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Hi folks. I recently bought a set of the above. In good condition. I plan to fit them soon. Installation appears simple enough.. My concern is i dont know what to set the shocks at. Meaning you can compress the spring by screwing the collet down. But by how much. I guess i can count the turns to make every shock the same? That sèems to easy.
Is the somewhere that will me the settings for a.comfortabe ride.

There should be no need to compress the shock.
Stiffness is adjusted with a tool thru the top and determined by number of clicks out from full soft. Believe 12 clicks on front and 8 clicks on rear for standard setting.

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Adjusting the spring seat up or down to compress the spring wont change the spring rate or comfort level, only the ride height.
If they are second hand, they are probably pretty close to right unless the previous owner had the car dumped down.

Best bet for simplicity is make sure they are the same measurement on all, then install them and assess the height once the cars on the ground.
If you want it higher or lower, jack it back up and adjust on the car from there.

**Measuring heights on a garage floor is best guess only. You'd be amazed the unevenness of a smooth flat looking garage floor. Mine had a subtle dip over a 1 metre radius which threw measurement out on that corner by 1.5cm!! Then if you move the car slightly its all out again. I'm not going to embarrass myself by saying how long I messed with the previous suspension before realising this

The shock length needs to be set correctly for both comfort and performance.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131228005 ... com/?p=409

Locutus wrote:The shock length needs to be set correctly for both comfort and performance.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131228005 ... com/?p=409

Agree with this.

Dont mess with compressing the spring on yellowspeeds. They are pre set.

The heght is adjusted by turning the bottom part and can't be adjusted on the car as you can't spin it whilst still bolted in.
I measured the threads and then tested all level on my 4 post hoist.

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I've only worked on one set of Yellowspeeds on a friend's car but none of the settings were remotely correct from the factory.

You can still adjust the shock length while bolted in the car. Loosen the lower collar, grab the spring and rotate the entire upper assembly. You should never need to do this if you have it set correctly in the first place.

speed wrote:

Locutus wrote:The shock length needs to be set correctly for both comfort and performance.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131228005 ... com/?p=409

Agree with this.

Dont mess with compressing the spring on yellowspeeds. They are pre set.

The heght is adjusted by turning the bottom part and can't be adjusted on the car as you can't spin it whilst still bolted in.
I measured the threads and then tested all level on my 4 post hoist.

That is the opposite of what the link says.

The link has instructions to adjust the shock body length once for maximum bump travel and then leave it, only changing the shock body length if you change wheel/tyre size.

Height is then adjusted by the spring perch (spring pre-load).

That's the 'proper' and more time-consuming way to do it.

A lot of coilover manufacturers will tell you to adjust the spring perch until the springs are captive at full droop, then adjust the height via the shock body length. This is much simpler and less time-consuming but comes at the cost of non-optimal bump travel (and therefore non-optimal performance).

pepejesus wrote:A lot of coilover manufacturers will tell you to adjust the spring perch until the springs are captive at full droop, then adjust the height via the shock body length. This is much simpler and less time-consuming but comes at the cost of non-optimal bump travel (and therefore non-optimal performance).

Also with limited bump travel in MX5, this results in constant hitting of the bump stops on the smallest of bumps, especially in the rear end.

pepejesus wrote:That is the opposite of what the link says.

Link didnt work for me but i did read the instruction book that came with my yellowspeeds.

Other coilovers ive had (kw), you just spin the collar up or down.

Re the yellowspeeds, the destruction book states to not compress the springs but rather turn the bottom part to adjust the height.


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They are second hand and everything needs to be checked. Whether the instructions tell you not to touch something or not.

One of my Yellow Speeds sets had loose spring feet nuts. So had I not noticed it when removing from the box. Then I would have had to make adjustments to them.

Missed that they are 2nd hand.

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speed wrote:

pepejesus wrote:That is the opposite of what the link says.

Link didnt work for me but i did read the instruction book that came with my yellowspeeds.

Other coilovers ive had (kw), you just spin the collar up or down.

Re the yellowspeeds, the destruction book states to not compress the springs but rather turn the bottom part to adjust the height.

Yes, hence my comment "a lot of coilover manufacturers will tell you to adjust the spring perch until the springs are captive at full droop, then adjust the height via the shock body length. This is much simpler and less time-consuming but comes at the cost of non-optimal bump travel (and therefore non-optimal performance)."

If the coilovers are both body length adjustable and spring perch adjustable (which is just about all coilovers these days) then you can either set the ride height by adjusting the shock body length (quickest, easiest way; worst for performance) or set the body length to allow maximum bump travel then set the ride height using the spring perch (more difficult and time consuming; best for performance). This is true for any brand coilover that has body length and spring perch adjustment.

The link Locutus posted has instructions on how to do the latter method. If you want the best performance (in terms of both ride and handling) it's the only way to do it.

If you just want to be lower and don't care so much about ride or handling, then just use the yellowspeed instructions method.

pepejesus wrote:
set the body length to allow maximum bump travel then set the ride height using the spring perch (more difficult and time consuming; best for performance). This is true for any brand coilover that has body length and spring perch adjustment.

If you want the best performance (in terms of both ride and handling) it's the only way to do it.

I was not aware of this and thought i was doing the right thing by following the manufacturers instructions.

I'll be sure to give this a go.
Once the bump travel is set, it will be easier to adjust the ride height up and down via spring perch anyways.

Thanks for setting me straight.

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