Ok, after lots of work and tears, the driveline of my car, with the help of X S Engineering is solid. The power and operation is awesome. There are some small bugs I need to work out, but, nothing too serious (hose rubbing against the condensor and stuff like that.

Now to the meat of my message

Why does it feel like my front end is loose? The car does not want to track straight as well as when I take a line, it just feels weird. Also, I have lots of motion from front to rear. Sounds like the springs are weak. Here is a list of what I have:

aftermarket - no-name - springs
Volk 18" wheels (225 front / 265 rear)
Ilumina 5-way struts
Racing Beat front sway bar
New rear bushings

An issue to note, installing the front sway bar was a little off. I had to purchase a new front support bracket for the sway bar to get everything to line up. Could there be front end damage?

take care

Ricky Boyd
1993 RX-7
email: boydracing@home.com
393 rwhp

 

I have a racing beat front sway bar too, and my front end had too much body roll in turns. I checked it out and found a broken passenger side sway bar mount. I guess the RB bar gives too much stress for the stock mounts. After talking to a few people, i found that sometimes, it will also crack your frame where it attaches to the mount. Luckily, my frame is not cracked. I am going to the mounts with crookedwillow mounts because they have clamps which reinforce the frame at these points and also raise the swaybar about 1" for better clearance.

I would suggest that you check the frame where it attaches to the swaybar mounts for any cracks.

 

I would like to give you a ride in my car since you are in Orange County as well. How about lunch sometime? How does meeting at Tustin Marketplace sound? Email me at rick.boyd@callisma.com

thanks! This sounds like a good fix. I will check the car this afternoon.

regards

Ricky Boyd
1993 RX-7

 

Could be front end damage, could just be worn out ball joints and bushings in your (probably) high mileage 1993 front end...

Check the ball joints and bushings for play. That will cause the front to wander and not follow your track, and will give the steering a loose and unresponsive feel.

If the ball joints are bad, you'll need new control arms. They're not replaceable without the arms. If the bushings are shot, you have several choices of replacements.

 

If the bushings and ball joints are bad - what options do I have other than stock OEM stuff?

regards

Ricky Boyd
1993 RX-7

 

If the bushings are bad, you have a few choices. In the front, you can go with OEM bushings, you can try the egregiously expensive Mazdaspeed "40% stiffer" rubber bushings, or you can get nylon bushings (or could have, if I was making more) replacement which are far stiffer and provide an excellent performance advantage in handling and road feedback. If the ball joints are bad in front, you only have one choice; replace the control arm with an OEM part from Mazdacomp. The ball joints are not serviceable separately from the control arms, unfortunately.

In the rear, if the bushings are bad, you have (again) the OEM bushings, Mazdaspeed bushings, Pettit's Delrin drag launch kit, and nylon bushings, not to mention M2 Performance's trailing arm kit and toe link kit. However there are several bushings in the rear of the car (one in the end of each upper control arm, and 3 in the lower control arm) which are Heim joint or "pillow" joint bushings, which have a wide "spherical" range of motion. These parts must be replaced by OEM parts and can be purchased for about $40 each through several sources.

There is one other option, and that is the solid rod end suspension replacement (includes upper and lower control arms and rear suspension) from New Zealand for $8,800 NZD (About $4,000 USD, give or take). That's hardcore, but I'm actually thinking about going that route myself, although I do have all my suspension components polished and am using my own nylon "Unobtainium" bushings.



You can find more information at the link below, and you might be able to con someone into selling you their unused set from a previous group purchase, or sell their position in the current (and final) group purchase through me.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlab

Hope that helps...

 

Any chance of getting one more order in? If I have been online - instead of working my *** off, I would have done the group purchase. If you will not allow me to get on the wagon of the group purchase, this leaves me no choice but to go the Japanese route for more money and less quality.

Yes, the car has over 78,000 miles on it with less than 3,000 miles on the new motor. The suspension is very scary up front. I have the new bushings (factory) installed in the rear. The front handling is very bad.

Sounds like I will need to rebuild the entire front end. Sounds like a project for the winter.

take care

Ricky Boyd
1993 RX-7

 

Ricky, I have 2-3 extra sets as I posted on the "Jimlab bushing update" thread. Make a good offer and one of them is yours.

 

Im about to install: RB sway bars, springs, end links and Illumina struts and shocks. anything i should know. never done this before. Opinions on set up ive chosen?

 

Rick, when was the last time you had an alignment? No matter how good a cars suspension is, if it is not properly set up then it all goes to waste. Check your camber, caster, and toe, make sure they are all aligned correctly. Also check to see if your shocks are dead, and then look at your bushings and arms in the front. I have a squirrely problem in the rear, but it is because of bushings and my toe control arm, toe control links.

 

I had the alignment done just before the motor was installed - could the front end fall out of alignment pulling the motor? (most likely...) I need to look at the bushing on the front end. I will then go, most likely, with jimlab's bushing set.

take care and thanks for the help all.

Rick
1993 RX-7

 

If you have a big sway bar in the front, you might want to check and see if your front frame rails are cracked. Mine were cracked and getting those welded up as I write this. Check into replacing the stock sway bar mounts as they suck ***. They are light and quite flimsy. The aftermarket units are better and very strong. Look for ones that will mount the sway bar higher if possible.

I will give you feedback when I get the car back.

regards

Rick
1993 RX-7
(front end getting repaired - watch out SOLOII - here we come to knock over some cones!)

 

Ricky,
Assuming everything is mechanically correct!
If your car is pushing in relatively slow turns, you may be applying to much throtte to early. The RB sway bar will provide higher speed understeer balance but may be to stiff at lower speeds. If your car has a Torsen , wider rear tires, your rear grip may easily exceed your fronts on lower speed corners. If this is a steet car, try your stock front bar, more front neg. camber, more caster. Try letting the car turn with neutral throttle and apply throttle as you straigten the wheels.

 

Thanks for the help Brian. It is more fundamental than this. The front end seems to wander and not keep a straight line. I have found some of the problems and it does seem better. I will outline in another post. This is good info for tuning.

regards

Rick
1993 RX-7

 

This is what I have and lots of other people. Here is what I would suggest and what I found on my car. Others beware!

The Racing Beat front sway bar sits low in the front end. You must be VERY carefully, especially with a lowered ride, not to hit something on the front end components of the sway bar (usually, the bolt ends get hit).

Here is what I found on my car:

1. Racing Beat front sway bar with my lowered springs allowed it to easily hit the sway bar bolts on "something". This caused some damage to the white Racing Beat support bracket and end links.

2. The front frame rails were cracked around the bolt holes for the sway bar bracket (original). I welded the cracks and installed Crooked Willow brackets. They are much stronger and allow the Racing Beat front sway bar to mount higher in the car. New end links were also installed (they are expensive!).

3. The front and rear suspension is crooked. The car needs to be aligned badly. When it is aligned and the new Racing Beat support bracket for the sway bar is installed, I will give you my feedback then.

Hopefully, all will be fixed and I will have slot-car-like handling once again. It will be time to take it to the track again and see about taking 1st, instead of 3rd. (not saying how many cars were running! )

regards

Rick
1993 RX-7

 

Ricky,
If you just replaced your rear bushings, check your front to rear alignment and rear toe! Your rear wheels may be steering the car,if the rear wheels are toed out you'll get a lot of straight line instability. Check you fronts for toe out also( road surface will make the car dart). Uneven tire pressures,loose wheel bearings may contribute.

 

Cool, thanks. This is exactly what the car is doing. After the repairs were made, the dartiness has lessoned a lot. It is still darty though - especially going fast or under acceleration. The rear end may be out.

My wife drove it for the past couple of days and really likes the way it feels. She had to get used to the short-shifter, but she is liking it.

take care and thanks again.

Rick
1993 RX-7

 

Well folks, it finally happened...

After countless time behind the wheel of this RX-7 monster, with all its bad handling, the car is fixed!!!

We removed the PFS springs and installed the Eibach Pro-kit, along with installing new Illumina 5-way adjustable shocks in only the rear. The PFS springs, which are still good lowered the car about 1.25-1.5". They are a constant-rate spring. The shock in the left-rear was blown. This was the source of my problems. The car is very nice now!

I also wanted to add some other stuff so the Brembos went on this weekend also. Very cool as I will have some pics on my site soon.

regards and thanks again

Rick
1993 RX-7