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I installed my ISC 1.5" rear hats last week. Really easy job and wow what a difference! I'll hit bumps on large bumps but the amount of confidence I have in this suspension is so much higher!
My buddy wants to do a setup like this on his car now. He's got an NA, would NB Shocks still be a good idea? I think the added travel of the NA shocks would greatly suit him but I don't really know about how bad the valving is. I think we will be going to 550/350 rates for his car with extended hats at least in the rear.
Hello all. I haven't been following this thread so I don't know if these are still relevant, but I have ~75 snap rings from the "sample" that Roto-Clip sent me. I replaced a busted circlip with one of these and didn't have a single issue. I've sold my car and hate to throw these away so if anyone wants some just shoot me a few bucks for shipping and they're yours.
What would you guys pay for used bilsteins from an NA? Things I know about them:
They're yellow. They have stock springs on them. They are supposedly revalved by FCM but I have no way of confirming that. Theres no schrader valve on them, my old revalved bilsteins had that, not sure if thats an indicator of anything.
These are basically mystery shocks to me. They ride pretty decently in my opinion, I just have no idea what they are worth.
FCM revalaved Bilsteins on stock springs? Highly strange. FatCat usually puts stickers on his shocks and also stopped doing revalves on used shocks at some point. Unless there is some sign that Shaikh worked on them (Shrader, stickers, FCM hardware,etc - they are just used NA Billies. I've scored one set for free 6 month ago, had to pay $120 for another set at one point. Those are my two personal reference points.
at 12.5" front with -1.7* camber, 15x9 with 225 tires rub wheel liners when hitting bumps/dips on my 450# front springs. I know that liners can be removed, but it looks like on NB liners are very close to actual metal and I'm wondering if removing them will just allow the tire to rub on metal instead.
Does it sound normal to rub like that with 450# springs at 12.5"?
If i raise the car any more - i'm going to lose camber.
at 12.5" front with -1.7* camber, 15x9 with 225 tires rub wheel liners when hitting bumps/dips on my 450# front springs. I know that liners can be removed, but it looks like on NB liners are very close to actual metal and I'm wondering if removing them will just allow the tire to rub on metal instead.
Does it sound normal to rub like that with 450# springs at 12.5"?
If i raise the car any more - i'm going to lose camber.
Yep, you're running rates half as stiff as you need to run that low. You have 2 good options. You can raise the car, you can run stiffer rates. Adding bump stop length is just going to add rate via the bump stops.
Yep, you're running rates half as stiff as you need to run that low. You have 2 good options. You can raise the car, you can run stiffer rates. Adding bump stop length is just going to add rate via the bump stops.
Proper bump stop height should be set first to at least prevent mechanical contact. Past that, the rest of the system needs to be tuned to work.
450lb fronts at 12.5 is where I am and I could not see doubling my rates. I'm not on my bump stops very often at all but mine are 36mm, I don't rub and have a good amount of travel.
Mine are just a bit shorter then yours, not by much. I think around 31mm.
If it's rubbing that bad you should remove the spring and lift the car by the wheel with blocks so it's just barely picking the wheel on the other side and the one behind/in front of it just off the ground. That puts enough weight on the bump stop to compress it. Shim the bump stop until you stop getting mechanical contact. You can also experiment with multiple bump stop rates this way to have a soft engagement.
If it's rubbing that bad you should remove the spring and lift the car by the wheel with blocks so it's just barely picking the wheel on the other side and the one behind/in front of it just off the ground. That puts enough weight on the bump stop to compress it. Shim the bump stop until you stop getting mechanical contact. You can also experiment with multiple bump stop rates this way to have a soft engagement.
Ok, maybe I'm too tired, but i didn't get what you are suggesting to do. When i was installing the setup - i did move the wheel without springs until that side started to lift and it all looked fine. Not sure where discrepancy is coming from, but I can try this again some time. I wasn't going to drive for 8 hours to Laguna, I would just slap 700# + helper...but it will kill my back and shatter my teeth (at least I think so).
If you are getting to the bumpstops too easily and aren't interested in stronger springs you need larger sway bars. But the bumpstops should keep you from making contact regardless.
Sway bars simplified = they essentially borrow some of the spring capacity from one side of the car to help the other. If you have ever had a vehicle with torsion bar springs, they work similarly to them, but left to right rather than individually and connected to the frame.
450/325 worked fine for two days at Laguna Seca. Springs are a bit soft for turn 6 and corkscrew (thats where they would have most travel to the point of rubbing liners), but otherwise setup worked great giving me good feedback and confidence. In fact BBBs felt much more at home on the track than on the street. Decided to stay at my earlier ride height as it lets the suspension work well. Would seriously consider going to stiffer front and back if this car starts to see more track than street time. This set has helped me get 225 R-S3s on 15x9 do their work in corners and the car felt stable and predictable.
I want to thank all the contributors to this thread. This is the best suspension setup I ever had in a car. And I owned quite a few, albeit almost all of them with stock suspension.
I run identical setups on both Miatas ('99 and '03):
- Shocks from NB 'S' package
- 550lbs/in front and 350lbs/in rear
- Extended NB topheads (1.5" rear and 1.0" front)
- Cut-back Honda bumpstops
- Allstar sleeves (cut back to minimum length)
- PAC 3" helper springs
- Secondary groove for circlips cut into shocks 1.5" lower
One word of warning: with the helper springs and 7" rear springs, running a poly-isolator between secondary and primary spring, the whole spring setup gets to be pretty long. This means the lower perch of the allstar sleeve can rub on the half-shaft if you go real low. If you're running 5" pinch weld height or less, I'm pretty sure you can go with 6" rears. No way they're going to bind- I have less than 3" travel left on the shock shaft with 4.75: rear pinch weld height before the RUCA hits the frame. 6" PAC springs at 350lbs/in have almost 4" travel before coil bind.
So again: Thanks guys! The last three track days have been an absolute and total blast- in large part due to the much, much, much improved suspension!
09-10-2016, 11:41 PM
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