sevens4me

iTrader: (1)

I'm finally ready to install the re-speed race coilovers on the front. I have another set of strut tubes with the collars allready welded on, ready to go into the car I've not disassembled yet. At the same time, I'm also installing their sway bar and camber plates. Also new control arms and new poly bushings for the tension bars. After reading the instructions for the bar, it mentions of some tracing of bolt positions on the control arm before disassembly to maintian alignment. If I'm doing all these things at once (esp. new control arm) is there any way I can maintain/salvage my alignment? If not, how do I go about it afterwards to be drivable, and then what type of place do I need to take it to, to get it aligned? Any help/tips I can get would be greatly appreciated, I'm DYING to get this done and my poor car back on the road. Doing the rear coilovers only took me 11 months! (long story)

xXGslseSleeperXx

dont really know what bolts your talkin about tho, as there is only one hole for the endlinks that go thru the control arm for the swaybar. but you can do the old usin a level trick for the camber and tape measer front and rear of tire at the same hight till they have equal distances for the toe. by no means is this a REAL alighnment! just to get it back on the road to get it to a shop. find a good reputable shop that can work on lowered cars, and i would advise not to SLAM it ( although it does look bad ***) cus they cant pull it over the hydrolic jacks to lift it when adjusting, unless they have the machine with just the movable plates

xXGslseSleeperXx

hope that helped!

rwatson5651

iTrader: (5)

The tracing the Instructions are talking about :

"Using a fine point marker trace around two of the nuts/bolt heads that secure the strut rod/sway bar brackets to the chassis. Do this for both side of the vehicle. This is so when you re-install the brackets you will be able to line the brackets back up perfectly to where they were before."

Refers to the strut rod chassis brackets, these are the big heavy brackets that the sway bar bushing bolt to. Putting these back in the same spot will allow you to preserve the alignment, however iy you are replacing the struts, camber plates etc then I dont think that it is realistic to expect to avoid a front end alignment.

Good luck finding a good shop. Most of them are not interested in working on a non- oem setups. Most of the alignment technicians just go by what the computer says to do and some dont even understand what they are doing.

For this reason I went online, found a tutorial, bought a good precision digital level, built a little bracket to fix it to my wheels and tought myself to do my own alignments.

sevens4me

iTrader: (1)

Great...So I imagine this being a complete nightmare. I couldn't find any shop anywhere to help me with anything when I did the back...

rwatson5651

iTrader: (5)

Don't freak out just yet.

You will just have to put a little effort into finding the right alignment shop. Ask around at the local parts places for reccomendations to shops that do work for local racers. You should be able to come up with something......Do your homework prior to going in and have your alignment specs chosen before you go.

Loose reccomendations are :
Toe close to 0. maybe just a touch of toe in.
Camber -.3 to -.5 Depending on what your using the car for. too much and you will get tire wear.
castor about 3 or 4 if I remember correctly.

xXGslseSleeperXx

ooooohhhh, the brackets ! i comepletely mis understood, sorry i forgot they have those open offset holes.

Sgt.Stinkfist

iTrader: (6)

as long as you make each side equal, ANY alignment shop should be able to align the car within reason. most shops will bitch and moan more and more with each aftermarket adjuster you have, but its still doable. Especially if you look at the receipt/work order and see that each alignment calls for a standard of 1.2 hrs (most of which only take 15 minutes)

sevens4me

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the responses. I finally got it down on the ground and started for the first time in 11 months, then got it turned around and backed into the garage. Got it up in the air, cinder blocks under the rear, a stack of wooden blocks under the front crossmember. Took off calipers, got the rotors off, backing plates off, could NOT get the two 17mm bolts from the control arm to strut tube off. Driver's side front one, I snapped the head off. The back one on that side, the only socket I could get on it was a 3/8" drive hammered on, I then broke two extensions, and one 3/8" to 1/2" adapter. THEN got the torch out and got sheet done. Luckily I'm using new control arms and different strut tubes...The giant nuts on the end of the tension rods have me concerned...The are old and crusty looking, and I doubt they'll come off without a fight...ALso noticed the passenger side rod had alot more threads exposed beyond the nut than the driver's side one. Is this something to be mindful of?

sevens4me

iTrader: (1)

My area sucks. No local racers I've ever heard of...Took me months to track down someone to help me with backlash adjustments. No one where I live will want to touch it....But the car is an hour away in the middle of nowhere and there's only one garage around. I(or anyone) really don't trust them with anything, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to drive onto the lift where their alignment machine is.
I was thinking perhaps -1 camber as long as that won't cause issues with street driving, like straight line or whatever. I only run the car >5k miles a year so i can be exempt from emmisions, so tire wear isn't a great concern. But also, after everything's installed should I: 1.Find an desired ride height. Then 2.Set corner weights. THEN 3.alignment? Also, does alignment matter or change between getting it set with the stock 14"wheels on, then changing to my pretty 15" 's?

Sgt.Stinkfist

iTrader: (6)

wheels wont affect the alignment, so to keep the 15's as pretty as they can be, put on the old wheels when you get it aligned and swap the 15's on afterwards. Messing with ride height will change the alignment, so get that out of the way before hand

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

here is how i do it. i like to start with the alignment in the ballpark, you can just eyeball it. you should be doing this on level ground. don't be afraid to try this at home, its not hard, but it does take some practice.

1. when you assemble the car, put the springs in the middle (sometimes i set them up all the way because its easier when the car is higher).

2. set the camber plates in the middle, or all the way to the outside. eyeball is fine here.

3. eye ball the toe, put a broomstick, or other long stick against the tire, and adjust until the stick is parallel to the car.

4. set the ride height. the adjusters are 1.0 thread pitch, so 4 turns is an inch. to start with try to make them even (within 1/4 turn). so if you turn down the left front 4 turns, turn the right front 4 turns too. just go down until it looks the best, and come back up a little, its gotta go over bumps. the front and rear should be about even. i measure from the fender to the ground thru the wheel, although you cam measure from the pinch weld, or from the top of the rim to the fender, or whatever else

5. get the tape measure, and measure the height of each corner. depending on what you've removed the front left can be really heavy and the right rear will be light, so you might have to adjust individual wheels. i think peepers is 2 turns higher on the left front wheel to get the nose level. if it was a race car, you should be in the drivers seat to do this, on a street car it doesn't matter so much.

6. set camber. the harder you drive the car the more negative camber you need, .-3 to -1 is good for the street, on the track you're looking for -2.5 to -6 depending on the tire. ideally you use an alignment machine, but i've used my phone before, i use handy level...

7. reset toe. either use an alignment machine, or the string method, or toe plates (youtube it).

8. enjoy!

9. further reading http://www.specmiata.com/setupguide/...ing%20Tips.pdf

sevens4me

iTrader: (1)

I really appreciate the info., thanks guys. Now I just need to get that far. As expected, tension rod nuts won't budge, and it looks like the Dside one backed out and cupped the cotter pin, so it(cotter pin) broke on all sides upon trying removal. What really concerns me is I don't see any way to remove the damn cotter pins on the control arm's ball joint castle nut, or on the tie rod end's castle nut. They are all crutsty, and the heads of the pins are embedded into the castle nuts. The other ends of the pins are all rusty and flimsy, and I can't push them through. Even if the pins were out, there's no way these nuts are gonna twist off. Now what do I do?

Frankenmazda

iTrader: (2)

If it was me and I soaked them sufficiently with a penetrant still to no avail, I would pull out my torch and heat up the nut. That might be your only recourse at this point. You could check with the good folks on here and see if you can find another set and just cut them off.

Good luck!

MazdaMike02

iTrader: (4)

9/10 if your careful enough doing the job you don't need an alignment after but it should still be checked to make sure it is still in spec. But you will for sure need a full alignment with everything your doing to the suspension.

xXGslseSleeperXx

i believe there is some heavyduty rust remover they sell that is like muratic acid and will remove rust and penetrate the nut. if that dont work than heat up the nut and then blast the pin with a tank of co2. i believe an aerosol can will do the same but co2 under a higher pressure will be colder and could work better and some aerosol if flamable so you dont want that. then if you could find a way to really get a grip on the rod with like a removable bench vise and a breaker bar on the nut.

xXGslseSleeperXx

on the ball joints tho, maybe try the same method and put tension on the joint by angleing it down until it wont spin and then manhandle the nut off. or try nuematic tools.

xXGslseSleeperXx

i forget how we did this on an ae86 that had the same problem with the joints, but we got it off with apply pressure on the joint, i will ask my boy how we did it as it was a long long time ago. so far ive been lucky to not run into these problems( knock on wood) but will check

xXGslseSleeperXx

we remember know,ya just bend the knucle down till the joint cant move outward any more and breaker bar it

sevens4me

iTrader: (1)

What about the cotter pins I can't get out of the castle nuts on the steering knuckle piece? Oil cooler is awfull close to the tension nuts as far as torching...I have no faith in any pneumatic tools I've ever used...Just over the weekend, I finally got the car inside and up in the air, then the damn impact wrench(1/2" drive) wouldn't even budge my lugnuts. Tried and tried and tried, not a single one would budge. So I tried and tried jacking stuff up under the hanging front tires to no avail, so eventually had to put the damn thing back on the ground just so I could loosen the lugnuts. Maybe I'd try(for tension rods) a 3/4" drive impact wrench if I can find a 26mm impact socket to go with it...
I like the idea of a removable bench vise to try to hold the tension rod itself, 'cause if I crank on the nuts with a wrench, it moves the whole control arm and starts to bend the tenison rod. Unfortunately I have to wait until the weekend to try anything else. Thanks again, guys.

xXGslseSleeperXx

with the cotter pins you are probably gunna have to punch them through with a narrow enuf punch and hammer if you can. for the one that still has the head sticking out, try the small end of a file(might not be strong enuf but find sumthin similar that will fit in the eye of the pin, even those snap on pick sets will bend as those pieces of **** arent strong enuf) and carefully pry it against the bolt threads out of the nut. use sum penetrant. then grab a friend as this will be a two person job(for the castle nut) as you need someone strong enuf to bend the nuckle down to where there is enuf tension that it won't move and then remove the nut. as for the nuematic, if you can increase the air pressure that would help, dont worry about the recommended pressure to the nuematic, just dont go over whats recommended on the air hose

xXGslseSleeperXx

yeah i forgot about the fb's with fmoc, definately dont torch it! and yeah sum air impacts suck major ***, so breaker bar with a **** load of leverage is probably the way to go.

Kentetsu

I didn't mess with those big nuts on the tension bars. I just removed the entire bracket that holds them if I recall correctly.



.

sevens4me

iTrader: (1)

I need to replace those bushings...

82transam

iTrader: (18)

Sorry if I missed this in an earlier post, but did you try using a giant pipe wrench or something similar on the tension rod nuts? If that doesn't work then heating them up with a torch is the only option really... Just aim the torch away from the oil cooler/frame etc or at least try to and you'll be fine.