get them together without the need to compress them.
QuoteYou may not need spring clamps, certainly not for removing them and then the coilovers should just pop in. Even if they arrive in bits you can still get them together without the need to compress them.
Can you? The coilovers are completely assembled so hopefully they will just slide into place once the others are out.
Sorry I missed this one when you initialy posted,
If you would like to look at the list on this link you will find a detailed guide that we constructed for our customers who buy our Tein kits
http://www.shyauto.com/download.htm
Hope this helps
Hi Mate,
Fitted my HKS Hiper Coilovers today All you need is as follows-
17mm socket for the lower struts bolts with a large breaker bar.
14mm for the 4 bolts(Front) and 2 bolts(Rear) on the top.
A screwdriver to prise away brake hose clips.
And a good torque wrench 9.5 - 11.9 kgs for the lower bolts, 3.0 -3.7 for the tops.
The front brake hose clip is a right "pita" I tried to do prise it away carefully but thought sod it as I\'ve got braided hoses anyway so just boshed them out :Thumbs-up
The scissor jack in the Toolkit is excellent for raising the arms to line up with bolt holes on the dampers.
If you still got your ABS fitted I bet there will be no bolt holes on the Coilover to secure the ABS sensor lead that was originally bolted to OEM damper.
I put a zip tie around the sensor lead and around the lower part of the coilover.
Good luck
Paul
Not a bad picture the best i could find of a Left hand pillowball.
The tein sticker is close to wheel arch side.
The gradients are pointing towards the radiator.
I imagine it would a mirror image the opposite side gradients pointing towards windscreen :confused:
Paul
(http://www.dangerdanj.com/tein_pbum.jpg)
Thanks for the heads up Paul much appreciated. I\'m gonna do it in the workshop where I work so i\'ll have access to the compressor. That should make it that little bit easier.
Now i\'m worried. my pillow balls have 4 bolts not 3. How does that work?
dont be, FC\'s have four on front and two on the rear.
Yeah i know i just got scared seeing that. I just thought for a second that mine had been modified or something!
Right I got the coilovers fitted today. I got a mate to help me (cheers Ash!):wave . We just took our time with it and found it to be easy enough to do. We only found a couple of problems.
1/ Which way the pillow ball camber plate sat on the fronts (See pic below)
2/ The rear adjustment for the height were seized so that determined my ride hight.
Now the first point it was a bit of a guess (still not sure its the right way hopefully someone on here will help) I positioned it so that the L or R (depending which side your doing) was facing the engine bay of the car rather than pointing to the wing.
The second point well after struggling to get the adjustment nut to move, Liberal amounts of WD40 was applied and the shocks were fitted anyway. I\'m hoping that after a run out and more WD40 they might free off so that I can adjust the height. If not I\'ll have to take them back off and try something else. Now i know what im doing I recon I can have both rears off in a mater of 10 mins so its not so bad!.
Anyway As we were stuck for now with the ride height at the back we adjusted the front to suit as best we could. Roughly 1/2" or so lower than the back. Now its a lot lower than I wanted but im stuck for now so I thought i\'d post a pic of how low it is anyway. I\'m gonna put it a back to stock height maybe slightly lower but not much.
I\'ll try and do a wright up of how I did the strip and re-fit of the shocks when I can.
If I have done anything wrong that you can see please msg me on here. Cheers.
Here you go. Dam it I resized them wrong. i\'ll sort it soon but i\'ve got to do something now so maybe later.
Sorted. Here you go.
looking good but what i would do is when you are happy with your setup is to put the camber bolts as far apart as possible unless you are going to have several setups for track/road etc. If they do come loose at least they will only give minimal movement. Have you set yours up to zero? as i need to do a basic setup on mine but just wondered if the zero markings on mine relate to a standard FC setup.
QuoteLooking good but what i would do is when you are happy with your setup is to put the camber bolts as far apart as possible unless you are going to have several setups for track/road etc. If they do come loose at least they will only give minimal movement. Have you set yours up to zero? as i need to do a basic setup on mine but just wondered if the zero markings on mine relate to a standard FC setup.
No Pete I haven\'t even moved them (when I do im gonna replace them for shiny stainless ones). They were set this way when I got them. I\'m working on the theory that I don\'t have a clue about setting it up so at the first chance its going in to get set up properly. I need to free the rear adjustment nuts off first though so I can set the height. After that every thing else can follow suit.
On this point, does anyone know the standard set up for an FC? or have a link to somewhere I can find out. I took height measurements before I started but they were all over the place as one shock was Foo**d. As for camber etc I have no idea. Cheers.
Hey Adrian,
I recognize that suspension!!!! Ya motor is looking great mate hope to see ya this Sunday?
Anyhow... Here\'s the reason why I\'m posting to this thread.
Heres your info you asked for about the FC\'s suspension geometry.:2eek
RX-7 FC3S SUSPENSION GEOMETRY
FRONT
TOE IN (UNLADED)* ( mm ( in ) 3 ± 3 ( 0.12 ± 0.12)
DEGREE 0°18’ ± 18’
MAXIMUM STEERING ANGLE INNER 36° ± 2°
OUTER 32° ± 2°
CAMBER 0° 20’ ± 30’
CASTOR 4° 40’ ± 45’
KINGPIN ANGLE 13° 45’
REAR
TOTAL TOE IN (UNLADED)* mm ( in ) 3 ± 3 ( 0.12 ± 0.12)
DEGREE 0°18’ ± 18’
CAMBER - 0° 44’ ± 30’
* FUEL TANK FULL, RADIATOR COOLANT & ENGINE OIL @ SPECIFIED LEVELS. SPARE TYRE & JACK IN DESIGNATED LOCATIONS
Hope this helps.
You sir are a legend! :wave
I will add this thread to modifications sticky at the top :D
Thankyou Sir!:rollin Just spent a half hour typing that up!:Grrr I\'m not the fastest of typers....
Quote from: BrettYou sir are a legend! :wave
I will add this thread to modifications sticky at the top :D
Cheers Paul, thats gonna help big style mate. And yes you are a legend. See you sunday.
I never cease at the fountain of knowledge that comes from this forum, thanks as well, good info. On a different level, if you lower the car do you try to keep it to the standard settings or do these change in any way ?
I think that depends on your requirements.... Car manufacturers set the geometry for the best handling with the least tyre wear / stress to the components like king pins, wheel bearings. If you lower the car it will increase the camber angle and reduce the caster angle and increase tyre wear on the inside of the tyre. If your happy with how the car handles in standard form then get your car\'s geometry reset to standard setting. If you want less understeer and more oversteer then increase your camber.
Increasing camber will improve how the car feels in the bend...(better tyre footprint) But will make it less stable on the straight. (tenancy to track the road surface)
Increasing caster will improve the steering\'s ability to centre itself (useful for oversteer / drifting) But again will make the car to track the road surface, it will also increase the effort to hold the steering wheel whilst in the bend.
You\'ve also to consider toe in... Increased toe will improve cornering but again decrease straight line stability.
I would recommend that any car that has been lowered or had aftermarket suspension fitted be re-aligned by a reputable laser wheel alignment centre. If the car is to be set differently to standard settings then take to an alignment centre that are known for setting up motorsport/race cars.
Or get your car setup to standard... Mark the adjusters with tipex or marker and have a play yourself.... Typical pillowball camber adjusters have between 3 to 5 degrees adjustment either way over standard settings.
If I get the time I will post a thread with a little more details than this....
Quote from: pdtaylor18I never cease at the fountain of knowledge that comes from this forum, thanks as well, good info. On a different level, if you lower the car do you try to keep it to the standard settings or do these change in any way ?
Now thats the best explanation I have heard for a long time, nice and simple and understandable. Should be a sticky that.
Well I ended up putting my original Bilstiens back on the rear of the car today as I couldn\'t get the height adjustment nut loose on the Teins.:confused: I tried gently heating it, hitting it asking it nicely but neither of them would move. So as a last resort they were put to one side till monday. The plan now is to make a jig (that sits in a vice) to hold the shock that sits in and locates on the nut. That way I can put a bar in the bottom of the shock and try and turn it that way.
This has had a plus side. I have been able to set the fronts to somewhere near the right height so I can drive to the meet tomorrow at Guys Court.:Thumbs-up
Thanks Pete:Thumbs-up
Suspension is really complex and I am no expert on the subject, Just have a reasonable knowledge. I think if anyone was considering suspension upgrades then my first port of call would be poly bushes, as manufacturers design a certain amount of flex in their bushes to make the car easier to handle (and ride comfort) in all conditions....
Not particularity the best setup for harder driving. And if uprated suspension was fitted on standard bushes, it will place even more stress on the probably already worn bushes.
Bit of a pain in the ass to do but well worth it! :yes
So sorry to hear your having probs Adrian,
If you need some help gimme a bell:Thumbs-up And will see you tomorrow mate.
Well I have a set of poly bushes to install, that along with the Tein coilovers and decent 17" alloys will be the starting point. Once done it will get a suspension \'mapping session\' to get it all sorted. You are right about suspension being complex.......easy in its construction and function but very very technical in its setup. You can see why the race teams spend days setting a car up for every single race, every single time. Those few degrees count massively.
Adrian, I had this problem on a set of HKS items and they were a Bi...ch to free off. Alloy when it starts to corrode its a nightmare, one way is to soak it in a bath of WD40 which is what I did. I am lucky in that I can get it in 5 litre tins. Still took a hammer and drift to knock it round and then that was for about an inch of travel.......lots of hammering !!! plenty of damage done but it was the only way and it dressed out in the end.
Quote from: pdtaylor18Well I have a set of poly bushes to install, that along with the Tein coilovers and decent 17" alloys will be the starting point. Once done it will get a suspension \'mapping session\' to get it all sorted. You are right about suspension being complex.......easy in its construction and function but very very technical in its setup. You can see why the race teams spend days setting a car up for every single race, every single time. Those few degrees count massively.
Adrian, I had this problem on a set of HKS items and they were a Bi...ch to free off. Alloy when it starts to corrode its a nightmare, one way is to soak it in a bath of WD40 which is what I did. I am lucky in that I can get it in 5 litre tins. Still took a hammer and drift to knock it round and then that was for about an inch of travel.......lots of hammering !!! plenty of damage done but it was the only way and it dressed out in the end.
Sounds like your gonna have a good setup Pete:Thumbs-up
Should be sorted when youve got it all done.
Got round to looking at the seized nuts today and.......
...... Yeah!!!!! I got them freed off.
Bit of WD40 and heat bit of a tap (well a big bit of a tap!) Let it all cool down and repeat. Hey presto free moving nuts. Now I can get them back on the car and set up. TFFT.