Help?
 

Hey! I am new here. I have a lot of questions about my car and I don’t know who to ask (the local rotary shop is sick of my calls!) Anyways my name is Jamie and this is me and my 1994 R2

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...92013502_l.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...e/CIMG0450.jpg

I have new rims on order btw! I think those chrome rims are hideous! Anyone wanna buy em? Anyways, enough of introducing myself! I have two questions for you guys!

1. Where can I get a shop manual for my car. I can honestly not find one!
2. How do I change the stock toe, camber and caster settings. This has been driving me mad for a while! Can anyone help?

Thanks so much guys! I look forward to being a part of this board!

-Jamie

The shop manual, FSM, is in the sticky at the top of the page.
Check the suspension section of the forum for the rest.
If you have any other questions, first do a search. If you can't find an answer, search again. Then try posting a new thread. BTW, you might want to be more descriptive with your thread titles.

BTW, I bet the posts after mine will be less polite ;)

For adjusting suspension, you're best off having an alignment shop do the work. They can easily get your alignment where it needs to be. If you want to make more advanced suspension adjustments, the shop manual is what you need.

As the above poster said, you can download the PDF of the shop manual from the sticky at the top of the forum. You can also buy one from any Mazda dealer or Mazdatrix (which is in Signal Hill, not too terribly far from you).

Dale

Doh! I forgot about Dale. He's always a gentleman.

There's a classified section to the forum if you want to sell your rims.

Otherwise, nice lookin' car. Welcome to the money pit!

LOL! thanks guys! I looked under the suspension specific forum and couldnt find it! I like doing the work on my car by myself. I am very specific to my toe/camber settings and wont look forward to going to the alignment shop every day until i am happy (I don’t think they will either) Thanks for the info on the shop manual! It will be very helpful!

Thank you guys so much! i do get a lot of shit and thanks for being polite! I really appreciate it!

And yuichiror I liked your comment “Welcome to the money pit!”

lol, I know I have had this car for a while, and know quite a bit about that. I relate owning/racing this car to supporting a child because really, that is what he is to me!

Thanks again guys for the help!

BTW: I like gentleman ;-)

The FD does have nice clear suspension adjustments, but how do you intend to tweak those settings without knowing what they already are? It seems to me that unless you have an alignment printout for a basis, changing the settings is just wandering in the dark. You could end up with some pretty wild tire-eating geometry if you're not very deliberate. At the very least, I suggest you get a pro alignment and mark those settings before you change them.

Dave

Jamie, is there something wrong with the stock suspension/alignment?? Unless you are a hardcore track person stock setting should be fine.

yes, they have been professionally alligned. and i am keeping the old tires and rims on it until i find the settings i am happy with. I am a pretty serious racer so i would like a bit more toe in and a bit of negetive camber. I am keeping the car factory as far as the drivetrain goes, i would just like to do some fine tuning. Thanks for the help!

Not trying to be a smart ass here but;

If you're a serious racer, you should already know how to adjust your suspension. It is a very simple process to purchase or make your own toe plates and just use 2 measuring tapes, front and back, to check your toe settings. It is also easy to check your camber settings, particularly if you have a digital camber gauge that attaches to your wheels and what all serious racers should have. If you do not have one, just use a vertical water level and do some trigonometric calculations to find the camber settings.

Also, unless you have the wheel sliding plates that alignment shops do, doing adjustments is a tedious process. You measure the existing values, raise the car, make an adjustment, let the car down fairly firmly to seat the suspension into the correct ride geometry and ride height, roll the car back and forth to make sure it is at the correct, settled geometry, measure again and repeat all the above as many times as it takes for the adjustments. It can properly be done on a "VERY LEVEL" surface only. The smallest amounts of slope in your garage or driveway will throw your readings off far enough to make an error worse than what you may have now.

Also, possibly the most difficult aspect of an independent rear suspension car is to make certain that the rear wheels are pointing exactly parallel to the centerline of the chassis before you start changing the toe. If not, you're car will not go straight!

There is a reason why serious racers have portable alignment platforms that they can set up and level at home or at the race track.

Finding the actual adjusting bolts is the easy part. Just look under the car and read the manual, if needed.

Good luck if you still decide to take on the process. I admire people who're willing to do all the tough work themselves. For a racer, particularly, that is invaluable as you'll know your car much better than your opponents who has a crew or shop doing everything for him/her. That is a large advantage for you!

Albert

PS - a picture of the toe plates that I welded up myself and used in many years of racing. It is shown leaning against a tall SUV wheel, for which it was not made. When used with a low profile FD tire/wheel, the lower bar will not be against the bulging bottom tire. Like I said, simple and effective.