|
randall -
FYI, i was an ASE certified mechanic back in the day. i'm intimately familiar with this type of suspension package. how do you want the car set up? street, track, both? what kind of ride height do you want to run? i'll assume primarily street w/ my advice here.
let's start with the helper springs. on each strut from top to bottom, the order of parts should be: top mount, spring cup, big spring, spacer, little spring, spring perch, and locking collar. you will adjust ride height from the spring perch at the bottom.
prior to installation, do all of this:
for starting ride height, tighten the perches just until they hold the springs in place. then, give them three more full turns and lock the collars.
you will NOT be able to adjust the camber plates once the struts are in the car; the holes on top of our strut towers are too small. since you will probably run your car a little lower than stock, we will need to take OUT some camber up front. loosen the allen bolts on the camber plates and position the center pillow ball so it is one quarter of the way between outboard and inboard. to picture this, if it were installed, the pillow ball should be closer to the outside of the car than the inside.
in back, we will also want to remove camber. remove the allen bolts on each top mount and move the pillow ball to the outermost of the three positions.
set all four shocks to full soft. MAKE SURE you leave the adjusters in the rear struts when you install them; you will not be able to fit them in after the fact.
once they're installed, go for a short drive to let the ride height settle. figure out how much you want to raise the car. put her back on the lift and adjust each spring perch up by that amount. these are linear springs, so ride height has a 1:1 ratio to perch height. raising the perch 1" will raise ride height 1".
now, align the car. since the suspension will not travel as much, you will need a tad bit more static camber than stock. set the front to -1.2 and rear to -1.8 (if you can get it) or -2.0. set front toe to zero and rear toe to a HAIR of toe in.
now, we can play with damping. since we're on full soft, the car should be porpoising badly. drive around and pay attention to the rear. increase rear damping by 1/4 turn at a time, taking a drive between each adjustment. once the rear settles down, do the same up front. at this point, you should have a good street setup.
you can probably run slightly lower tire pressures now; this will make things a bit more comfy. with those spring rates, i recommend 33 front and 28 rear.
once i receive my parts, i can be of more help. if you want to wait, i can give a more detailed write-up once i install mine. it will probably be another two weeks before they're here & i can install them.
|
Threaded Mode
