Adjusting ride height w/coil overs

[priobe]

Hello all,

I am about to adjust my ride height and have seen people adjusting them by weight. They use 4 scales to balance out the ride.

Are they doinfg this with the car on the floor to adjust the coil? Or are they lifting the wheel each time until they reach the desired weight.

Next, is there a number of turns on the coilover adjustment nut that will give a gauge +/- in inches. i.e. 4 tuns for 1/4 or so?

[Excaliber]

When adjusting the spring on the shocks you need to jack up the wheel to release pressure on the spring, it will make it MUCH easier to turn the adjusting screw. When it comes to corner balance it is very time consuming and may involve jacking up, jacking back down, rolling the car to settle the wieght, it can be quite involved. The scales have to be PERFECTLY level or you WILL not get an accurate reading. Tire pressure changes will impact the corner weight settings, it is very sensitive. Add your weight to the drivers seat.

I recently adjusted and equaled the ride height on my ERA. I had to raise the rear about a half inch to get clearance for the slicks I'm running. I don't have access to four wheel scales, which would be nice, but FIRST step is to get equal ride height side to side and then go from there. I'll be taking the ERA to a local shop for the final corner weight setup, the guy has the scales.

I don't know about the "number of turns" per inch of lift, I just kept turning and measuring from the FRAME to the FLOOR. Do not measure using any part of the body itself. Another measurment I took, on the rear, was the distance from the bottom of the spring to the top of the adjustable shock setting valve. Because I have twin shocks per side with the Jag IRS I wanted to be sure I had both shocks turned up (or down) exactly the same amount. I didn't have to turn them very much to gain a 1/2", by the way.

When I was done I had a slight "rack" to the car, as recommended by ERA, and it looks right. The front slightly lower than the rear.

[Jerry Clayton]

No----there is no number of turns equals anything---the shocks are never mounted where they have a one to one rate====however if you count the turns you do make, you can arrive at the number of turns you need for your car--like Ernie, when he goes to slicks or back he can just adjust up or down the number of turns he needs on his car and the corner weights will then stay pretty much what he wants

[Bobcat]

I found that there is a relationship that applies to turns on the adjusting nut .... but it ONLY relates to the number of lbs that it will change for that particular corner and spring rate . When I ran dirt cars , we experimented on the scales so we knew when we got to the track what did what ... and then came back and reweighed the car to record the wheel weights if any changes were made at the track .... which I guess is what Jerry said .
The only other thing I`ll throw in is that the crossweight % are very important and should be as equal as possible for the street . Circle track is another story. Mine ended up at 50.3% on one diagonal and 49.7% on the other .... with the driver in the car .
Ernie is correct .. it is a very time consuming process , but well worth it when the car is set up right .
BTW , keep in mind that a car works on diagonals , i.e. picture the car balanced on a pole in the center . If you raise the RF , you add weight there and also to the LR . You also decrease weight on the LF and RR . A very simplistic brief explanation of a very complex subject .
When you finish ... record all settings/dimensions etc !!

Bob

[bobcowan]

If you're rac ing, then cross weights and balance can help you set up the car better. It's a fine tuning tool. For a street car, I doubt the average driver will ever know the difference. Just very carefully adjust ride height at each corner and call it good (for a street car).

Make sure you disconnect the sway bar before doing either.