I think the best bet is to avoid hole saws completely. Head to your hardware store and pickup a couple of unibits or "step bits". These increase the hole size in increments and create a perfect circle. They also cut like butter.



Pictured above for reference purposes are the Irwin brand.

Let me know if you need further assistance!

-Cliff

 

Thanks Cliff, as you can see they arrived today BTW Cliff is a great guy to deal with and great prices! I went to my local UPS drop center and grabbed them earlier today rather than waiting for the UPS man to drop them off. COR BLMY cut a 2" hole to allow the cables to move with the suspension. Do they make those step bits up to that size?? I didn't think so but maybe I'm wrong. I tried using a hole saw but it just wasn't cutting through the metal. I did a little research and they make heavy duty hole saw bits but maybe i'll try the step bits...i dont know hopefully it will work out, great looking stuff though!!

 

I have not seen unibit large enough, once the hole is biger than the centering drill size on a hole saw it will not center corectly and then things will get ugly and NOT fun.

Buy a good BI METAL hole saw that uses a hex shaft where it fits into the drill...now you can use an extension in the drill and the hole saw in a socket.

SUPER easy, loads of room, and seriously 60 seconds per side !

 

COR BLMY you drilled from up top or underneath?? I found I could get a more even surface drilling underneath and up then doing it from up top because the airbag canister is right in the way of the drill and the bit ends up sitting on an angle.

 

I'd like to add my feedback after finally doing a track day with my '02 with BC coilovers. My car setup isn't too far off normal; Swift springs, Madness front control arms, R56 trailing arms, Helix R56 trailing arm inserts, Powerflex rear trailing arm and steering rack bushings, Alta rear control arms, H-Sport Comp swaybars, Alta drop links, relocated front control arm pivot locations, raised steering rack, and 3/8" dropped front spindle. I also am running Hoosier R6 205/45-16 on OEM Bridge spokes.

I did a track weekend at Gingerman, which is a very nice 1.9 mile circuit with 6 rights and 5 lefts of varying radius and complexity. It's a technical track that isn't over the top, with enough to keep it challenging without being a chore.

I have the suspension setup with -1.5 degrees camber front and back, stock caster, zero toe front and rear, front bar on full soft, rear bar on full stiff, 7kg/mm front and 5kg/mm rear Swift 2.5" springs with zero preload front and 1/16" preload rear, with the dampers fully shortened [with front retaining bolt hole slotted to accomidate front spindle drop, and rear brake line bracket relocated to fully shorten rear damper]. The net ride height effect is about 1.9" lower front and 1.8" lower rear than stock. I'm running the dampers 12 clicks from full soft in front and 11 clicks from full soft in rear.

Now, onto the handling. The car is amazingly neutral, yet very stable and predictable. If you go into a high speed sweeper too hot, you can lift the throttle a bit and rotate the rear as you see fit without adding steering wheel angle. In low speed corners with a slow entry speed there is a tiny bit of front slip angle, however a bit of throttle will activate the Quaife and pull the car through the corner nicely. The car definitely invites chucking it into the corners [similar to an Evo] and you can throttle and steer yourself to modulate yaw and exit position. That said, a more traditional style rewards fluidity and inertia [think Miata]. Of all my MINI setups, it's the most precise, most transparent, and quickest around a circuit. Tire wear is suprisingly fair, with basically no front tire abuse, which is amazing for a front driver.

I hope that adds something to this thread,
Cheers,
Ryan

 

Is a 2" hole absolutely necessary? Would smaller work?

 

Stickied
This thread deserved this a long time ago

 

I went to Home Depot and grabbed a Rigid BiMetal 2" hole saw seems to work fairly well with a quarter inch extension and socket attached at end. Thanks COR BLMY for all the help throughout this thread...much appreciated!

Steve

 

THANKS ... your welcome

yes drill from the bottom...
drilling from the top it is hard to get a flat cut with the hole saw...and I like to stay clear of all the airbag stuff.

2 inch is NOT needed if you don't use the extensions, but the bigger your fingers are the bigger the hole needs to be.

The top of the coilover and extension move in an arc as the suspension cycles (moves up an down)

If you were really precise ...(or use my soon avaliable marking contraption that I built, that I will loan to my customers)... a 1 1/2 would just do it.

 

oh ok well I drilled from the top and it went fine. I drilled my holes just like you did in the how-to using the 2" hole saw bit and it came out great. Alot of you guys are saying the ride is stiff but I hardly felt a difference so far in the ride from 0-15. I drove about 30 miles tonight on them mostly on twisties and had to continually stiffen it up to what its now at: 20. Now it feels "stiffer" than stock and really handles great. My camber is still pretty out of whack in the back and I think the front is at zero or close to it but its still pretty sweet. Gonna be getting an alignment next week so then it should be great. so i'm gonna try and drop it a little more too when i do that cuz its still pretty high up.....about 2 fingers in the front and 2 1/2 fingers out back.

I had a question about the bottoming out. I know people were saying to make sure not to adjust it improperly or you will risk bottoming the shocks out. So because of that I left them the way they are from the factory. Should I be ok with that?? I'm going to be driving back and forth from work this week and should total up about 500 miles in time for my alignment. I'll be alright driving like this the way they are? Thanks for everyone who has contributed to this thread...its priceless in the help it provides others.

Steve

 

You should be OK .
I always check the preload and let my customers know how to do it before install...
I have found that most were OK / really close.

The issue of bottoming comes up when spring preload is wrongly used to set ride height. So instead of lowering the body into the lower mount ...some were removing all spring preload and dropping the piston into the body.

My std set up for preload (set OFF the vehicle):

1. Make sure the piston is FULLY extended. (pull the coilover holding both ends)
2. Unlock the two nuts under the spring...screw the lower one down a bit.
3. Lower the nut that touches the spring untill the spring moves freely (up and down ...loose ...bouncing around)
4. Move the nut below the spring up, till it JUST touches the spring, it will now spin but NOT move up or down.
5. Turn the nut touching the spring 1 turn further up (tighter / more spring preload)
6. Use the lower nut to lock the nut that has set the preload.. lock it together by holding the nut on the spring and tightening the other (thats why there are 2 wrenches.)

Once the spring preload (the two gold lock nuts, right under the spring are set and locked) the ride height is adjusted buy unlocking the SINGLE gold nut at the lower mount bracket...then turn the whole unit up or down. (then lock again)

 

ok well I didn't really do that....once they were on (car on jackstands and no tires on) the springs were fairly loose as I could grab them and shake them around a little bit, however I'm sure the weight of the spindle, brakes, etc probably pulled the shock body down just a little bit taking some of the preload off of the spring but I can't imagine it would be too much. Like I said, next week when I get it aligned i'll be pulling off the tires to lower it just a tad bit more and at that time i'll have an opportunity to adjust the preload if need be, but I think at this point I'm ok as far as bottoming out the piston. As far as adjusting the pre load on the car, if right now they are just a tad loose where I can shake them.......if I back off the pre load maybe two or three turns and the spring becomes pretty loose maybe that will make up for the added weight of the brake and spindle components?? Or maybe just leave it and say "a little pre load isn't all that bad"

 

The preload shoud be set with the piston fully extended...
So the brakes / spindle weight will only confirm that the piston is fully extended ...even on the car (up on jack stands)
It should not be loose (not to move up and down)
yes some preload is good ...NEVER run "negitave preload"

 

ok so they way it is now is how it should be. Its not really so loose that the spring can move up or down, its just loose where I can reach in, grab the spring, and shake it back and forth just a little bit. I think I'm gonna leave it the way it is and just adjust the height and be done with it. On my way home last night after adjusting it to 20 for a little run, i really noticed the stiffness of it. WOW 20 really is bouncy! I was feeling every little imperfection in the road amplified time 10...lol When I got home I backed it off to 7 in the rear and 5 in the front so I'll see how the ride to work goes today. The other thing I noticed is the adjustment settings seem to take a little while to take full effect no? It seems like if you go from say 10 from full soft and go up to 20 it takes a few miles to increase or am I just imagining things.

 

Hey everyone,
I'm out in my driveway right now adjusting the ride height....I know how to do it correctly as I've read this thread over a dozen times. Fronts went down very very easy....rears not so much! So I started cranking it down and down and realized it was much harder to turn then the fronts were. So I crawl back up from underneath and take a look at the whole unit and I see the inner boot has been twisted around and around several times. How did this happen?? The front boot is perfectly fine and not twisted at all! Anyone know how to fix this and is this why its so much harder to turn than the front was? Also the top of the front boot looks like its got a slit in it to allow it so fall down the inner shaft. The rear boot is tucked up inside the pillow ball mount and sealed. Maybe that's why its getting twisted up? HELP!?

Steve

 

Hi Everyone!

My BC's are getting fitted this coming Friday and just looking for some advice on the best Camber and toe settings for everday road use (majority motorway driving for commuting but also twisty fun stuff at weekends ).

I was thinking along the lines of:

Front (7k spring rate):
Camber: -1.5
Toe ?
Dampner: 5 from soft

Rear (5k spring rate):
Camber: -1.0
Toe: ?
Dampner: 6 from soft:

Car will be running:
Eibach front and rear anti roll bars.
H Sport Rear Control arms.
18X7 Wheels (Offset 34 front 42 rear)

However peoples input would be appreciated :D

Was also looking at oxtox's setup, but not sure the fact he tracks his car and it being a cabrio would put any bearing on the settings.

 

When adjusting ride height keep an eye on the boots ...
I have found that either pushing up on the boot to remove it from the body or even a spray of WD 40 on the lower part of the boot will stop it from twisting.

If yours are in a twisted bunch ...you may fix by using a screwdriver and working the boot up off of the body ,,,or you may need to loosten the lower nut and re adjust the ride height to "unwind " the boot then release it and follow the loosten / spray method.

The rears seem to be more prone to twisting as the rears boots are tighter at the top.

 

ohh kewl thanks Brian, yeah the right rear is all twisted up but unfortunately the left rear has torn in two pieces. I'm having BC look at them and hopefully sometime this week I'll hear back as to what they want to do. In the meantime I guess I'll try the screwdriver method and maybe I can save at least one of them. Thanks for the tip.

Steve

 

those settings look fine! brian (cor blmy), tsw, rmw, minicorsa, helix, grassroots all gave me different opinions about toe settings....and camber settings as well. you have to call people you trust and get their opinions/explanations, then go with what sounds best. i think most run 0 toe for the front and a little toe in (1/32 to 1/16") in the rear. i have noticed no unsteadyness/downside to 1/32" toe out in the front and 0 toe in the rear. good luck!

 

Well, those settings look fine, I'd go with -1.5 rear camber too, and maybe -1.75 front, also I'd keep the shocks stiffer, like 10 from soft on front and 12 from soft on rear, but that's just me
For toe, I'd go with 0 on front and 0 on rear too, at least that's what I have now and I like how the car moves, but maybe with more camber things would get different, I'm now running -1.0 front (IE adjustable plates) and -1.0 rear too, but I plan to give the rear more neg camber in a couple weeks when I'll have my alignment done

 

Cheers for the info guys. Going to ask for the fitters advice but think i'm going:

Front:
Camber 1.5
Toe 0

Rear
Camber 1.0
Toe 1/16 in

Althought I do like the idea/look of the same camber all round

 

I'm running -1.5 camber front and back with a 22mm alta bar on the middle setting and i'm getting a slight amount of oversteer. I guess I could try stiffening up the dampers but I'm not really sure what else I can do. If i'm going around a corner at around 30 to 40 and really go in hard I can feel the rear just flopping around back there so maybe I should try stiffening up the rear?? I'm running 5 from soft on the front and 7 from soft on rear and ride is about the same as stock.

 

well vern, i don't think that it's related to your damping settings. can you be a little more descriptive of what you're feeling? does the rear feel like it's going to spin, or does the front feel like it wants to keep going straight?

 

no oversteer man the rear end is very mushy and slides around quite a bit when I dive in a corner pretty hard. I was just thinking if I stiffen up the dampening on the rear end a little bit it might help it stay planted on those hard corners. Its wants to turn all day long which is a great feeling but sometimes it wants to turn a little too much.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but stiffenin up the rear will increase the chance of oversteer won't it?