98 GT suspension adjustment frustrations

Jakespeeds · Feb 24, 2016

I have a 98 GT that is confusing and frustrating me quite a bit. I am new to the later model cars so I thought I would put my problem here to see if I was just missing something obvious.

The car:
Front
Koni yellows all the way around one click off the lightest settings
Steeda coilover conversion with 175 lb. springs.
Steeda camber plates
Steeda front sway bar kit
Racecraft Drop spindles
Racecraft lower control arms

Rear
Steeda adjustable upper control arms
Steeda billet adjustable lower control arms
Steeda GT coils
Steeda rear sway bar

So the car is on the ground and I cannot get it to even up left to right within half an inch. Even worse the left front I have the coilover adjusted almost all the way up and the right front is probably 3/4" from the top. But the left side will not go higher and its a bit lower than I would like. The right front won't go lower and its a bit higher than I would like. The rear is a bit similar.

I have disconnected the sway bars to try and take them out of the equation and it seems to make no difference. Anyone have any suggestions about what I might be missing. There is no way the car will handle correctly with this unbalanced of a loading. The car has never been even in a fender bender.

Jake

mcglsr2 · Feb 24, 2016

1) I'm not familiar with the Steeda camber/caster plates - I use MM ones and they have these spacers that you use on the top and bottom of the strut shaft where it bolts to the plate. Does the Steeda one have the same thing, and if so, did you use an equivalent number and positions of spacers on both sides?

2) What bushings are on the front lower control arms? Are they rubber like stock, poly, delrin, something else?

Jakespeeds · Feb 24, 2016

Yeah the Steeda uses the same thing with the spacers. I double checked that already. It was one of the first things that occurred to me. I would have been very happy if I would have goofed that up.

Everything has poly bushings in them.

Jake

mcglsr2 · Feb 24, 2016

Are the springs in the front hitting anything, like the frame rail there right by the strut tower?

I'm not super familiar with drop spindles - do they lower the attachment point of the strut to spindle? It sounds like you might be too low and are losing some adjustment range. Apart from the frame not being equal on both sides, the only thing I can think of is that your springs are too soft and you don't have enough range of adjustment, so even though you cranked it all the way on the left side strut, it's not enough to actually raise the car up.

Jakespeeds · Feb 24, 2016

The springs are not anywhere near anything.

But that is something I have not considered. A stiffer spring! I think you might have just hit on something. Time to send an email to Steeda. Thank you very much. That is the obvious place to look and it was staring me right in the face.

Jake

mcglsr2 · Feb 24, 2016

For what it's worth, I am running coilovers on all 4 corners - up front I am currently using 375 lb springs. Granted, I road race my car, so that is waaaaay stiffer than what a normal DD would need. But I feel that 175 seems a little soft (however, I think some folks here are running them with no issues - not sure though). Other than frame damage, that's all I got for you. I hope that helps!