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The saga continues................

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Stop reading now. This is just a lot of prattle about shocks and crap.

My Miata is a '94 R pack. It came with Bilstein shocks, standard rate front springs and rear springs 4 pounds heavier than standard. The front sway bar is 1 mm larger and the rear is 1 mm smaller. These are the only differences between the R pack and the base model suspensions.

When I got the car the ride was very harsh and the front end pogoed over every bump. I discovered that the front shocks were sitting on the bump stops at rest causing the harsh ride. After talking it over with Rogue and Shaik at Fat Cat Motorsports (FCM), I ordered a set of much shorter stops in order to free up some suspension travel. I ordered the 36/46 mm stops for the factory Bilstein equipped cars. Many hours of stuck bolts and cursing suicide stick spring compressors later, I had the new stops installed. DISASTER! The shocks now rode on the much shorter stops up front, the ride was just as bad and the front tires were dragging on the fender liners.

Tear it all down again and investigate. The front shocks were toast. They could be compressed easily enough but could not be extended. If you pushed down on the fender, it stayed down. Great. Four new Bilsteins, $400 and 4 hours cursing and the new shocks are installed. Success! The car rode great, handled great and could go over most bumps without dragging on the fender liners. I called Shaik several times during this process and he was a great help. He even sent me a set of 6mm spacer to go under the bump stops to stop the tires dragging. Don't worry, the spacers are split and can be inserted without tearing everything down again. He even bought my old shocks.

Not being the type to leave well enough alone I had been in contact with Fast Mike on the pointy board. He advised me to look around and find a front sway bar from a '99+ sport to try. Darron had one with the bushings for $20 that he had taken off his 10AE. I made a set of adjustable end links out of bar ends bought at Smiley's and put it all in. Couldn't have been happier, I am glad that's all over.



Then....

Juano Tejano buys a set of Tein Flex coilovers for his car and asks me to assist him with the install. I had never had a chance to inspect a set of these and we stayed up until the wee hours getting them installed on his car. When it was over I was groggy, he had a set of Tein S tech springs for sale and I ended up with them. Now I have to try them on the car. They go on in two hours (I'm getting good) and they are great. More lower, good ride and a good stance.

Then....

Last week I go to my first autocross since the springs were installed. Everything is great, even though I was too lazy to change from my street tires, until a new driver asks if he can ride with me. Sure, the more the merrier! Not true. The car is bottoming the suspension at every turn and hopping sideways when it does.

Back to the drawing board. I hope to attend some track days this year and being new I will need to have an instructor in the car with me. It sounds like I need heavier springs than the 230/150 S techs. This week I got in some new springs from Ground Control mounted on their adjustable perches. That ought to do it. I hope.

Ground Control Install

Installation was straight forward and took about 3 hours. There were no instructions included with the kit other than how to cut your stock bump stops. (BOO) There was no need for spring compressors as the Tein springs that were on the car are so short that they are not compressed when installed. The Eibach springs in the GC kit are even shorter.



These are from left to right: stock, Tein, Eibach


The GC Eibach springs are 375/250 front/rear. I installed each of them so that the spring was just captured and not compressed. This gave a ride height of 13.5 inches from the center of the hub to the fender lip on the front and the back. I stuck with my FCM bump stops at 42/46.


Front installed


Rear installed

I think I will leave them for a while to settle before making any adjustments. I think I have a plan to level the car at the ride height I choose with sandbags in place of the driver. The Teins were at 12.25 inches all the way around and this was too low for performance driving but looked cool.
Hopefully I can find a compromise down the road. I made a short blast around the block and it was great to have suspension travel again. The ride did not seem overly harsh with the higher spring rates but then I was not on the bump stops.

Next project. Harness bar/side impact brace



Stay tuned.
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