Setting Miata Ride Height

[eunos735]

I'm at 4.25"F 4.5"R(with the drivers weight in the driver seat) My front spring rates are slightly heavier and the rears are slightly lighter. And at Nationals last year the car was 2065lbs. It does look really low when you first set it down...but it's right.

[oldmuscle69]

Seems like you stand for your word.I thank you for that.I will know in the next few days. As I have been stating I'll know once it is on the ground.

Well Bob, this is the first I've heard of any problem. I'm interested to know what the issue is. If you'd like, I'll buy the setup back right now, assuming they're in the same condition as when I sold them. Just PM me and let me know.

How's that for standing up?

[sentrase]

Dave, why is the ride height so critical? Are you trying to get a certain camber value? Do you have adjustable A-arms?

[thewelder]

Mike. I have a set of scales with ramps and turntables. But I live in Kingsport. I also don't have a good place to set tham up. If you can't find a set down that way let me know. I could bring them down. Chad

[Brian]

My data points aren't going to be very useful. I don't have my 6ULs yet so I'm sitting on 6" wheels with a regular street tire. As it sits, my front is at 4.25". I made the last change to stop the rubbing at the Adesa event and I only changed the front so my rake is gone. Fwiw, I was rubbing TDC and it didn't look like removing the liners was going to help that much but thinking about it now, removing them might get me down to 4.0. 4.0 is what Emillio was recommending at the time. Anyway, the front was the controlling end on how low I could go. I can get a fender lip measurement but unless we both do it exactly the same way, it's difficult to compare at the precision we're talking here.

[TedV]

Dave, why is the ride height so critical? Are you trying to get a certain camber value? Do you have adjustable A-arms?

I venture to guess it is a suspension geometry thing. The ride height adjusts the a arm angles into their happy place. It is easier to measure than putting the arms at a particular angle. Ever wonder why my VW was so high?

[thrdeye]

My data points aren't going to be very useful. I don't have my 6ULs yet so I'm sitting on 6" wheels with a regular street tire. As it sits, my front is at 4.25". I made the last change to stop the rubbing at the Adesa event and I only changed the front so my rake is gone. Fwiw, I was rubbing TDC and it didn't look like removing the liners was going to help that much but thinking about it now, removing them might get me down to 4.0. 4.0 is what Emillio was recommending at the time. Anyway, the front was the controlling end on how low I could go. I can get a fender lip measurement but unless we both do it exactly the same way, it's difficult to compare at the precision we're talking here.

Will hub center to fender lip work? That is how we did it on subie stuff

sent from typotalk

[steverife]

I think that would depend on the virginity of your fenders.

[Brian]

Dave, why is the ride height so critical? Are you trying to get a certain camber value? Do you have adjustable A-arms?

I venture to guess it is a suspension geometry thing. The ride height adjusts the a arm angles into their happy place. It is easier to measure than putting the arms at a particular angle. Ever wonder why my VW was so high?

I'm not sure it's critical at all. There's some camber range gain and data that says lower is faster but in my case, the real issue was there's almost no setup information from 949 and even less for basic assembly. I wound up calling twice and talking to everyone local who is running this setup on a miata. Not a knock on 949, just the way it is. I still have work to do before I can even think about corner weighting. Of course, I'm basically lazy so it's dragging on.

[Brian]

My data points aren't going to be very useful. I don't have my 6ULs yet so I'm sitting on 6" wheels with a regular street tire. As it sits, my front is at 4.25". I made the last change to stop the rubbing at the Adesa event and I only changed the front so my rake is gone. Fwiw, I was rubbing TDC and it didn't look like removing the liners was going to help that much but thinking about it now, removing them might get me down to 4.0. 4.0 is what Emillio was recommending at the time. Anyway, the front was the controlling end on how low I could go. I can get a fender lip measurement but unless we both do it exactly the same way, it's difficult to compare at the precision we're talking here.

Will hub center to fender lip work? That is how we did it on subie stuff

sent from typotalk

Yes but agreeing on how to locate the center of the hub and measuring from there is what I was referring to as a source of error. You can be very precise or eyeball it.

That sounds contradictory to the previous post. My understand is that it IS critical to get the rake right (front to back) on a miata.

[flier129]

Update: Emilio says to set it to 4.25/4.5 at the pinch welds (or a touch lower) and don't worry about what it looks like unless it behaves poorly.

Nice, have you tested it's behavior yet?

I guess I'm lower than most, I might raise mine up to 4.25/4.5 when I get my corner balanced. I'll also shoot Emilio an email about it and hopefully he'll have some good input.

FWIW, my control arms are level at my ride height and current alignment specs(4f/4.25r, -3.0f/-2.6r,0 toe f/r, 5.5 caster). I only smash the bump-stops on large pot-holes or road level changes and SC roads are really shitty so I've been experiencing it a lot lately.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but assuming the geometry isn't completely off, the lower the CoG, the better?

[disneyd]

Here is what is weird about mine: at 4.25" at the front pinch weld, the max camber I can get on both sides is -2.1

And that's with new cam bolts. With the old bolts I could only get to -1.8. Makes me wonder if something is weird with my car.

I set it to 4.25"F/4.5"R. I agree it'll give the suspension more travel to do its work, but it looks high in the back... 'course it's been ages since I've seen a Miata sitting at stock height.

I'll run it like this for a bit and see how it does. I can always start lowering it at an event and see how it behaves.

[jcox07]

The lower you go also changes the spring rate, that is on my k w variant coilovers. I do not know about Dave's setup but I would think it would lower the spring rate on any set up. This is what I learned from Sam in Blytheville when he drove my car. JY

[rocket71]

The lower you go also changes the spring rate, that is on my k w variant coilovers. I do not know about Dave's setup but I would think it would lower the spring rate on any set up. This is what I learned from Sam in Blytheville when he drove my car. JY

I don't get that.

[thrdeye]

Me neither....unless you don't have linear spring.