Suspension refresh and upgrades.

[Lava Speed 05]

So I finally bit the bullet and bought coilovers and a few other bits to refresh the suspension. I have had a few snags along the way so I figured I would make this thread as I make the mad dash to try and have the car ready for the Duel!

Let's start with what I bought initially...



Flyin' Miata took the most of my money with the VMaxx Extreme Track coilovers, a full set of IL Motorsports A-arm bushings, and the stage 1 cooling shroud with dual Spal fans.


Good-Win Racing supplied me with this lovely Racing Beat stabilizer bar and the blocks and bolts kit that helps keep the bar from snapping the mounting points.


Garage Star Delrin door and differential bushings. One to reduce door rattles, the other to reduce missed shifts (when combined with the Mazda motorsports engine mounts I bought a year or so ago, still not installed).

Yay I bought stuff now it's time to install it all in a weekend... Hahahahahaha!

Oh wait the springs are damaged on the coilovers, it should have been a sign... [emoji90]


Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Native]

Cool stuffs!
Damaged springs? Dang Matt what have you done to make the car-Gods so mad?

[Lava Speed 05]

I just received the replacements last Friday when the original set came in the first week of July.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Lava Speed 05]

Les and I started taking the rear suspension apart and problem number 2 popped up:


The emergency brake must have been pulled hard during the last event in grid. The car was being co-driven and it was raining on and off, less than a year old pads fused to the disk. I just shrugged it off annoyed but that wasn't my goal for the day. Les and I started experimenting with the press and found what I had was not the best for getting the bushings back in as they were pushed too far in and wouldn't mount back onto the car.

We came up with a plan of attack for a new tool and calls it a night.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[twistedwankel]

Good luck you two. Two nites left to finish it. Hope it's worth all the effort.

A couple silencers might have been easier for the Banana? An old Honda MC years ago had a factory silencer for city/country which was nothing more than a big plain washer inside each pipe on a shaft with an external lever to turn it on/off on each pipe. Simple yet effective.

[Lava Speed 05]

Ha-ha yeah it would be cheaper, but I can't afford a set of tires for his car. ;-)

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Tim_M]

New parts are fun...how did the coil springs get damaged? Seems a fairly robust part.

[Lava Speed 05]

Deep cuts in the paint/coating exposing the raw metal. In some ways it's superficial, but I just wasn't wanting to sand and repaint a brand new part I paid full price for to protect the metal. I'd likely make it look worse. The shock bodies also had a few markings on them. Each unit is in a thin box tossed inside a box that's too large for the contents all but one of the individual unit boxes were open and some of the parts were loose in the main box.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[lddavis91]

Good luck you two. Two nites left to finish it. Hope it's worth all the effort.

A couple silencers might have been easier for the Banana? An old Honda MC years ago had a factory silencer for city/country which was nothing more than a big plain washer inside each pipe on a shaft with an external lever to turn it on/off on each pipe. Simple yet effective.

Yes, something along a similar vein is ultimately my goal for the car. Newer Corvettes have been using a dual/bypass system for many years. I will likely put some electronic cut outs on the car and quieter mufflers, while the electronic cut outs will bypass the mufflers entirely. My only hesitation is that I think the car sounds absolutely perfect right now and I will feel bad spending money to just ruin that. However the car has now been banned from autocrossing with 2 different clubs so if I want to autocross the car with FAST or GCAC I will have to do something or just run with the Corvette club in Brooksville. Of course the plan a couple months ago was to retire the vette from autocross making it a street/strip car and just run the Vee at autocross, best laid plans and all... In the short term buying Matt a new set of tires was literally my cheapest option for a fun autocross ride this fall. To get the vette ready/legal for local autocross the exhaust system I have envisioned for the vette will cost ~$1000 and I will need a new set of tires for it as well which will cost at least $1000, $1600 for the Hoosier A7s I want. A new set of tires for the Miata ~$500. I didn't buy any of the suspension stuff Matt is currently putting on the car, he got all that by his own fruition, but it is also incing for me as I've kinda been hankering to get back into a nicely suspended Miata autocross ride again.

I also have the unknown expense of getting the Vee going again which I plan to address this fall. I'm unfortunately not made out of money and can't afford to drop ~$2500 or so getting the vette ready/legal and buy another new engine for the Vee if it comes to that. Hence, my ass will be running a borrowed Miata this fall.

[lddavis91]

New parts are fun...how did the coil springs get damaged? Seems a fairly robust part.

It really looked as though the suspension had been installed before and the person who installed it was hammered on Wild Turkey and cyrstal meth while they installed it.

[twistedwankel]

The really good thing here is that you two will finally get Matt's Copper Top driving properly at the top of M2. It was pretty fast last season on original crap. Always a fun ass car to drive with a turbo slap right at the apex - or so it always seemed.

Look forward to your shakedown tomorrow.

[jbrannon7]

The really good thing here is that you two will finally get Matt's Copper Top driving properly at the top of M2. It was pretty fast last season on original crap. Always a fun ass car to drive with a turbo slap right at the apex - or so it always seemed.

Look forward to your shakedown tomorrow.

M2 is such an easy class to dominate.

[twistedwankel]

[

M2 is such an easy class to dominate.

Drew does make it look pretty easy in his demoted M1 (soon to be 30 year old Historical Vehicle). Wait until he gets those plates on it. Whoa. We've got to deal with David in S1 with that "other" Ford. They build them right next to bimmers in the old country in a very small garage.

[Lava Speed 05]

Well no shake down today, I hit a snag with the last suspension bushing and blew an hour or two messing with it before I realized what happened. Everything is now in the car and I only have a few bolts left to tighten. Once we started discussing the reality of getting the ride height right, and hoping where I set the alignment is good enough, my ratchet managed to get caught between the two ball joints and I gave up.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Lava Speed 05]

Part of the delay this week was waiting for the new ball joints to come in from Goodwin-Racing.

I also picked up the longer tie rod ends from O'Reilly's as they're $25 cheaper than getting the old R package replacements from FM.


Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Lava Speed 05]

Part of the delay this week was waiting for the new ball joints to come in from Goodwin-Racing.

I also picked up the longer tie rod ends from O'Reilly's as they're $25 cheaper than getting the old R package replacements from FM.


Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[jev61]

Matt, I've had good luck with 4.5 inch front, 4.25 inch rear ride heights measured at the pinch welds. I like 3.5 degrees of negative camber up front, 3.25 out back, 1/16 inch toe out front, 1/16 inch toe rear and 4.5 degrees of caster. Vortex Motorsports did my last two alignments if you are looking for a shop. You can do the ride heights at home with weights and a tape measure, just unhook your sway bars and put your body weight in the driver's seat before measuring ride heights. It won't be as good as setting cross weights, but it will be cheaper. Oh, I forgot to mention, I don't use a rear sway bar, just the big RB front bar. Air up your tires to racing pressure too. Make sure the front sway bar moves easy in its bushings, if not put washers under the mounts so it won't bind. The big RB bar is tuff on the OEM mounts, so watch out for that. I can't think of anything else at the moment and you didn't ask anyway.

[Lava Speed 05]

I was going to ask so that works, thank you!

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Lava Speed 05]

Also pardon my ignorance with ride height measurements, you say at the pinch welds are you measuring ground up to the pinch welds? Mine are not perfectly straight so I might not be able to do that. Do you know your hub center to fender measurements? I was going to start with I believe 12.0 F 12.5 R.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[jev61]

Also pardon my ignorance with ride height measurements, you say at the pinch welds are you measuring ground up to the pinch welds? Mine are not perfectly straight so I might not be able to do that. Do you know your hub center to fender measurements? I was going to start with I believe 12.0 F 12.5 R.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I never could figure out hub to fender, so I use ground to pinch weld. I think I am below 12 inches in the front, but I am not certain. And I think my rear fenders are almost level with my fronts, but again I am not certain. I had to "straighten" my pinch welds first to get the measurements. Absolute isn't so important as repeat-ability and the rake. Reverse rake calms the car, positive rake helps the car rotate.