gfacter

Here are my thought's

I just put the car up on stands and measured and adjusted the left front to start

In full droop there is (roughly) 55 mm of shock shaft showing with 1 inch of preload added, I lifted the arm off the stand with my jack to put some weight on the damper.

Now there is about 35mm of shaft, this will give me more compression than rebound.

Ideally do we want equal travel? I would like to get this done this time. I am sick and tired of putting the car up and stands to fiddle with these things.

George

RT

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gernby
[B]Thanks for the 'Thanks'.

Gernby

I honestly just guessed that the shock should be in the center of its stroke at rest. I wish I had looked at the OEM damper to see what ratio of compression and rebound travel they had at rest, but I didn't. The only thing I'm sure about, is that you would want at least as much compression travel as you have rebound. If you catch air in the car, the damper will be fully extended, and it will have to absorb the amount of preload that the spring has, which is going to be around 450 lbs. However, if you hit a big bump, and bottom out the damper, it could see MUCH more force. I don't know how much force the damper can take before it is damaged.

Gernby

[QUOTE]Originally posted by RT
[B]
You can't just generically specify preloads because the "right" amount would change if the spring rates were to be different.

gfacter

I think I will lesson the preload about 5mm and check the travel, that should put me in the middle.

I rechecked and 1 inch was good for me on all corners.


I am not sure how much to jack the arm up off the jack stand since it changes as you raise the car more..

I guess I will need to check again with the car with the wheels on.

Maybe someone should send JIC USA a bill for all the R&D.

George

mxt_77

Or, they could even provide a chart.
Since a given damper will only support a certain range of spring rates, they could provide a chart of how much pre-load would be needed for each spring rate in that range. It wouldn't be that hard.

gfacter

Wow

I just back from driving my car....hard

What a difference suspension travel makes..I am guessing in hard conrnering the rear would roll over on the bump rubber before and make the car bounce. On smooth corners not really a problem but in bumpy ones it was.

Now it's like I have tons more grip, the only noise I was hearing was the tires...

No clunking....I practically tore my hair out on this one, including a few calls to Kevin at JIC.. Clueless dweeb.

"No no don't preload the dampers"...I took them off 3 times, even took apart the top of the pillowball assy. Still clunking, I was beginning to think I screwed up something like the upper a-arm.


Gernby

I knew something was wrong, just not smart enough to figure it out myself.

FYI I went with 1 inch on both the front and rear. I measured the shock shaft at full droop then loaded with a floor jack, that put it pretty much in the middle.

Cheers,

George

The Reverend

Sh!t. I spent $600 having Jon (owner of JIC) set up my car. I told him I was pretty damn sure there should be some preload on the springs, but he convinced me I was crazy. He insisted that since's he's raced cars for many years I need to listen to him on this - no preload, not more than 10 mm, anyway.

He suggested I run 12 kg/mm springs all around with helpers in the rear (or 14 K with helpers all around - I went with 12k). I was concerned that the helpers would eat up all my travel, but he insisted it would be perfect. I don't have my tools here in LA to inspect the fronts, but I checked the rears and they're resting on the bump stops. So... WHY DO I HAVE $140 helper springs on the rear?!?!?!?!? He INSISTED that I needed them. I'm going to call and bitch him out tomorrow. I want my damn money back for those helper springs, and really I want my f-ing money back on the 12K springs as well! I asked docofmind repeatedly if 7k/8k would be stiff enough for track use and he insisted I shouldn't go any stiffer if I'm still going to drive on the street. He told me not to worry. Well, my "not worrying" cost me $400 above what I should have spent. I was going to order the shocks with stiffer springs in the first place, but didn't because he told me not to. Then I had to spend $340 + tax buying stiffer springs after the fact and had to pay $225 for JIC to set everything up. And they didn't even do as good of a job as West End would have done for less money (I was planning to go to West End for cornerbalance and alignment until I ran into problems with the JICs and ended up going to them for help with it all).

Plus, now I'm not going to be able to keep my rear end low enough. They said the helper springs would let me keep it lower in the rear, but it only did so because it's resting all the weight of the car on the damn bump stops!

The kit needs shorter rear dampeners to accomodate lower ride heights, stiffer springs, directions in English, and some better f-ing customer support.

I've paid over $2300 so far for these coilovers and the additional rape I got when I went to JIC. I better get some serious customer support/ass kissing from JIC when I call tomorrow or I'll be putting this first year of law school to good use real soon. I have no income anymore and took a serious bite out of my savings to buy these. I can't afford to make a $2300 mistake and I won't let it happen.

twyst gryp

gfacter was that 1" of preload? also, how much is your ride lowered?

LOT-TECH

damn that sucks that after spending so much money on jic coilovers and they have no travel. i talked to one of the local s2k guys and he too had the same problem on the first night of installing his coilovers. you guys should have spent money on tein rs dampers