I... RAISED my suspension? Now with pics.

[4cefed]

I've been neglecting my poor '92 coupe 240SX. I needed wheel bearing in the front and there were a lot of clunks and rattles up there too. I ordered new wheel bearings, new lower "control" arms, new T/C bushings, tie rod ends, sway bar bushings, end links, and strut mounts. Since I (used to) live in Vermont, I never worried much about fancy coil-overs since they will be too low or destroyed in months on those roads. I got a set of generic Gabriel shocks from *shudder* Autozone about 4 years ago.

The front passenger side shock blew out like a year a go and it must have gotten water in it, every time the temperature dropped I had zero suspension travel on that corner til it warmed up a bit. I brought them back to autozone and exchanged them for new ones on the lifetime warranty.

So everything went ok, I found out my 6 ton bearing press must be mounted in a 2 ton frame (pics to follow), and the only difference was in the strut tower mounts. I believe I had the originals in there with almost 200k miles. The new MOOG replacements looked almost 1/2" taller. I looked up part numbers to confirm I had the right ones and i did, so I figured my old ones must have been compressed over the years.

When I got the car back together and put back on the ground, the front seems to be riding almost 2 inches higher. I re-used the same stock springs, and other than being a bit higher due to the strut tower mounts, I'm totally lost on why this would happen. Could all the new bushings cause it to sit higher? Sorry for the lack of pics, I'll take some in the light tomorrow while I do the alignment. I'm looking for some ideas though. Thanks!

[4cefed]

Pics:







...and my press. At this point the ram actually puncuted the bottom of the beam. I see quality time with a sawzall and my welder in my future.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

That press needs more triangles.

And yeah, try swapping the other mounts in and see if it drops back to normal.

[4cefed]

I'll have to try one side and see what difference there is. I'm going to get different spring compressors first. The centerline of the bolts are too close to the grab points for the spring so you can use a socket on one side, but at a point, you have to switch to a wrench on the other side. PITA.

I'm not crazy though, that's some excessive ride height? I haven't owned a fleet of 240s like most of the committed here, I don't have much to gauge against with stock suspension.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Yeah that looks a little high, but not too too much.

You're running the correct wheel/tire size right?

[Hijacker]

That looks about the right ride height for a factory setup. Measure from the ground to the top of the wheel well arch on the fender, and it should be about 27.32" by factory specs.

As for the press, cheap chinese steel. My 12t is a china press and the top bar is doing the same thing, just not quite to that extent. The best fix would be to get some higher quality, larger gauge steel to replace it.

[4cefed]

I measured the front fender height and it is like 27 1/4". I'm running 185/65/15s because I wanted the narrower section for the snow tires. So if the stock size is 205/60/15, according to the Miata Tire Size Calculator http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html mine are like 2/10ths shorter. So I guess this is the gap I'm supposed to have then?

When I pulled the wheels off the front, the inside of the driver's side tire was worn right down, so that's excessive negative camber right? I wonder if because all the bushings were warn out the front suspension kind of sagged. The rear wheel gap is about 26 1/2" to the fender.

Also, does anyone have some front strut mounts laying around? I got about 2" on my old ones with 200k+ miles of washboardy roads in Vermont. The MOOG ones were about 1/2" taller than these.



Thanks a lot for the replys guys! Hijacker, I can't wait until your build thread is done, that's some suspension pron right there.

[Hijacker]

mine are OE with the sticker on them. They have around 100k miles on them. They're not a rubber isolation piece. There's a needle bearing in there. I have a feeling the Moog part has the wrong dimensions or something just isn't sitting right.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Yeah the front top hat is supposed to have needle bearings in there so it can twist with the knuckle as you turn.

I threw mine away when I went to coilovers