l00kitzzlilcj

I'm going to be dropping my 06 Gt 1.4ish" and swapping to Koni str dampers. I've been reading that the pinion angle will change... I find people who don't talk about it at all and then I see some post about this issue... It's almost as if it just depends on your car. Anyways, it's become a serious issue to me and I just want to clear up my head.

I'm not a track guy or do any racing (except maybe a few pulls once in a while on the street) so I'm trying to avoid buying control arms, but if I had nothing else I wanted to buy then I would just get them. I'd be lucky if I put more than 3K miles on it per year too. Looking to hear from anyone that can help at all.

Lethaldosage423

I installed Koni Yellows and lowering springs on an 07 Miata the other day.

I had the car on our two post rack so the suspension was fully extended.

I loostened all the control arm bushing bolts and once i was done, i drove the car onto our drive on rack and re torqued everything. This prevented the bushings from tearing or tweaking with the new height of the car.

because the bushings were now torqued with the new ride height. there shouldnt be any increased stress on them.

Not sure if that helped.

l00kitzzlilcj

I'm going to be working with jack stands. So I change my front struts & springs first then put the car back down. Now for the rear, I drop the rear end out to switch the shocks and springs, button it back up and remove the jack so now it the rear will be held up by jack stands under the chassis and the suspension fully extends, loosen the LCA bushings, move the jacks to under the axle and drop it, then tighten the bushing bolts and that's it I suppose?

Will this also decrease any pinion angle change ?

vixr

LCAs help reduce wheel hop, if you have that...relocation brackets offer multiple angles to suit your needs. Jack stands under the axle only is the same as sitting on the ground (loaded). Pinion angle will change slightly

BrazenStang

OP, the right way to adjust the pinion angle is with UCA. LCA will help with wheel hop. You can buy adjustable LCA's, but they are much more difficult to adjust. 2 vs. 1

There is a tool for checking the pinion angle and adjusting to get it back in specification. I would recommend it because you will wear out the pinion seal faster with an incorrect pinion angle. You want to do the whole UCA change with the rear axle on jack stands (fully loaded). It can be done by starting unloaded and then putting the axle under load but I feel like that would cause problems when trying to get the bolts lined up on the UCA.

l00kitzzlilcj

Not really interested in control arms especially lowers since i dont race.. i would never use their full potential and also dont want any extra NVH. My main concern is this pinion angle thing because i dont want whining or having to bring my car to the shop for a ruined differential or something because i ruined it, you know what im saying? IF I MUST, ill get a UCA.

How serious is this slight change though? I mean, my car gets 3K miles a year at most... I wind up putting highway mileage on there as equal to city.. do you think I could get away without purchasing a set of adjustable U&LCA's to adjust the angle?

l00kitzzlilcj

So an adjustable UCA is the only way to fix the pinion angle change after lowering? How far out of spec would the angle change on a 1.5" drop and is it dangerous considering my lower amount of use that i put on the car?

darksky1984

For as little as your drive your car and since you're not dropping the car to the ground you will be fine in regards to pinion angle. Are you getting an adjustable pan hard bar to re-center your rear end too? If you just lower the car and don't get the bar you will notice that your rear end sits an inch or so more on one side of the car. Some people say that you don't need one but I recommend getting one for peace of mind.

l00kitzzlilcj

That's what I was thinking too. And yes I'm getting a panhard. I may just get a UCA at least but what's making me not want one is I how I feel it will change the ride. I like how it is, I dont mind wheel hop or anything that the stock CA's cause. What I'm afraid of is squeaking, clunking, and any extra vibrations or noise from switching to aftermarket ones.

If i knew everything would be like it is now in terms of problems, which there aren't, I'd be more open minded to it.

Lethaldosage423

I would absolutely upgrade the UCA. I'm doing that next on mine after seeing this

https://mustangforums.com/forum/5-0l...on-issues.html