Ok I have seen alot of post about these coilovers and I figured why not one big thread for everyone to discuss tuning tips, problems, etc. in one big thread to help one another out.
Today I put the fronts on and finished with the rears yesterday. I have spent the majority of the day working on some adjustments.
So far here are some measurements of how I have my assembly set up. On the front struts, the bottom of the spring perch to the top of the bottom red peice on the strut is 2.5 inches and the strut itself has been turned that the inside is 2 1/4 inches. (If you measure the inside of your strut when you are adjusting is the portion I am talking about.) I haven't measured my spring height yet because I still haven't done much pre-loading yet. The front struts are also set on 7.
The rears I haven't measured yet but without any pre-loading of the springs total height is 10 inches. I still need to measure how far the bottom of the spring perch is from the strut. I have the rears set on 9.
As fars as ride goes there is some roughness, though the front seems pretty dialed in, but I am hoping pre-loading the springs a tad more will help it out. The rear though is gonna need quite a bit more work. I do like my ride a lil rough though so to some they may not like this. Unfortunately I can't see the knobs in the rear to know which way is which and on the fronts the stickers fell off. I just remember what I have them set at. So this leads me to some of my questions and problems.
If facing the front of the car which way would I go to adjust the fronts on both right and left? What way will counter-clockwise and clockwise turn it? Also if facing the rear, which way do I turn to adjust?
I also have some minor camber issues. Both right and left front tires set inwards on the bottom just a tad and I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue. Its barely noticeable from the eyes, but when driving during hard cornering its like the rim wants to roll over the tires. I increased tire pressure from 32 to 38 pounds but it only slightly helped. What can I do to address this issue?
Other than that I have no complaints. I don't have any clunking or shaking, just a tad too harsh ride for most tastes and the camber issues. All help will be greatly appreciated.
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
counter clock wise is SOFT
clockwise is FIRM
my fronts go on friday , and ill be taking measurements , and pics
plus ill be taking measurements off fstcavs car that has the final prototypes on it
Ok thanks.
Well looking that the camber issues and discussing this with someone else I am going to have to do some grinding on my bottom bolt hole on the bottom of the strut to bring my camber back into alignment. I knew when I put them on that it wasn't looking right and once we got the car down the top of the wheels angled out and the bottom angled in.
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
Zach:
Thanks for starting this, i was a little upset when the GP thread got deleted with all the info in it, hopefully we can keep this one going.
As for your camber issue, mine look to be pretty straight, but im gonna be going tin for an alignment tomorrow afternoon and i will see what they have to say about it.
I still feel that right now the only "suspension" i have right now is my 15" winter tires that have some bounce to them. I cant even imagine putting the 18's on the way it is right now.
<img src="http://www.j-body.org/registry/nothing13/thumbnail_sig-jpeg.jpg">
good thread, found my first problem when i went to put my mounts on today, one of my front struts seems to be blown, i took off the springs on both front and put on the strut mount and compressed it to see if they spring back up well one failed the test, and when i looked further into it my top screw used for changing the damping settings could screw out wouldnt click just started unthreading out of the rod, and thats the only one of mine thats missing the sticker on the top of the screw for damping, so i guess ill have to call jim tomorrow and hopefully get this resolved
R.I.P. Brian Klocke, you will never be forgotten
I took my car to get an alignment today. I'll post up my alignment sheet when I get back to my apt. on Tues. A quick note though, and I know for everyones ride height, etc. it'll be different but my camber and toe both were frigging out of this world off. Taking it to the shop today the car was barely driveable. I don';t have the sheet right on me but I think he said it was camber was off by 1.8 degrees on one wheel and 1.7 on the other. But like I said I'll post the sheet up next week to let everyone see exact numbers.
Now after I got the front end lined up I honestly don't get where people say these things are ridicuously harsh. Only on extreme bumps was the car pretty rough but for more common bumps and city driving they drove incredibly smooth. The rears are still a little harsh for my taste and needs quite a bit more tuning but the fronts are pretty well dialed in. I am going to keep it set at 7 clicks and go maybe one full turn on compressing the spring and see how that helps. The rear though is currently on 10 clicks but could use quite a bit more softening.
I put around 50 miles today with city driving and only when I went through a shopping center parking lot with 3 inch ruts did the ride get ridicuously harsh. IMO though you shouldn't hit bumps like that hard anyways because all it does is knock the front back out of alignment.
I put another 30 miles on some really nice back roads but due to wet roads I didn't get too push them extremely hard. Thats where I tuned most of my setting so it may be slightly harsher for some then others. Through the twisties handling is incredibly crisp and smooth and in some really tight sections you have to watch how well the car turned into corners because it would want to cut too much. Even with the rears as harsh as they were it was far less noticeable.
So total I have around 100 miles and everything seems to be going smooth so far. No clunks or anything like that. Tommorrow I get to put around 200+ on them and I'll work some more on fine tuning weather permitting.
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
Okay, thats a small bit of encouragement... maybe....
Zach, I can't remember, are you on 2k+ mounts, or the stock 95-99s? and what about wheel/tire sizes?
I will say that I never managed to get an alignment, so my judgement of harsh included a poor alignment, but I had issues with the 2k+ mounts that need resolved before I'll do the alignment. (no I am not riding on these, and yes, I have realigned the car, knowing that it wouldn't be until spring when I got these put back on)
I am excited to hear that the ride improved with the alignment....
The Chosen One,
I'm on the stock 95-99 mounts.
32 psi on all four tires
215/45/ZR17 Toyo Proxes 4
Theres no way I could drive the car without an alignment. The toe and camber were so horrible the tires wanted to roll off the rims when cornering and driving straight it felt as if the wheels were riding on rim. Theres still plenty of adjusting I have to do but I have to wait until this rain clears up some. I can get my exact measurements for everything then.
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
this thread=good idea. this should really help everyone out. here are the install instructions that jim had sent me via email.
i followed jims diagram and had no problems whatsoever when i installed the coilovers. they were easier to install than my pacesetter header. after i installed them i took the car for a spin and it was bouncy as hell, because it was out of alignment and the fact that i had not preloaded the springs enough. i had my car aligned about 3 weeks ago and absolutely love this setup. i'm riding on my stock 14" wheels right now and the ride is incredible. i still need to do some adjusting in the rear, but i love how the fronts are set. i think they are at 10 clicks. my car is sitting about 1.5" lower than stock all the way around. i love going around corners now, the car feels solid. i've beat on these coilovers pretty well, accidentally hitting really large potholes, taking corners hard and all that good stuff. they love the abuse. i'm really surprised that jim hasn't shown up in any of these posts to comment on the issues with the 2k+ mounts. in the email he had sent me, the one that included the diagram, he had mentioned that they were gonna keep a set of coilovers and do an illustrated install guide for both the 95-99 and 2k+ mounts, but i have yet to see anything of that nature. anyways thats my 2 cents.
well ive got my fronts in , and i gotta get it aligned badly , the front toe is way out
1 side is prob close to 3/4 to 1" out , the other side is close to 1/2 to 3/4" out
mine did this when i put the prokit on it also
i only took it around the block and slowly , so its hard to tell how its gonna ride
but the front spring height is at 7 1/2" , i set my front up the same way the company that built them set up the 1's on fstcav's car
i used the 00-05 mounts , and nothing was needed or left out , the washer that is on the strut when you get them went under the nut , and i did add more bearing grease to the bearings
i thing that bluejbody97 noticed with his compaired to mine is his mounts were missing spacer that mine had under the stock nuts that is held in by the rubber inside the mount , and he had commented his made odd noises
those using the 00-05 mounts you might want to check and see if that spacer is in the mount , if its not there the mount looks like its only a washer thinkness from the bottom side to the top side , ill try and get a pic of my old mounts with that spacer missing
unfortunatly i was unable to take any pics , my whole schedual was screwed up today , then finding out 1 of my mounts was bad , and having to get new 1's , screwed me from getting any pics
Well guys the car is @!#$. Its wrecked pretty bad in the front end. I was going to post about how my 200+ miles of working I got done with it today, but when I got to my girlfriends tonight we made a quick trip out and thanks to some nice wrecker service that leaves gravel and @!#$ all in the road I hit it at about 35mph (45 mph corner) and pushed the radiator on back a few inches. I'll have pics up soon in the wrecked forum.
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
Pics are posted...........
Well on a lighter note, if I ever get the car back a couple turns on the springs and I think it be perfect.
The fronts are set on 7 and the rear set on 9. I got the measurements of the front around here somewhere and the rear I'll get when I look at the car tommorrow.
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
i just lowered a friends 03 cav today , and i did notice the nuts on the struts in his cav were tall enough to make up the space in the mounts in my 00
so pretty much you change the nuts you loose that extra height , so if you have that extra tall nut , you might want to find the spacer used
Yes my car is wrecked, but evidently my dad has been driving it to the shops for qoutes and from his mouth, "I have never been in a car that is so tight through turns."
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
hey everybody im new to j-body, but i have the Gravana Coilovers also. I got them around christmas and, had them on the car since new years. i like them so far, but i wanted to know how u guys adjusted them. how much preloading did u do, how many turns did u do. from when the spings were barely loose, how many turns did u do to tighten them. i went 10 turns. is that too much, should i losen them some. thanks
Garett
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2092536
garett , that really depends on how they are riding for you
if the ride feels good to you , then there would be no need to adjust them any differently
right now the installed height of my springs are 9" front and 9 1/2" rear , and i need to change them because mine is a little stiff
i havent been in a hurry to change them because im trying to put some miles on them , to break them in
i got tired of JIm jerking me around so im returning the COs and jsut getting teins. I am horribly dissappointed in Jim
i have what seems to be a unique problem. put the co's in today and when i got the fronts done i put the car back on the ground and the shaft of the strut (where the top nut that holds the strut mount on is) was sticking up rediculously high on the right side. idk what i did wrong or if it's a result of a bad strut mount? idk. i have to pull it all apart tomorrow and check, just wondering if anyone had a similar problem or any insight. i'm using 2k+ mounts. i hope it's nothing too big. i also have a toe problem. lots of toe out, but i'm callin a couple places about gettin an alignment tomorrow so i just won't drive it until then.
-john
i haven't put these on yet.....but appreciate everyones imput
i too am kinda weirded out about how jim hasnt really gave us much help.....
you guys w/ the toe and camber issues.....will brining the car to an alignment shop fix all that or will i need to purchase camber plates in order to correct it?
fix the 1 that is sitting higher first
the toe is a normal change as is the camber being off
something must either be missing , bad or not installed right
with the 2k mounts make sure the spacer is in the upper mount , and all you need to do for the mount is pull the nut and washer off , and put the mount in , then the washer and nut
i had toe and camber issues, mine was way off. i took it to get alligned and he said he couldnt fix the camber, because the bolt holes on the bottom of the strut in the front were too tight, so i would have to grind the hole to make it bigger. but he said that the camber wasnt that bad, and i would be ok if i didnt grind the holes
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2092536
the 2 upper holes are the camber adjustment
not the lower holes
