If you can get the LBJ bolts out. The cross bolt is normally about as easy to get out as the rear long bolt.

 

Long bolt method worked wonderfully for me on the front, rear I took the bolt out of the upper control arm at the knuckle. I used seafoam penatrating lubricant on the bolts for a week before i started. All bolts/nuts came free and the car has 176,xxx miles. Took me 2 hours to do all four corners.

 

One of my sway bar end links was being stubborn. I figured you only had to remove one, not both and this proved to be correct. Long bolt method worked fine for me in the front, but who the **** designed the car so there is no good access to the drivers side rear mounting point? What a pain in the ***! It sucked taking the old setup out, and I don't see it being any easier to get the new stuff in. Do most people do this with a low fuel level and remove the filler neck and the small fuel lines that are in the way?

Keith

 

No I just remove the black cover piece and its fine.

 

I removed my fill neck and all that because both of my tophat nuts were frozen. I needed all the space I could get to apply torque to them. I have an SE that has the dumb chrome fuel door and I managed to strip out one of the screw heads while taking it out too.

 

It sucks more on an NB than it does on an NA, there are extra pipes for some reason.

I don't pull out the fill pipe, but I do wind up needing to use a bunch of different sockets & extensions. IIRC, the mid-length sockets are very helpful here (deeper than a normal socket, but not as deep as a standard deep socket).

--Ian

 

With the current generation Xida coilovers with the lower spring mount just high enough to put a tinny bit of pre-tension on the springs (just enough to seat the springs), the car sits at 3.5" at the pinch welds front and back.... and you can't get it off a lift without re-lifting it and putting some 2 x 4's under the tires I did the measuring after I got it off the lift BTW.

Since the car was 6" at the pinch welds on stock suspension that means I currently have a 2.5" drop. I think I will raise it up about 1" to 1.5" from where it is now and then take it in for an alignment to Flyin' Miata's "street car" settings.

Can I do alignment right away or do I need to drive the car a bit to let the new suspension "settle in" before aligning it?

Also, I hope the little plastic gasket things that go between the top mount and the car body are not essential... I forgot to use them on two corners.

Later,

Keith

 

Wow the new xidas go low. With mine having the rear perch set just high enough to not hit the axle I'm at like 4" pinch weld with the same size tires as you, or a little higher with my hohos.

 

Yeah, I was expecting around 2", 2.5" surprised me. If the thread pitch is the same (I think it is) I need to spin the collars 17 turns to get me up to 5" pinch weld, or 11 turns to get to 4.5 pinch welds.

Is there any advantage to a staggered drop? I see some people dropping the front half an inch lower than the rear but no real reason was given.

Keith

 

Staggered drop? You mean like rake?

 

Yes. Drop the car more in front than the back. I have seen that, and dropping it the same amount front and back and wondered if there was a reason other than esthetics.

Keith

 

Does this post make me no longer a Junior Member? If not I will edit these lines out

So, after winding collar upwards until my arms are worn out (they forgot the spanner, I used an allen wrench that fit the spanner holes) I finalized my setup at 4 and 13/16 at each corner. I selected that number because two of the corners were at that measurement, and the other two were only a 16'th or two away so they were easy to adjust to match.

Anyone with the new Xida's who wants to start off at near 5" pinch weld measurement spin the collars up until the helper springs are about 2/3 compressed and go from there.

Keith

 

rake is good. just don't overdo it. .25-.5"

 

To get the -1.0 camber up front we had to go with a bit more caster, ended up with 5.5 and 5.8 caster. I still have power steering so a bit more caster is not a big deal. If I ever do a power steering delete I will go with more negative camber in front in order to get the castor dialed in. Other than that I am set up to the Flyin' Miata street car specs.

Keith

 

Yep, you got screwed. At your ride height you should be able to get at least 2.5° of camber.

 

So they are ******* retarded? They had the car at -1.5 front and rear with 5 degrees of castor, and when I said the camber was more important than the castor they had to re-adjust it.

Keith

 

I'd go with "******* retarded," yep.

Our NA has nearing 3 degrees. Stock suspension.

 

Your castor is at 3 deg right?

If I was stock ride height I could have 3 deg castor at -1.0 camber... but at a bit over an inch of drop wouldn't that change how much caster I can have at -1.0 camber?

Keith

 

Yes, the camber and caster adjusters are one and the same, and to get that maxed out caster like you got you put the front adjuster to min camber and the rear to max camber, which results in basically min camber and max caster. I normally just put both adjusters to max camber, which gives a decent amount of caster and just slightly bump the rear adjuster to even out the caster side to side without changing the camber much.

 

Not sure. Castor is probably horrible. I didn't align it, i was just asked while down at MATG "Yo dawg how'd you get so much camber?"

And after looking at it, it has a LOT.