Adjusting Coilover Height, Help.

[wolfwood]

hey all was just wondering if there is some sort of trick to adjusting coilover height.

ive undone the locking nut and now using the c spanner to try and tighten it so that my car is higher of the ground, this seems to be almost impossible. it moved a little but no were near enough as i need to move it, any secrets that i don't know about.

ta ben

[blind_elk]

Can you screw the adjuster platform down? The car is off the ground, with suspension at full droop?

Try WD40 (or similar) to clean / lubricate the threads.

[wolfwood]

yea i can screw it down and the suspension is at full drop.

it seems that the spring is stopping it from tightening, like it doesn't want to compress any more

[n15m0]

assuming its the same as my Teins, to raise it you are screwing it upwards, compressing the springs..and hence it gets harder the more you want to raise it...spraying WD40 + a fair bit of elbow grease would get you there...

[wolfwood]

yea you screw it up and obviously it gets harder but its so hard a camp move it so my car is very low adn i cant even drive with the stock front bar on.

[salad]

When I have to do this with my coilovers, I take the struts out and use spring compressors. We have some real big ones at work so this makes it alot easier. It sounds like more effort, but it's actually quicker and easier. If you have access to some spring compressors, I would suggest you do that

[wolfwood]

yea i have spring compressors i jsut cnf taking the hole lot outa the car.

[salad]

It's 3 nuts per strut! If they're little ones, just do it on the car

[shanef]

with coilovers, when adjusting those 'nuts' you arent compressing the springs, all ur doing is sliding the whole unit up/down itself, through the thread. so to raise the height of the car, wind the screw towards the ground, also the distnace u move the nuts is proportional to the change in height of the car from the ground

[salad]

Umm.. spring seat going down means the car is getting lower. Sping seat going up raises the car. The height change is not proportional once the spring is trapped and you are compressing it.

If you wind the spring seats up far enough, you do start compressing the spring and giving it preload.

[shanef]

Umm.. spring seat going down means the car is getting lower. Sping seat going up raises the car. The height change is not proportional once the spring is trapped and you are compressing it.

If you wind the spring seats up far enough, you do start compressing the spring and giving it preload.

Not when u use the c-spanners it does not compress the springs. It's kinda awkward to explain without pics...

[salad]

If you wind the spring seats up, the spring gets compressed. If you have helper springs, the helper crushes and the main spring doesnt.

I can't really see how it doesn't. Care to have some fun in MS paint?

Or are you talking about base height adjusment?

[n15m0]

OK here goes. pic is of my Teins (rears) currently at the lowest height setting...I have now wound it UP to raise the car and by doing so, have compressed my springs..

[shanef]

OK here goes. pic is of my Teins (rears) currently at the lowest height setting...I have now wound it UP to raise the car and by doing so, have compressed my springs..

ahh yes now i see. well with those teins, yes the springs are going to compress/extend when u adjust them.

however with the set of teins i put in a mates car recently, the adjustment grooves were closer to the bottom of the cylinder, and had nothing to do with the springs. this is by far the better design IMO

[salad]

You are talking about base height adjustment. Those should also have preload adjustment. I have never seen any coilovers that have had only base height adjustment, always preload aswell

[n15m0]

You are talking about base height adjustment. Those should also have preload adjustment. I have never seen any coilovers that have had only base height adjustment, always preload aswell

Pardon my ignorance but what is preload and how do you adjust it in my case?

[salad]

Spring force are proportional to displacement. Preload is giving an initial displacement of less than it's free height, so it's giving a force on the spring before the weight of the car is on it.

Preload adjustment is the spring seat adjustment. The effect of preload is nothing as far as I'm concerned in a car as you need an incredible amount of preload before it still has some preload when the weight of the car is on it. I.e. If there is sufficient preload, it will take the whole weight of the car and more before the actual loads negate the preload and cause the spring to be linear

Sorry for the crappy explaination, bit tired right now...

Edited December 23, 2006 by salad

[Muz]

Pardon my ignorance but what is preload and how do you adjust it in my case?

Just imagine your spring without any tension on it all as in dropped to it's fullest extension i.e. no preload . Now as you wind up the adjustment nut it compresses the spring and thereby creating preload and effecting a certain amount of height reduction due to the spring having less travel/compression. Tein Type Flex have damper height adjustment (fulled threaded shell) which allows for the height adjustment to be done without affecting spring preload. Type Flex also allow you to change the spring perch height thereby changing preload and have rebound (valve) adjustment as well. EDFC work great on these.

Check the Tein website for pics.

Changing the preload on yours is simply done by winding the spring up or down. The Type Flex type of damper are by far the better unit IMVHO. Other manufacturers have similar units although Tein are great quality products.

[BAMR33]

WD40 and more leverage. Just find a bar (1m in lenght) that fits over the spanner and it will give you superman like strength. Hope this helps dude.

Edited December 27, 2006 by BAMR33

[wolfwood]

^^ na cant do that have to get shorter springs or get some new coilovers, mine are f**ked anyways so will get some new ones and make sure tehy have enough adjustment for my car.

ben