ok i got some d2’s 8/6 rates
i know there are alot of people on son running d2’s anyone want to give me pointers on adjustments.
the car is a s13.
i know to put the rears up all the way.
what about the fronts height adjustment wise?
also most important how much pretension do u guys put on them?
mine are almost as low as u can get. i’ll need to raise them up for my wheels to fit but they were fine last year when it was slammed. my rates are 7/5 tho so its not as stiff.
why do u need the back up as much as u can go?
What do you want to adjust?
The height or the dampening?
Height = whatever looks best to you.
Dampening = play around until you find the sweet spot.
i mean as low im sorry for using the wrong wording.
im most interested in preload setting!
I don’t konw how to desribe the setting I used to get the height I have.
Like wise with dampening, play around until you find the height you want.
The first time you put it on, it won’t be the height you want. So make a
note of the height/collar distance and then adjust accordingly.
Measure between the collar as a guide like so
ok so … i right now have my height adjustment set to full low on the back and some jantos specification at the front.
how many MM did u people adjust the preload too?
anyone here with a good grasp on preload theory care to chime in?
preload is not the tension on the spring, its the i dont know how to describe it, but the dead weight on the shock that isnt being used?
the load your car puts on the shock before the spring seats to the mount
Jesse, preload adjusts the amount of load placed on the spring while it is unweighted. This can change the amount of force needed to initiate compression of the spring if the spring has a rising rate.
my preload is sloppy, very sloppy.
i took some advice that i heard around the scene and left my spring “loose” (when the car is in the air i can move it up and down about 1 or 2 cm. it worked well for me but i think im going to tighten it up this year.
So if your car isn’t even maxed out as far as lowering goes… why would you want to preload a linear rate spring? :dunno:
Ok im trying to set my car up for drift. I do not have a running car now so i cant adjust and practice so id like to get it close to how i might like it so i can do final tuning once they are on the car.
What kind of preload are you guys running? If any?
a preload explanation…hmm… here goes…
Take a light spring and compress it an inch. Hold it at that position. Try and compress it another inch… Notice it takes more force to compress the spring more.
Start over and compress that same spring an inch and then wrap some tape around so it stays at that compressed length. Now compress it another inch. Notice it’ll take the same force to compress it as it did when you compressed the spring two inches earlier.
lets assume some things…
Your car weighs 2000lb and has a 50/50 weight distribution, that means each corner of the car weights 500 lbs.
Your shocks are valved so they do not support the cars weight and only control the spring. The springs have all the same linear spring rate of 100 lb/in and have a free length of 10inches.
Lets use a rear coilover as an example; With the car in the air, the top of the hat to the center of the hole is 28inches. Adjust the spring seat such that the top spring touches the bottom of the top hat and the bottom of spring just touches the spring seat.
Lower the car back to the ground. In order to support that 500 lb weight the spring compress 5inches (500lbs / 100lbs/in = 5 in). so The coilover is now 23 inches long… translating into 0 inches wheel gap. :lol:
But Mr. MTO & PoPo says we need 2 inches of wheel gap. :madfawk: What can we do? Either adjust the coilover length 2 inches longer or up the preload by moving the spring seat up 2 inches… (or some combination of both).
On to race track!!!
So what does preloading a linear spring do for us on the track??/ well pretty much nothing more than what it did earlier. If you find the car is bottoming out even though you’ve dialed up the shock to max AND increased the shock length to max, all thats left is to up preload… mind you if you’re at that point you should head to town and buy some higher rate springs.
If the spring and/or shock have a non-linear rates then preloading can help find that sweet spot to for shock stroke length and/or spring height.
Some manufactures recommend a minor preload, some say turn the seat by hand or light force on the wrench till you can’t turn the seat any higher. If you read the Tein installation manuals they give references dimmensions to establish a certain ride height.
I don’t know about leaving the spring loose. If you catch air then the spring is allowed to move around and when you land the spring could seat harshly, giving some nice metal to metal scrapping IMHO. Put in a helper spring to fill the gap so the main spring won’t flap in the wind.
Myself I just do the hand tight thing.
I guess the bottom line is… since you have linear spring don’t worry so much about the preload!
Just set the ride height to something you can live with.
It’ll take a litte bit of trial to see what works better for you but, I’d start off okay wheel gap (at least two finger measure), and set the shocks light to medium dampening with higher settings in the front! this will allow for better weight transfer to the rear.