Correct ride height with MM coilovers?

[kj385]

I'm in the middle of a complete overhaul of all the maximum motorsports parts on my 03 cobra. K-member, a-arms, steering shaft, c/c plates, coilovers front and rear with bump steer kits front and rear. And Bruce's complete IRS bushing kit. I'll be running 400/600 springs with MM sport vavled bilsteins. The car will be used for weekend autocross.

My question is what's the correct ride height for best handling? I also have options as to which mounting holes to use on the k-member for the A-arms. I know lower may not always better. Any set-up tips would great. If anybody has the #'s for the stock ride height, that would help also. Thanks

P.S. the search error is killing me!!:cuss:

 

[wheelhopper]

I would set it up for about 1.25" below stock. Not that that is better than any other heigth. For the most part that is personal preference.

 

[racebronco2]

I found out that the lower set of holes has much less bump steer when the car is lowered about 1".


Stock height on my car was 27 3/4 front and 28 1/8 rear. That is measured to the highest part of the wheel well/edge of the fender.

 

[JB]

P.S. the search error is killing me!!:cuss:

SEARCH WORKS FINE IF USED PROPERLY

I searched Cobra titles for coilover and got 54 threads in less than 2 seconds

searching within Cobra posts for coilover height gave me 57 posts in less than a second

you're getting errors because your criteria and/or scope are too broad



HINT: don't search entire site at once......for Terminator-specific subjects, use The Terminator forum listing that is directly below New Edge Cobras

you can also use Cobra Forums.........FYI, you'll find some very knowledgeable folks in the Cobra R's forum :thumbsup:

if you get more than 100 thread results, sort them in descending order by number of replies and you'll get the 100 largest ones...



.

 

[ShelbyGuy]

indeed searching is a skill


you did measure the ride height before taking it all apart like it says in the instructions, right? (always read the instructions first, even if you choose to ignore them)

and 1.25" is a whole lot of drop for a street car. are you just installing the bump steer kits, or are you going to actually dial in the bump curve? do you intend to have the car corner balanced when you're done? the guy doing the corner balancing is going to set the ride height for you. its an art.

ideally you want the control arms parallel to the ground, and in line with eachother. you should be able to draw a straight line from one ball joint, through the inner arm mount, through the other inner arm vount, to the other ball joint. this usually means the upper hole, if the car is slammed. not sure if you'd want it that low on a street car or not. I only lowered mine about .125", but i still have stock k and stock arms (delin bushings, x2 ball joint). i need a fairly steep ramp angle to get to where i live. and my control arms still angle upwards. oh well.

i could measure my ride height if you want. i prefer to measure ride height from the rocker panels, but everyone else seems to want a measurement between the tire and wheel arch. the problem with that, is what if i'm running a differenti diameter tire? i measured it when i installed the kit, and like i wrote earlier, i only dropped it about 1/8". i hate it when the alignment shop squeaks at me because they cant align the car (or get it on the rack because its slammed too low and they dont have any lumber)

 

[kj385]

It's not that I didn't read the instructions first. The car was in a wreck and all the wheels were trashed. Some lowlife kids put jagged boulders in the road at 3am on my way home from work one night. I was on a dark unlighted road in the shadows of the rolling hills. The speed limit was 45 and I was going 50 but had almost no time to react. I ended up with a broken steering rack, bent k-member, dented oil pan, four bent/broken wheels, dented exhaust and some caliper damage where the bent wheels rubbed them. The body is perfect with no damage. The rocks were just the right size to clear the bumper but hit everything else. Since it all had to come out to be replaced there was no way I could put stock stuff back in. Especially when insurance is paying for the damage. They pay for stock parts and I just pay the difference for aftermarket. I figured if I'm going to do it I may as well go all the way. It's not the way to get an upgrade but it's a silver lining I guess. Anyway the car has been on jackstands eversince so I didn't get to do a before measurement. I did check it years ago but lost the info.

 

[kj385]

Yes I have both front and rear bump steer kits and was going to dial them both in. But I think I have plenty to learn at the track before setting corner weights is going to help me. I'm just starting to get into car setup. I'm smart enough to know I don't know enough and there is always more to learn.

indeed searching is a skill

are you just installing the bump steer kits, or are you going to actually dial in the bump curve? do you intend to have the car corner balanced when you're done? the guy doing the corner balancing is going to set the ride height for you. its an art.

 

[ShelbyGuy]

eyeballing the ride height isnt good enough. tiny differences in ride height can mean over a hundred pounds of difference in the cross weights. have the car corner balanced so it doesnt feel like you're driving a banana

 

[kj385]

That's a good point. Maybe I'll have to look into that.

 

[SoCalHarley]

I used the upper K Member A Arm holes to allow a lower ride height and lowered the car about 2" all the way around. I used the bump steer kit. Lowering no more than an inch applies with the stock suspension but if you are using the full MM kit and K Member you can go lower. I would set the height where you like it and then setup the adj. tie rod ends to minimize any bumpsteer getting the lower A arms parallel to the ground. I like the car at this height... if you are going to track the car as Shelby Guy said corner weighting and properly adj height is important but for the street if the car is level you should be fine. I really don't believe it is that critical.... my car handles amazingly well setting the car by eyeballing it and then measuring the height at each wheel. Again not the best way I am told for optimum performance but for the street I really don't think it will matter to you. The difference from stock will be like night and day....