Far Out Son of Lung...

Tuning

Popcorn
Saturday night my suspension sounded like popcorn. No worries, this sort of thing is to be expected. As the suspension settled I figured I would have these noises and simply needed to go back in and tighten everything. I also realized, Saturday afternoon, that I had not installed the tuning adjusters on the rear coilovers. Due to the location of the top of the strut tower, the top of the KSport is buried behind a portion of the unibody. You can reach it with your hand, you just can't get the angle to install the rod or see the knob. This will need a creative remedy.

Engine Mount
Sunday morning I rolled out of bed after a long night of cruising on popcorn and slipped out the back gate. B picked me up in the Mini and we headed for Plano to have a new engine mount/shock absorber installed. Apparently, the Mini's are real bad about breaking engine mounts because the engine is allowed to sling 3-3.5 inches to and fro under hard acceleration. The damper, mounting brackets and installation was devised by some Mini owners and they were holding an installation party to sell and install the new part they had designed and beautifully produced.

Prest-O, Change-O
Sunday afternoon I dropped the rear coils, slipped in the tuning rods and re-installed them both in about an hour. The passenger side got hung up on the Nismo rsb mounting plate and this took some extra time to work around, but it wasn't a big deal. The fornt end was popping but I thought it might just need to settle, so I ignored it until later.

Another Late Night
Sunday night I stayed up to work on the front end and solve the popping problem. It was 10:30p before I'd gotten home and changed after meeting up with Rock Gal after her shift, but the work needed to be done. Once I had the SE-R up on stands I noticed that the lock rings were loose on both sides. It is damn hard to get these things tight and the guys had done so withothem off the car, so I can understand the popping noises. No fault of theirs of course, we were all leanring about this stuff as we went and who is to know that they needed to be that super-tight!

Using a dial caliper and some patience I adjusted the coils so that they were snug on the top mount but only barely pre-loaded. Just snug. The change was 0.3" (3/10") and I adjusted the ride height accordingly. This took about an hour and a quick drive around the parking lot told me that I had solved the problem. No more popcorn! Unfortunatley, I had not measured the ride height very well and the front was now taller than the back. So back up on stands it goes for an adjustment to ride height. Another hour and numerous checking and rechecking with the caliper later I had the fronts properly adjusted and even with the rear.

Pressure
Tuesday morning I stopped at Chevron and the only working air station I know if in D/FW. I was thinking that increasing the tire pressures to 34 psi (factory says 32) would help the tires help the suspension. I don't know why I felt this way, but I did. Luckily, I think I was right. The car seemed to turn a little better and didn't squeal as quickly as it had been. In fact, I could probably go a little higher, maybe to 36 psi.

Ping-Pang!
Tuesday night on the way home from work I noticed some more pings as I approached the garage. Damn it. I got to work on it at 8:30p after spending some time with Rock Gal playing a game of catch the careening-sopping-wet-ball in the pool. It is always good to relax, get hit in the face with a wet ball and do crazy stuff like jump off the side of the pool like a maniac trying to catch a foam football.

But I digress. The car needed some attention. Apparently, I had not gotten the lock rings entirely tight enough and I had a little ping from the front. Combine that with my lack of any real preload and the car was making noises when the wheel was turned side to side. This time it only took about an hour and I had the rings as tight as I could manage. I had also messed up the ride height. Somehow, I have the right corner an 1/8" more preload or height than the left. Damn it.

I didn't bother changing anything because, as tired as I was, my measurements were likely somewhat off. It took enough tries to get those measures in the first place so I wasn't too keen on depending on them. Still, I need to get the car settled and even, then make changes from there.

ping.
This morning there was still a little noise (very little) from the right front, and the only thing I can think of is that I had kind of messed up the right side when I was doing it Tuesday night. Somehow, after adjusting the preload, I had unadjusted it instead of doing the ride height. I think. I'm a little unclear about exactly what happened but the lowest lock ring had not been backed out of the bottom of the coil when I thought I was lowering the car. Shit. So I went back and readjusted everything to what I thought was correct, which is likely the cause of my uneven stance. I need to measure the preload (first thread to bottom of perch) on both sides and even them out left to right, then readjust the ride height to make certain they are even. Another night in the garage, but not tonight.

Alignment
I also need to get the car peoperly aligned. It is close, real close... but you never know and I'd rather be certain that everything is properly set so I can more effectively tune it.

posted by GreSam @ 13:55