RPIRX-8

Does anyone have the instructions for adjusting the spring, rebound, and ride height on the JIC Coilovers? I need some assistance and couldn't find any relevant threads from the search button. Thanks

PUR NRG

Ride height is the first raw adjustment and depends on how low you want. Body kits can limit this. Once you have a rough approximation of ride height, next step is corner weighing the car and getting an alignment done.

Compression and rebound are set together. Despite what JIC advertises this is a one-way adjustible shock with 15 possible settings. Leave it at full soft f/r and adjust it based on what kind of driving you do.
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RPIRX-8

Thanks for the response PUR. I'm more looking on the actual "how" to do the adjustments. I know about the ***** on the top of each tower, but I know there are the red rings that screw up and down. The front coilovers have 4 of these, the rears have 3 i believe. I know which one adjusts the spring rate, but which one does the right height?

PUR NRG

The red rings adjust ride height. They have no effect on spring rate. Spring preload, yes. Spring rate, no.
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SHINTO FORUMS

RPIRX-8

Right, gotcha, but there are 4 of them. Do they all have to do with ride height, or just some of them?

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Heres what I got from them last week on the phone...

Front coilovers. from the top of shock body to top of spring perch adjusting ring 50mm

Rears...from the bottom ot the shock....16mm from machined lip at bottom of threads to bottom of second ring on spring perch.

From top of second ring to bottom of height adjusting ring...64mm

From top of height adj ring....to top of shock body 185mm

I set mine up this way...and it's a bit low in the rear....I set it up about 1/2 inch higher and it looks OK. With the measures above the camber was about 2 deg and it maxed out the adjuster....when i raised it a bit i was able to get it back to -1.5 degrees like I wanted

I'm getting a set of scales and will corner weigh it...and adjust it a bit after I get my new wheels mounted......

There is a PDF from JIC I can send if anyone wants it PM me. It is the generic instructions...but it shows you how to deal with height adjustments without affecting the shock travel or the spring preload

PUR NRG

Yes, please. I can add it to my DIY website. Thanks.
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IZoomZoomI

hey pur where can I get corner weighing done? And where did you get yours alligned at?

PUR NRG

I had mine done at Custom Alignment in Mountain View. They do a good job but it isn't cheap--$150 for standard alignment, more like $500 if you corner weight.
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Endless Rotaries

iTrader: (6)

For East Bay you can always hit Roger Kraus Racing in Castro Valley. PM me and I'll get the number at work.

On my Zeal coilovers adjusting ride height in the rear was quite interesting. MIne have two threaded sleeve bodies that kinda fit into each other. I haven't seen a pic of the JIC's if it's the same. If anyone can find a pic I'll tell you exactly what you need to do in lamen's terms. I will be descriptive. The rear can be tricky because of the design of the RX8 rear uppermounts. It has forced the coilover manufacturers to follow a pretty unorthodox casing. That's probably what is confusing.

In the front simply this if you are not intending to corner balance. Honestly if you're not a track car i think you can do this yourself and save a lot of money. It won't be perfectly balanced but if not on the track probably won't see the complete benefits.

BASELINE MEASUREMENT FOR RIDE HEIGHT:
1. As mentioned above you'll want to take some baseline measurements for your existing ride height and the deviation between that and the desired ride height. Say you are at 28" from middle of fender well to ground and you want to be at 26", you measure the difference as 2" and write that down on a piece of something. Next measure the other side and make sure you're at 26" all the way around or whatever your desired number might be. Make sure you write down all the differences and that your car has been measured on a level surface with the proper amount of FUEL and DRIVER WEIGHT, you desire for the vehicle to be at it's optimal center of gravity, CG, and front to rear balance. Once you have those deviations written down you know exactly how much you need to move the "LOWER SHOCK BRACKETS" upward to lower, or downward to raise. It's kinda backwards now. So think about it. If you raise the lower bracket in the direction of the upper mount your are shortening the distance between the mounting points, thereby effectiely lowering the vehicle. The advantage of such a coilover is to have RIDE HEIGHT INDEPENDENT OF RIDE QUALITY, or the more technical stroke vs preload terminology. If setup properly you can get your car to ride the same whether it is 2" off the ground or 5" off the ground. AT this point just keep that piece of paper or whatever until step three.

Front PRELOAD CHECKING:
2. The Lower Spring perch and locking collar should ideally not be messed with. If preload has been set correctly and spring has been broken in you're good to go with the FLT-A2 setup. Now to check for preload just make sure you can spin it with a FIRM grip. You don't want to just palm it and easily spin it. You need to GRip it and make an effort, but still want it to spin. Now use the same "Grip Dyno" to setup equal preloads on all four corners. Especially from side to side. GREAT preload in FRONT is SET.

Front RIDE HEIGHT Adjustment:
2: Now that the lower spring perch and locking collar are tight you can go to set ride height. However prior to doing so refer to step 1. You must have your baseline measurements handy in advance. You basically calculated you need to lower the vehicle 2" on the front right, so loosen the locking collar for hte lower bracket and spin the sucker upward exactly 2". Now is exactly when you ask yourself, **** how do i spin the bracket when its connected to this lower suspension arm thingy. lol. So with a little intuition you will figure out that you can either spin the bracket upward onto the casing, ORRRR you can spin the casing downward into the bracket. hMMMM I see now... It's kind of a PITA you might want to use a jack under the arm to releive some tension on the damper. It will help you spin the "shock casing" into the lower bracket. Make sure you've made your marks appropriately on the casings so you know when to stop.

That's for the front. once you finish each front corner, before putting the wheel on, make sure to double check that your spring preloads have not been changed. You can also measure the location of the spring perch from any reference point and compare the two sides. I do not suggest creating this symmetry with the lower brackets as some cars are heavier on one side due to various reasons. only use this symmetry for the spring preloads.

Ok so round 2 will be for the rears. But if someone can post a pic of the JIC's that would be great. It's like 1am here so i'll catch up with this tomorrow. Hopefully that kinda helped. Real briefly for the rear we found it was easier to disconnect the lower bracket from the car and spin it that way. We also loosened the preload on the spring completely and set the preload after setting the ride height pt on the casing. We found this was a much much easier and faster way to do it. It's kinda backwards from the conventional method of setting up coils for me.

Hope that helped. Just trying to earn my brownie points here on the 8 board.

Rishie

IZoomZoomI

thanks pur I give them a call. Mountain is a lot closer to me now than castro valley.

RX4life

wow.. corner weighing is just pushing it..unless this is your race car thats just a waste of money....

PUR NRG

That all depends. For one thing, labor in the SF bay area costs a lot. Where else do you hear of dealership honda mechanics charging over $100/hr for labor? For another, $500 is a lot if you work at McDonalds flipping burgers and a pittance if you work at McDonalds as CEO.
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IZoomZoomI

Hey pur, after the allignment and everything else is done, can I still mess with my suspension settings? Or would I have to get an alignment done everytime I lower or raise my car?

PUR NRG

Any time you raise or lower the car it alters the alignment. Alignment is typically the last thing you do after all other suspension changes.
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Peachy

DARKMAZ8

I assume corner weighting should be done with the driver in the car?

PUR NRG

In theory you put an appropriate amount of weight in the driver's seat, yes. In my case I anticipate having a passenger during autocross and thus no weight was added.
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