hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Look what I just got from the Fedex man!



FCM Suspension (bought it on last year's group buy), RB tubular front sway with brace kit and adjustable end links.

After watching others dick around with multiple setups, I decided to just do it once and do it right.

Time to tear into the suspension. Plan to go through it with a fine tooth comb. Probably overdue considering I've got 192K on the stock suspension.

mx594m

iTrader: (1)

what spring rates did you get?

I love my FCM setup, perrrrfit

you are ditching the rear bar, right?

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

YOU SHOULD DO SOME BUSHINGS BRAh. I'm jelly of your nice FCM setup though.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

I got the spring rates that Shaikh recommended for my usage. Suspect they are similar to yours. I ordered these back in September under the group buy, and really can't remember everything we discussed. I did tell Shaikh to do me last because I'm overloaded at work. So, he did. I plan to ditch the rear anti-sway.

I plan on pulling all the control arms off the car and taking a hard look at the bushings and ball joints. I've got a good procedure from the FSM to test the ball joints.

Anyone have a good procedure for testing rubber bushings? Obviously, if they are totally cracked and falling apart, they need to go. But short of that, I'm not sure how to judge their condition. I "think" that I want to stay with rubber.

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Stick a screw driver in there and wiggle?

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

I just solved my problem. Buying a complete set of loaded control arms (ES) from rharris19 for $225. The ball joint boots on my uppers are torn, so assuming at least one of the ball joints is gone, I just saved myself some money and got the bushings + labor for free!! Happy.

He has another set guys.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

Send that POS swaybar brace back and get the AWR brace from FM. I broke my RB brace several times on my track car, once on my daily.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Wilco. Should have asked. It's still vacuum-bagged, so I should be good to go. Thnx.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Hustler, is this what you're talking about?

http://www.flyinmiata.com/index.php?...umber=13-36600

It says it is not compatible with the RB mounts. ???

hustler

iTrader: (6)

My RB bar is bolted to it like a bauce. I think they're referring to the braces you already have.

Why did you get those links and not the 949 links? I'm sorry to be an ***, I've broken a lot of crap and you can probably learn from my pain. My car is really "rigid" in the suspension, it's the happy place.

Seefo

iTrader: (5)

that RB white brace, is supposed to help with big sway bars that damage our mounts (along with the other sway bar bracing kit, which uses two blocks to brace the sway bar mounts to the front frame "spiders" or legs).

the competition sway bar mounts are an AWR/MazdaComp. piece that fixes the issue without adding a bunch of bandaid bracings. You can buy it directly from AWR, or visit mazdaspeed dev.
http://store.awrracing.com/products/...005-Miata.html

They are the same price everywhere I think.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

For clarity sake, I kept breaking the bolt-heads off the RB brace. It's also the most annoying piece on the car. I'd rather take the turbo in and out than jack with an RB swaybar brace.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

'Tis good to have a happy place, even though thou art an ***.

Honestly, I just found that Good-Win seemed to have the best price on the sway bar so I ordered the sway bar and accessories from them in one shot (I'm lazy). They have the boxed sway bar mounts also, and their website is clear that the fitment issue is with '01+ RB sway bars, so I'm in the clear. I'm sure I can exchange the brace for the mount. Can probably trade in the end links too given that the 949s are that much better. Maybe I need to spend more time on your build thread?

Seefo

iTrader: (5)

nah, its full of gay men making out and other perverted non-christian stuff.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

How else does anyone put a Miata together?

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Semen is way better than JB Weld.

Seefo

iTrader: (5)

touche!


did you mean Siemens? the company? haha

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

It's been awhile, but I've recently done a bunch of stuff to the car and gotten it back on the road. One of the things I did was put the new suspension on.

Subjective:
This suspension is uber-comfortable. It just soaks up the bumps. With the stiff springs (550/375), it stays off the bumpstops much better and the dampers control the springs really well. Even if I get on the bumpstops, they are now the high-quality FCM bumpstops, not 20+ year old hardened rubber. It's really, really nice. And, of course, the car feels way more put-together dynamically.

Objective:
My only objective data point at this stage (I'm 350 miles into breaking-in a crate engine, so I'm driving easy) is from giving a ride to a friend of mine. This guy (world-class brilliant SW engineer) is pushing 400 pounds. He's also a Miata enthusiast and has one of the nicest, low-mileage smurf Miatas I've ever seen (he's the original owner). I'm not sure how he fits behind the steering wheel.

Anyway, he's heavy enough that with the stock suspension I could see a couple of inches of droop when he got in. The ride would then be on the bumpstops -- terrible. With the new suspension, I hardly notice any droop and it's smooth sailing all the way. Completely controlled.

Obligatory slammage pics for Brain:

Before:


After:


I still need to set the final ride height and get an alignment. But it's sooo much better than stock.