VooDooBanshee Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 So I installed a set of +2 Loanstar SPORT a-arms, elka STAGE 1 shocks and braided lines tonight. I have a few questions and was wondering if anyone could set my mind at ease... 1. When installing the arms and I torqued them to the factory spec - or close to it the arms seemed stiff moving them up and down before the shock was mounted. Is this normal? 2. How do you adjust caster once the ball joints are mounted? There is a nut on the back of the balljoint thread, but how does that do anything? 2. I have to adjust pre-load on the new Elka's to adjust ride height? The front end looked lowered... 3. How far should the top cap of the shock be turned down? I am a noob with suspension, so I appreciate the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigblockbanshee Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 So I installed a set of +2 Loanstar SPORT a-arms, elka STAGE 1 shocks and braided lines tonight. I have a few questions and was wondering if anyone could set my mind at ease... 1. When installing the arms and I torqued them to the factory spec - or close to it the arms seemed stiff moving them up and down before the shock was mounted. Is this normal? 2. How do you adjust caster once the ball joints are mounted? There is a nut on the back of the balljoint thread, but how does that do anything? I am a noob with suspension, so I appreciate the help! #1 I'd say is normal, until they get greased and the new bushings worked in they'll probably be a bit tight to the bare hand but fine with all of the weight of the rest of the bike on the suspension. #2 I'm not sure I'm following correctly but it would be rather difficult to adjust caster on one of these so I'm hoping you meant camber. Caster is the relation of one ball joint to another from front to rear, camber is from side to side. When you see the top of a tire/wheel leaning inward towards the frame that's negative camber. Anyway, you said the joint has a nut on the back of it, is that the only one or is there one on each side of the ball joint tube? Being Lonestar I'd think that the arm itself is threaded so personally I'd probably move that nut towards the outside of the arm, of course this depends on the degree of camber you want to put into your suspension. Best thing to do is put the shocks on and measure what you want your ride height to be with you sitting on it and someone else measuring or vice versa but make sure they're close to your weight. After that is adjusted up you can either have them bounce on it a few times and monitor the actions of the camber or you can take the shocks back off and adjust the height with a jack to monitor the camber. After that you can decide on how much initial camber to run and where you want it to be while the suspension is compressed as well. Hope all of this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilarious Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 You should be able to adjust the caster on those arms. The ones i had, had heims on the upper arm where it attached to the frame. You want a positive caster. This means when looking at the spindle from the side, the top ball joint will be rearward of the lower. This will give you stability at high speeds. The opposite will cause the front wheels to "dart." What i did was turn the rear heim on the upper arm all the way and screw the front heim out 3~4 tturns. Hope this makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VooDooBanshee Posted March 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 You should be able to adjust the caster on those arms. The ones i had, had heims on the upper arm where it attached to the frame. You want a positive caster. This means when looking at the spindle from the side, the top ball joint will be rearward of the lower. This will give you stability at high speeds. The opposite will cause the front wheels to "dart." What i did was turn the rear heim on the upper arm all the way and screw the front heim out 3~4 tturns. Hope this makes sense. Sorry, yes I meant Camber....The last question is the shocks. Do you have to adjust preload on the shocks when they are new? Thanks guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starwriter Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Straight from the Lonestar website. How to set up your front end. http://www.lsracing.com/img/Guide_21.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VooDooBanshee Posted March 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Straight from the Lonestar website. How to set up your front end. http://www.lsracing.com/img/Guide_21.pdf Yes, thanks. Those came with my set and I did excatly what they required. The bike looks and rides great, my only question was on the elka's. Not sure how much pre-load to adjust, but I can probably do this as I ride. I wanted to know how much most people configure the shocks for preload. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigblockbanshee Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 The LSR link above is no longer working for me, anyone else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starwriter Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 The LSR link above is no longer working for me, anyone else? It works fine for me. It's a PDF file. Must something with your computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigblockbanshee Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 Wouldn't surprise me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starwriter Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 You probably don't have Adobe whatever, or the latest version, or something. http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/328/328233.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigblockbanshee Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 Well the problem is that when I first got on here it worked for me, now it's just a black screen until I click on it then it turns white. I'm gonna restart and hopefully it works. There's some good info in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigblockbanshee Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 Got it, saved it, good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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