Tell me about corner balancing....

[wootwoot]

With the above article on the table I am even more lost in understanding how to adjust these things. I adjusted height on all four corners but the lower perch on the fronts is not even left to right. That is, there is about 1/2" more threads showing on one body than the other. I had thought I would set the ride height and then get it corner balanced but now I am coming to uderstand that this means my full bump length will be different left to right, which doesn't sound good.... Very lost on what to do here....

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by wootwoot

With the above article on the table I am even more lost in understanding how to adjust these things. I adjusted height on all four corners but the lower perch on the fronts is not even left to right. That is, there is about 1/2" more threads showing on one body than the other. I had thought I would set the ride height and then get it corner balanced but now I am coming to uderstand that this means my full bump length will be different left to right, which doesn't sound good.... Very lost on what to do here....

I am out of my league here.
But the way I have understood corner weighting it will result in the bold in your quote. Not necessarily 1/2" but a difference in perch height.

Have a read of this forum post.
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f91/...ustment-77759/
And have a read of this.
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets11.html

[killboy]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

Not necessarily 1/2" but a difference in perch height.

Correct, there will be variations from shock to shock on where the adjuster collars end up sitting on the shock body due to variations in weight distribution of the car, variances in the springs during manufacturing, etc. That is the whole point of corner balancing...if you could just set all of the shock collars at the same position on the body and slap them on the car and it then be properly corner balanced, there would be no need to break out scales and go through the process. Every car and shock is a little different, and most people never even realize how good or bad their car is balanced after they put coilovers on. One indicator that it's REALLY off is if the car seems to turn better in one direction than the other, assuming all tire pressures are correct.

In fact OP, you might just ask if you can get it scaled for a small fee/free and decide from there if it's worth the hassle if you're already close to balanced by some chance. (within ~5% cross-balance)

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by killboydotcom

In fact OP, you might just ask if you can get it scaled for a small fee/free and decide from there if it's worth the hassle if you're already close to balanced by some chance. (within ~5% cross-balance)

I like this a lot.

[killboy]

Originally Posted by wootwoot

With the above article on the table I am even more lost in understanding how to adjust these things. I adjusted height on all four corners but the lower perch on the fronts is not even left to right. That is, there is about 1/2" more threads showing on one body than the other. I had thought I would set the ride height and then get it corner balanced but now I am coming to uderstand that this means my full bump length will be different left to right, which doesn't sound good.... Very lost on what to do here....

Are your spring pre-load adjuster collars the same across that axle? They would work in combination with your ride height adjuster collar/cup to set the amount of support for that corner. So for instance if you tightened up the spring pre-load, you would effectively be "raising" that corner due to stiffening the spring so to speak, so you would then have to loosen the ride height collar/cup and run the body down into it to bring that corner back down to level. If you did the opposite to the spring pre load on the other side of that axle, you would also have to do the opposite to that ride height collar/cup, and you would end up with what you are describing.

According to that PDF article, the ideal thing to do would be to center up the bottom collar/Ride Height Adjustment to about the middle of it's adjustment range, then use the spring preload collars to set your ride height.

[wootwoot]

The 1/2" difference I see is on the lower body perch, which means something has to be wrong. I understand the upper perch will be inconsistent on each corner, particularly after I get it corner balanced. But the lower body perch, which defines bump and droop length, should be equal right to left. My pre-load must be different right to left and causing the discrepancy. So that's going to take a bunch more adjusting to get right I suppose.

Setting the lower perch in the middle of the adjustment range will mean I am going to lose a ton of bump travel to get back to my desired ride height. There is a TON of adjustment on that lower perch. It changes ride height from something like +3/8" to -2.5". I like the idea of slowly raising the low side and dropping the high side of the lower perch until they show equal threads and then returning the height back where I want it via the upper collar. That seems the most logical at this point. Does that sound reasonable?

still not clear what the advantage of these types of systems are. I may call RSR today and chat with them before I do anything else. Any other ideas and thoughts are welcome.

[VADERR]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ayTgBT0uLw"]How to adjust ride height & corner balance your car - KW Suspension DDC - Technik - YouTube[/ame]

I always thought this video explained corner balancing well.

[wootwoot]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I am out of my league here.
But the way I have understood corner weighting it will result in the bold in your quote. Not necessarily 1/2" but a difference in perch height.

Have a read of this forum post.
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f91/...ustment-77759/
And have a read of this.
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets11.html

Thanks for the post.

The posts seem to only deal with single adjustable collars. I am guessing in my situation you are suppose to shorten the bodies via lower perch to get the ride height in the ball park and then adjust final height and corner balance via the collar. I suppose there is also a way to determine the best body length for optimal bump and droop length.... But I have no idea how to determine that either. Perhaps I can measure the stock suspention and shorten the coilover bodies 1/2".....

[wootwoot]

Just got off the phone with RSR. I am not sure I talked to the best guy, but I asked for a technician and there were none available so he was all I had. In any event, he said the advantage of the dual adjustment is that you can set ride height independently of preload. This way you get the same pre-load on each corner despite the height of the vehicle. You also lower the car without sacrificing travel.

On the other hand, I gather this type of system loses or gains bump and droop length as you adjust ride height. This could potentially not allow you to take advantage of the travel you have, depending on how you set them up. In the bigger picture I am not sure if this is an advantage or not when comparing them to other systems, but for my purposes I think I'll be fine so long as I stay within RSR's specs.

I still don't have a good explanation as to why my lower perches are not even. Is it really due to the uneven weight distribution on each corner? I am thinking maybe my pre-load was adjusted previously so I will have to measure it and make sure they are even. It's the only thing that makes sense to me at the moment...

[Racecomp Engineering]

Dual height adjustable coilovers do not alter bump or droop travel when you adjust with the lower mount. That's good, but they generally do not have a ton of bump or droop (especially droop) but it varies.

Single height adjustable coilovers trade bump for droop travel when you lower. Most of the time the body is shorter than stock so it's like a dual height adjustable coilover that's already adjusted down. It might mean that you can't go super low though because you won't have enough bump. You usually have a helper or tender spring so you're not actually preloading the main spring when adjusting height.

- Andy