spring rates and steering questions

[homerneedspeed]

does anyone know the diffrences in spring rates and sway bar diameters between the standard equipment and the r- package stuff, i am looking into buying a used set of r-package struts, springs and sway bars and need to know if it is worth it. On another note, what years of miatas came with air conditioning and manual steering, i am going to manual steering but want to keep the a/c till it fails if i can find an idler/tensioner pulley to replace the p/s pump.

[MadMerv]

does anyone know the diffrences in spring rates and sway bar diameters between the standard equipment and the r- package stuff, i am looking into buying a used set of r-package struts, springs and sway bars and need to know if it is worth it. On another note, what years of miatas came with air conditioning and manual steering, i am going to manual steering but want to keep the a/c till it fails if i can find an idler/tensioner pulley to replace the p/s pump.

I've never seen any published spring rates, but the major difference on the 'R' is that the rear springs are 1 1/2 coils shorter, which results in the car setting level instead of the usual rake. R's all have bilstein shocks. You can buy the idler pulley and bracket from Mazda, but I might have them on my Spec Miata-to-be. Will let you know.....

[Jiggerachi]

I once found a list of stock / aftermarket spring rates on the board, ill try to find it.

Found it...

Stock - 153f 94r 61.44%

StockR - 153f 105r 68.63%

http://www.tampabaymiatas.net/Misc_P...sion%20201.htm

The info is on the bottom of the page.


This only covers the spring rates, im not too savy on the sway bars for these cars.

[homerneedspeed]

hey merv you got that idler?

[homerneedspeed]

just for refrence the front r package sway bar is 1mm larger in front and the rear is the same size. i installed it on my car and now i can't just tighten up my line and slide the car i have to set up or it just pushes, but i think it is because the rear dropped but the front stayed the same leveling the car out. i'm going to get an alignment and see if ti fixes it, but if it dosen't i'm going to put the stock front bar back on. other than that it feels alot better because of the stiffer valving.

[brock]

Actually the front swaybar is the same size on all miata packages. The rear however is 12mm on all 90-93 and 94-97 w/torsen diff. The front springs on the R are the same across the board for all 94-97 models. The rear springs, if I remember right are about 10% stiffer than any other 94-97 model, and they were also used in the 93 LE. Some people have said that other 90-93 cars may have used the same rear springs, but I have not found any numbers on the rear springs of the 90-93 cars. The spring perches of the Bilstien shocks sits 15mm lower than the stock perch, thereby lowering the car about 1/4 inch.

I picked up a rear swaybar off ebay for $6 shipped. I was able to pick up a used set of Koni sports for $150, and I was able to get the front and rear springs from a 93 LE for $20. I ended up selling the set on ebay for $325. :afro:

I ran this setup for about 3 months, and was not as impressed as I thought that I would be. I have driven 2 other factory R cars with Koni sports, and the feel of those cars was more responsive. One of the owners told me that he previously had a car that he converted using brand new Mazda Motorsports parts, and he was able to tell a difference. Some people suspect that the bushings have a higher metal content than non R bushings. I have not found anyone that can confirm this, however.