Steering trouble after installing ELBJ
 

Hey there! I'm new to the forums and I've never been seeking as much help as I am now! So I drive a 93' Miata, it is on Tien Coils and near slammed. I have maybe 2 inches front the pinch welds to the ground. Yesterday I installed Bauer's ELBJ to get a bit more camber in the front! I completed installation of all and torqued everything thoroughly and put the car back on the ground. I took it for a "drive", but ultimately never even left the parking lot. The feel of the car was horrible. The steering was painful. The smooth normal power steering I would normally get was completely absent and it felt a lot tougher. When you normally steer and let go of the wheel, the wheel normally counter-steers or just continues moving right? Well now when I go to turn and take my hands off the wheel, it just sits there stationary in that spot and the car just continues moving in that same direction (Not that I do that it was just to see how to car would react). I thought it was maybe because it was rubbing a lot more, so I got the car back up, and took out the fender liners and checked clearances for everything, and fitment was perfectly fine all the way to full lock. Car makes no noise in air when turning wheel. On the ground when driving, every now and then there will be this squeak or some sort of noise coming from the front wheels, in which I have no clue as to what it is, it's started since I've installed the ELBJ. Lastly, not sure if this would have anything to do with it, I highly doubt it, but the car seems to have a LOT more.. resistance? When starting off from first. It feels as if the ebrake is up but it isn't. I'm so confused as to what is happening and if I need to put my old ball joints back. I was prepping it for it's big first track day in mid May but I dont know if that's going to happen after all this! If anybody can help me out or would like to share their input or have experienced any of these things please let me know! If any other information is needed I would be happy to explain anything further.

So basically you installed elbj's on your slammed to the ground stancenation hoopty and didn't bother to get an alignment and now you're wondering why it feels like garbage with what I assume is a ridiculous amount of toe in?

It is not a stance car necessarily, I installed the ELBJ to allow for more camber being it is a drift build. From what I have seen and looked at it, it doesn't seem to have THAT big of a difference in regards to toe in, but machines say otherwise. I will attempt to drive it to the alignment shop today. Could it have added a substantial amount of toe in? Does it normally increase those values? But thanks for the reply! :)
Reasoning as to why I haven't taken the car to be aligned is because the shop was closed for the day as it was sunday and they reopened Monday. I was taking the car regardless to be aligned afterward, but the car is funky so I was looking for any tips or any help on the topic! If the case is simply Toe in, then an alignment is all I need i suppose!

Did you just seriously ask if extended lower ball joints increase the toe in?

I would gently suggest learning how cars work before doing any further "upgrades" or adjustments.

I would also kindly offer that you would do well to avoid doing track days until you increase your ride height to allow for a minimum of 2 inches of suspension compression above and beyond your static ride height. This is for your own safety and for the track time and money everyone else will lose when you break your car during a session.

I'm also curious what trailer you will use to get your car to this track day. Two inch pinchweld cars don't get onto trailers well. And they tend to have parts destroyed when the rollback winches them up to remove them from the track.

I asked because the gentlemen suggested the steering was acting the way it did because of substantial toe in. I notice people recommend an alignment after installing the ELBJ but thought nothing of it increasing toe in. I know exactly how a car works and have done plenty of "upgrades". And thanks for the input regarding track days, I will most certainly be increasing the ride height prior! And I normally disconnect the front bumper when things like that come into play, such as getting an alignment! Thank you for your input!

It's not just a recommendation, it's a requirement.

That's very obviously not the case. The entire purpose of ELBJ is to increase the amount of negative camber. As negative camber increases you will naturally get more toe in. That's like Suspension 101...

As far as "recommend", I knew it meant required. I was already planning on getting an alignment done afterward. And well I do know quite a lot about how they work! I was wrong to say exactly how every little thing works! haha. I clearly lack in the suspension side of things in regards to things like this, for that is the reason I am here! :) thanks for that last bit of information man, it makes sense now. I wasn't able to get the alignment done yesterday unfortunately.

How'd the alignment and trackday go?