sillyboybmxer

As some of you may have seen I just got my suspension on before the lollicup meet. I took it in for an alignment before I made the drive down. My problem is, it handles like complete crap!!! I went for the "UK" spec but the tech could not get the front toe set to 0 without increasing the camber to -2. Said my tie rods were maxed out on adjustment. Everything else is the same as before i changed suspension except the front camber.
As it sits now

Front
Camber L/1.9 R/2.1
Toe 0
Caster 6.45 degrees

Rear
Camber L/2.2 R/2.3
Toe 0.10/0.10 Total =0.20

I have the suspension set up 10 clicks up front, 4 clicks in the rear. When I went to Sac I kept it on full soft all around(which was horrible) and when I tightened it up it made a ton of difference for the better.
My issue is I dont feel the car maintains a solid feel through long corners, almost like its hard to maintain its track, I'm not fighting it but it just doesnt lock it and hang it. When I left off the wheel going straight it continues on its path fine, when i let off in a turn it doesnt snap back straight too fast.
I dont know what to change. Is it the camber being too similar front and rear??? Increase the rear to -3
Change the toe in front??? Is my ride height too low or too raked???
The tech didnt set my steering wheel straight so it has to go back in anyways soon cuz I am annoyed. I might just have Shad do it since I have a 150 dollar gift credit for shop labor i won at last years sac2k days. Anyone know how much DA charges for an alignement?????
I dont track it, I just like the mountains.
any help is appreciated.

AyJay

Shad doesn't do alignments so I'm afraid he won't be able to help you there.

Your camber and toe settings aren't that far off of mine so i doubt that is the issue. I might suggest trying to run a little less rear toe just for the sake of tire life.

I wonder if your caster setting might be a little too positive at 6.45*. Mine is set at 6.0* right now. I'll admit that camber is the alignment setting that I've played with the least ... and probably has the least effect on the way the car feels... but I've read that an increased positive caster setting increases straight line stability at speeds but also makes the steering wheel feel heavy. May be why your wheel isn't returning like you want it to?

Not sure that will make much of a difference but could be worth a try.

SOHCmyDOHC

Bubbly feel? Hmmm... Did you preload the suspension before tightening all the bolts?

What kinda alignment rack are they using? Also did they tighten the adjustment bolts?

What suspension did you get? New or Used?


This was my old settings:

sillyboybmxer

brand new buddyclub N+, didnt touch the preload out of the box, everything was nice and tight.....rear was then too high so i lowered it a half inch by lowering the spring NOT by twisting the bottom up into the body.
Not sure what kind of rack they used,....its an in ground rack, thats all i know.
I sure hope they tightened everything.

AyJay

Is there a reason you chose to adjust ride height at the spring perch? The N+ is the type of coilover where you can adjust the ride height w/o touching the spring perch so I'm wondering why you chose to do it that way. What you are describing doesn't sound to me like you are short on rear susp travel tho.

Maybe try picking the rear up a little bit. I've been playin w/ a new set of coilovers this week too and I've noticed that if I set the rear too low relative to the front then I don't like the balance of the car. In that case I felt like it made the car feel a little floaty on the front end and the rear end would slip out easier under hard cornering.

You might just have to keep tinkering until you find a solution that works better...

SOHCmyDOHC

When I meant preload, I meant bushing preload. It's been discussed numerous times. Check that out also. I would always check the measurements even out of the box. Just because it looks cool doesn't
mean they actually did it.

CASTRO

What I've always done when the suspension was still off the car was to loosen the spring perch and hand tighten it as much as I could. Then, use the wrench to maybe tighten (compress) the spring perch maybe 1/2inch to get rid of any slack w/o really putting too much spring preload and maintain proper suspension travel.

that would give your car an overall balanced suspension feel and from that point on, you could adjust the lower body to adjust for ride height. That is what I've always done to start off and from then, you can adjust the spring perches for more/less preload (compression) to help eliminate initial body roll aka "tune" for how you want it to feel.

It's not exactly corner balancing but I like run T1R coilovers which I think are somewhere about 12kg all around and I like to run an inch preload front spring compression versus the rear which I've only compressed 1/2inch from the initial hand tight feeling. It gives the front a bit more bite and gives that AP2 feeling where the front rates are a bit higher than the rear. It's all preference at this point.

Bushings preload also makes a big difference. I helped out another member, FastJack who never had his bushings preloaded correctly in the past. Before it was really soft and floaty but after it became a super stiff ride and it was all from bushing preload. Also, needless to say but having all those years of the bushings like that, they were pretty much done for.

Sdracing

Coilovers should be corner balanced as well. Since you have the gift certificate might was well see if Shad could do that for you.

SOHCmyDOHC

Can you "start over" because I have a feeling factory settings may not have been correct. I never believe the "out of the box" specs cuz whoever built your suspension could have been having a bad day.

I would start over and recheck everything.

-Check and adjust height on the CO's off the car (including spring preload which is usually set to zero initially)

-install and before tightening everything properly preload suspension bushings (check the helms or search it in the forums)

-tighten everything, check ride height, adjust to your liking (make sure tire pressures are correct)

- break in suspension (which you probably have already done), get alignment or corner balance first (halftank gas and everything out of trunk you aren't gonna use)




*******just quickly read some of your other postings and noticed your tires are shot... That could play a factor into your suspension woes******

sillyboybmxer

yeah this weekend we are gonna redo it,.....i was unaware of "preloading the bushings" and read a few threads on it . But what is the right way to do it??? using a jack to lift it or lowering it with wheels on????....if you lower it with the wheels on,how do you get in there to tighten everything down??????
And as far as preloading the spring on the coilover,.....i keep reading conflicting issues on it,................some say unless you are racing you shouldnt "preload" it beyond it being "snug" for street use