Speedo,
preload: two things to take into account
1- Tweak
2- ground clearance
Assuming that the drop screws are not useless (ie that they indeed limit the suspension travel) and are already adjusted symmetrically, the way I do is
1- unscrew the shock collars to the max first,
2- put the car on a stand in order to have the suspension fully eytended,
3- screw each shcok collar separately until it touch the spring.
This procedure is applied to compensate for the usual unequal SPRING length (very common on AE springs).
4- take the car off the stand and make sure the chassis doesn't drag on the ground
5- put the car on a tweak (4-scale board)
6- fiddle with the shock collars until the readings are correct
7- then I adjust ride height on each end of the car by modifying the preload symmetrically left and right
A trick to help adjust symmetrically in step 7 is to make one or several marks with a magic marker on the shcok collar, to help you count how many turns you turn each of them. I also recommend counting them loud... believe me, it helps...
Although it is not optimal not to have a symmetrical ride height left and right, it happens on TC3's with tweaked chassis (like mine), I believe it's better to have assymmetrical L/R ride height and a correctly set L/R tweak compensation with preloads and okay droop screws, than a perfectly flat car which will track sideways...
now for the springs "floating" on the shock body, we discussed it below. It is very common especially with stiff springs, but you should not worry about it.
Later
Paul
Last edited by Lonestar; 11-29-2002 at 06:37 AM.