Gavins all out suspension mods

[AusMX6]

well....whats next gav? we are all waiting!

hows the 'how to' comming along? should sell 'em on CD - can be image instensive as all hell!

[Manifest]

Gavin,

Were you able to weight the 22mm front bar against the stock bar? Was there much of a weight difference? Do you have any pics of the two front bars side by side?

[gavin]

AusMX6...working on the how to. But as you said, it very picture intensive. Ive probably given the MX6.com server fits with this thread, dont want to bombard it with another collossus.

Manifest.... The front bar is 20mm (I swear on my life). I got a bit carried away and put it on the car without taking a picture of it in comparison with the stock bar. It was lighter and I belive it is slightly softer than the stock bar.

Gavin

[Manifest]

Hmmm to me that would not be a good thing, I want a stiffer front bar, not lighter. Do this think Whiteline used this bar as a upgrade from NON-GT cars?

[gavin]

I believe this is the upgrade for the GT. There is such a thing as having too much swaybar where the swaybar is so stiff that the suspension no longer can work independently. It can make it difficult for the car to transfer weight to the tire that needs grip(outside front). The car will then understeer. The whiteline combo sets the car up to be more neutral, less stifness from the front and more to the rear.

Gavin

[2mE]

Damn. It´s been like at least a month since I last viewed this thread.

Nice job Gavin. I wish those parts were available in Finland.

I do have a few questions;

So I selected Weitec struts and springs for my six and I must say I´m happy with it, but the wheel alingnment sucks. I´d like to tune it to get some more oversteering. The limit of camber adjustment in the front is my problem. Also caster seems to be unsymmetric, which causes the car to start turning instead of going straight. Tried to adjust it but it was something that the mechanic with the alignment equipment wasn´t willing to do. Still paid the shop 75$ for about nothing.

Anyhow, I was wondering if the Cusco camber kit could be used with the stock upper spring perch? Cusco might be available here.. And should be too hard to adjust.

[evo626]

I will be able to answer your question tommorrow as I put the cuscos on my car using the stock spring perch and strut bearing, along with tokico blues and eibach springs.
evo

[gavin]

2mE...the cusco camber plates will fit with your upper spring perch but I dont think thats the answer to your issues. The alignment shop should have set your car correctly. You paid to have it done and its still doesnt track straight(the castor can be unequal and still track straight)?? I would go back and demand to have it corrected to your satisfaction.

Another thing... most alignment shops(at least here in the states) will not set the alignment anywhere but within factory specs(liability issues, again here in the states). So to set a car to be more oversteering( read: unsafe) is something they may stay clear of. I had mine set at a race shop that specializes in such things.

Gavin

[2mE]

gavin:

They actually did set things straight. Everything seems to be in order except for caster, which was something like; left: 0.3 and right 1.3. Steering doesn´t center because of this. It could be fixed but then camber would be positive and so the car will most likely understeer.

With the cuscos I probably could get the camber angle right.

They guy who did the alingment asked me if I wanted to use some other angles than the stock. I told him about the problems I was experiencing and he admitted that the cause was the caster setting and that he wouldn´t even try to adjust it. Didn´t tell me why. There shouldn´t be a problem with it since the only thing you need to do is to take out the four bolts from the upper spring perch, press the perch off it´s holes and turn it.

Enough said. I´ll choose another shop next time.

evo: looking forward on that. Could you take pics?

[evo626]

I ended up using the stock mounts for the time being. I still need to make a spacer to make the cuscos work right. I tried it with out the spacer and I couldn't get the piro ball to stay flat.
evo

[gavin]

2mE...That is realy off. To the tune of an inch? Is something damaged? It just seems odd that the numbers are so off. I mean The alignment was good at one point, what has happened to change that? things of that mature dont go "bad" by themselves. very odd.

evo...the spacer is needed to take up the space where the strut nut cannot thread further down on the strut shaft(theres that little section that has no threads). It wont sit still without it. Its either use the spacer and cut it down to a usable size or remove some of the bottom threads on the inside of the strut nut so it can be tightend fully around that non threaded section of the strut shaft.

Gavin

[Probe_Racer]

guys i found a way to protect the strut shaft after installing coilovers, since we know that the stock strut dust boots are not going to fit once we have the coilovers on, i liked gavin's approach by using condoms to cover the shaft of the strut but got me wondering about the durability of such item.

So i came up with a way that might be more durable, we could use the boots that are used to cover the shaft of the steering rack, they are small enough on diameter to fit inside the coilover spring and should last a LOT longer than a condom.

you can buy them at kragen, autozone, pepboys etc. hope this is of help.

BTW if somebody came up with this idea before im sorry for stepping on your toes, just trying to help my fellow mazda mx6/probe owners.

[gavin]

Thought this thread was gone forever. He he.

Steering rack bellows. Thats a pretty nifty idea. Have to look into that myself.

Gavin

[Dyoel182]

Originally posted by gavin
I think with the springs I have I may be at the limits of the illuminas dampening abilities. What i would have liked was Koni sport(yellow) adjustable inserts. I know there is an application for our cars. I think its the 1st or 2nd gen mitsubishi eclipse (they would have been 1" shorter)but I cant be sure. Another option which is way cooler is KYB AGXs. They are valved much stiffer than the illuminas(GAB adjustables are rebadged AGXs) but are cheaper. If I can find the answer to the Koni mystery then I could use the same fitment for the KYBs and then use those

Did anyone ever figure any of that out? And that means that if you used Illuminas up front and Blues in the back that you'd be 3/4" lower in the front not just that the shaft is shorter, right?

[gavin]

This thread will never go away .he he

Actually I DID find out quite a bit of info about this.

KYB AGXs: KYB only has strut inserts for one and one fitment only, the MKII MR2. The toyota stock struts are designed so they can accept cartriges/inserts when worn. Basically you unscrew the strut shaft seal, and replace the insert.
The insert from KYB is either 1" shorter F/R than our struts OR the same length(it all depends on if they count the threaded portion of the strut shaft)
Toyota uses a different thread pitch for their struts however and our struts do not have the option of being unscrewed for replacement inserts(theses are obstacles that can be overcome though)

Koni: Got em! (or I think I have them). There is a fitment for the European 2nd gen MX6. There apparently is a difference in the struts on the E-spec vs. the A-spec. I believe the difference is the length of the struts to the tune of 1". Because of this difference Koni North America did not place them in their catalog(technically it isnt a direct fitment for the OEM US struts), they also will not officially recomend thier usage for the US 2nd gen.

Im going to take a gamble and import these inserts for my usage.

Gavin