Using the supplied spanner, loosen the lower tightening ring (1). The idea is to thread up (2), the bottom adjuster part of the strut. This will shorten the length of the strut, lowering the car. If you want to raise the car- thread it down, to lengthen the strut and make the strut longer.
I took all three rings and locked them together. This made it easy to use the spanner and turn the entire strut in the direction I needed it to go to extend or shorten it.
Here is the strut in it's lowest position. Take the bottom ring and lock it down to the lower mount.
To explain this another way-
- upper gold collar adjusts preload
- lower gold collar locks upper preload collar
- lower mount in blue adjusts ride height
- collar in red locks blue lower mount in place.
Ideally you just want the gold collars barely snug against the spring. If you add preload and start to compress the spring, you will have a very very tough time adjusting ride height while the shock is on the car. This is because you are supposed to spin the shock body up or down in the blue lower mount. If the gold collars are pushing too hard against the spring, they won't let the shock body spin, and you won't be able to adjust ride height.
What about using the rings to lower the car by bringing the spring down? That's not how this system is designed. The two top rings used for the spring are to pre-load the springs. Lowering the car by adjusting the springs will damage the system. In simplest terms, it may allow the dampers to bottom out- exactly why we paid money for a high performance suspension system versus using factory parts- so it doesn't bottom out. Don't do it!
What is pre-loading and how do you do it? Loosen the lock rings and take all the preload off the springs till they hang loose and you can move them up and down between the perches. Then move the spring perch up, turning with just your thumb and index finger till you feel some resistance and cannot turn any more easily. Secure the lock ring and that should be a good starting point. This would be 0 preload.
Setting a higher preload gives the Magnum less of an initial dive/pitch under braking or acceleration. This is good to have as you want to keep the car as even as possible. You dont want to take weight off the wheels that you want to keep down during heavy acceleration or braking.
When you put the weight of a corner of a car (probably around 700lbs) over your spring it compresses to absorb that weight. With 400lb spring, it will compress about 1 3/4". So, if you start with the lower collar so that it is just tight enough to hold the top of the spring against the upper perch this would be 0 preload. Raise the collar 1 3/4", and you now have 700lb's of preload. (arbitrary #'s for the sake of illustration.) Since you have preloaded the spring, the same weight as the car's corner, when you put the car on that spring, it will not compress at all, and will simply sit on top of the spring. If you were to hit a bump, the force would still compress the spring the same amount it normally would if you had set the spring to 0 preload. Now if you set the spring to say 900lbs of preload, when you hit the bump (say its a bump that generates around 250lbs of upward force), the spring will compress much less b/c the spring is already beyond the load specified to absorb the bump. Since there is only 50lbs beyond the preload, the spring will only compress about 1/8th inch, and the car will likely be launched over the bump.
You will likely never ever preload a spring beyond the weight of the corner of the car it is on for that exact reason. Springs are there to absorb bumps, if there are any bumps at all, this is a bad idea.
What good is preloading the spring then?
It can provide you with more suspension travel in certain situations. In the ideal world, having the spring at 0 preload would place the piston inside the shock exactly halfway through it's stroke (middle of shock) once the car's weight is resting on the spring. This is almost never the case. By preloading the spring, you can adjust the amount of rebound, or compression travel you have in the shock. If you preload like 200lbs, this will give you more compression travel, and will help keep your Magnum from bottoming out when cornering. You have to be careful though, b/c you don't want to sacrifice too much rebound travel, or you could cause all sorts of other problems.
Almost everyone reccomends a preload of 0 for general street use.
1: Remove the shock. Two bolts up top, one in the bottom.
2: Loosen the upper locking ring.
3: The lower ring will be the one that is moved to raise or lower.
4: Move the lower ring in this direction to lower the car. Move it in the opposite to raise it.
5: Install the shock again. Adjust it so there is no slack- meaning that once the bottom bolt is put through, adjust it so the top is already sitting up with the shock tower. You shouldn't need to use the bolts to suck it all together.
Remember to take measurements of how one side is done, then duplicate this on the other side. Make sure both sides are equal in everything you do.
How to adjust the firmness of the ride.
Each shock and strut comes with these handy dial adjusters. They are pretty self explanatory. Set them hard for the track or soft for the street. They have 30 different adjustments. Whatever you set it as, just make sure you count them off and make them the same on the front and the same on the rear. Each axle needs to be the same.
How do I have my suspension set up?
1: I have my lower mount adjusted as far up as it will go. This is the shortest position for the strut, so the lowest my front will go.
2: I have a distance of exactly 2 ¼" between the very bottom of the spring, and the very top of the lower mount. This preloaded my spring to a 0 at least, because I can still turn it with my hands, although it's pretty stiff.
3: For driving around town, having my dampness set at the softest was ok. When I took my car on the freeway, it bottomed out on a couple of bridges. I played with the settings, and right now I have them set at this- start at the softest- and I turned them 13 clicks to the hard side- both fronts.This stiffened up the ride a bit, and we're still playing with these settings.
The distance between the ground and the wheel well (top, tires at 35PSI, 275/40/20" tires) is 28½", exactly for both front wheels.
The Rear:
In my car, I have the rear set up like this. I have a 1¼" space between the bottom of the bottom ring to the bottom of the rear collar.
The distance between the ground and the wheel well (top, tires at 35PSI, 275/40/20" tires) is 28¼", exactly for both rear wheels. The rears are a quarter inch lower than the front.
