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911 SC Suspension - Time for a refresh


Caledonian
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1 hour ago, Tips said:

Update to the suspension refresh on my SC.

i didn’t have the space, tools or time to diy the refresh, so I just threw money at the problem 🙄

I got some local quotes from specialists and as expected varying opinions and prices. I ended up at East Coast Suspension in Taren point. Not close to me but after a recommendation from @OBRUT and speaking with Dave I left the car with him. 

Picked the car up today. I went with a level 1 set up with Koni shocks, turbo tirods, and rubber over neoprene on Dave’s recommendation, being a mix of road and occasional track use. The stance is just how I wanted low but not slammed. Being over at Taren Point I decided to take a run down through the national park 😉. WOW what a difference, car handled like a dream and certainly faster through the corners, no skipping, sweet as.

looking forward to the 16th at the farm.

 

Awesome, that is great news. I’ve used Dave for years and always been very happy. 

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  • 2 months later...

Well done Tips.  I have been on a similar path.  Transmission bushings, engine mounts and today finished off the front control arm bushings (Prekom bushings).  I have used ER before but liked the look of the locally available Prekom rubber stuff (Autohaus; same as Rennline).  Also fitted new ball joints in the control arms.  Not difficult job in reality.  The hard bit is getting some of the old stuff off and cleaning up the control arms to an as new standard.  The ER video shows anyone how to do the angle indexing of the front and rear control arm bushing carriers.  Very satisfying job for a low cost.

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On 07/08/2019 at 21:28, cafe_racer said:

Mate it looks great!  Well done, look forward to a longer term review on it.  I have a new 3.2 Carrera and am debating if I do the same suspension refresh as I did on my previous SC.

 Apologies on the delay. Yes very happy with the set up. Had the opportunity and ran it at a track day at the farm which is 29 corners circa 5km in length. Very noticeable difference. The 1.5% negative camber Dave put on it meant it turned smoothly in to corners and none of the previous understeer or skipping through.

a couple of weeks ago was fortunate to do a 3 day 800km drive with PCW through some amazing country rounds from blue mountains to Canberra and return. Some fantastic fast sections of low traffic roads. As one of 2 AC cars in a group of 46 with mostly 911and a lot of GT model cars. No trouble staying with the group and found whilst I lost some ground on the straights sections I was certainly making it up on the corners, fast in fast out 👍. Best $7.5k I have spent so far.  I will be up for new tyres shortly as the eagles are now 5 yo have now heat cycled a few times, getting hard 🙄.

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  • 1 month later...

Progress Update:

Thank you all for sharing and after much much much consideration and interwebtime to investigate all the options, I've decided to stay standard (BORING I HEAR) yes but as i don't track the car and the budget just would not stretch to what i would have liked so i stuck with what I need.

My other issue is time and had explored farming the work out (thanks to all I discusssed this with and who offered their service) but have reliased that have the enjoyment i have had out of the car was working on it too (ok not all the time) so it may take me a while but I'll get there.

For those that are interested:

Pelican Parts: All the Elephant Racing Bushes

911 design: Bilstiens, Ball Joints and some hardware.

There were a few little extras added on the order but the suspension parts ended up around $2200 Aud landed cost.

 

Question: does anyone know if you need the "Special" spanner to remove/refit the nut on the strut (Boge Struts) or can you make do with somthing else?

 

Will try to update as work progresses.......

 

 

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Good on you!  It is not difficult and let us know as you plan and go ahead.  The ER video is helpful but I have plenty of notes on the front bushings installation if needed.  Getting the old shocks out of the existing 'towers' can be a pain if the lock nut is tight.  Pipe wrench may be needed.  Also a long clamp for install action of the ER control arm bushings.  Which 'stock' bushings did you buy?  OEM, Prekom or URO?  I would advise against the latter as they are very soft and can be tricky to install.

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2 hours ago, Merv said:

Good on you!  It is not difficult and let us know as you plan and go ahead.  The ER video is helpful but I have plenty of notes on the front bushings installation if needed.  Getting the old shocks out of the existing 'towers' can be a pain if the lock nut is tight.  Pipe wrench may be needed.  Also a long clamp for install action of the ER control arm bushings.  Which 'stock' bushings did you buy?  OEM, Prekom or URO?  I would advise against the latter as they are very soft and can be tricky to install.

OEM for the sway bars and ER for everything else.

Saw a guy on You Tube using 1mtr threaded rod (M12 I think) with some big washers and nuts to pull the front control arm rubbers on, does the same as the long clamp but from the inside not out.

Mike D has sorted me out with some of the required and desired tools, plan is (like I ever have a plan) to do the front first and then the rear. May get the control arms powder-coated and was thinking of getting the rear spring plates re-zinc coated too. 

Any recommendations for powder-coating and zinc plating are welcome.

 

 

 

 

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ER are good stuff. Prekom are also excellent.  The rears are the more difficult ones but there are good threads on this also.  I just completely stripped the control arms and then primed them and painted them with Caliper paint which is pretty hard. A long clamp makes the job pretty easy (in case  you need to back off and set set) and you need an angle gauge to index them and check the rear spring plate angles.

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4 hours ago, Caledonian said:

 …..was thinking of getting the rear spring plates re-zinc coated too. 

Cal,

Have you compared the cost of buying new spring plates with the bushes already mounted compared with stripping your existing ones, preparing, plating and buying and installing bushes?

I don't know but have noticed workshops just replacing them rather than renovating old ones.

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Valid point Peter,  and yes I had briefly as they were in my "Wish List" version of the suspention refresh😉

The new spring plates would have worked out around $850 Aud Landed cost, I already have the ER bushes from a previous half hearted plan to replace them as well as a spare set of spring plates i was going to get plated,replace the bushes and just swap over.

If the cost to re - plate them is not viable then they will just get cleaned up the best they can.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Job started, bit of a clean up in the working area before hand along with some pre-lube of the fasteners etc..

49349904307_d40f0b5094_z.jpg

 

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Everything came apart with no real problems, although some thermal assistance was required to get the ball joint nuts off ( Thanks to Mike DeSilva for loaning me the tools).

 

Ball joints were pretty worn but not dangerously, the strut inserts had previously been replaced with KONI ones which were both quite weak and the LH one had been leaking oil.

At first the rubber bushes did not appear to be too badly worn but once remove and compaired to the new ones it was quite evident they had past the use by date.

49344414391_23ee879fc2.jpg  This should be a small video.

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The rear bush was acctually more deformed that it looks in this pic.

49344414331_64fde6930d_z.jpg

The Bilstiens slid into place perfectly.

49344628392_f0156b338d_z.jpg

Correct tool to tighten gland nut (Mike D)

49343957193_6fafd06f17_z.jpg

Porsche part number but doubt they are the originals, no cracks or perishing that i could see but compared to the ER ones they were quite squishy😉

49349858802_9242b91ced_z.jpg

ER ones (on left) are two piece and easy to fit.

49349191558_1c2afcde3b_z.jpg

49349191923_6e502ceaab_z.jpgSusp

Control arm bush (Rear), very squishy....

49349858722_4d89d65676_z.jpg

Control arm bush (front) ER one on Left

49349651276_4e6fdc2470_z.jpg

Rear control arm bush (lower) no marks that i could see to identify any brand?

49349651256_63ff8ff66e_z.jpg

 

Had to stop work prematurely  today (sick puppy) and now pondering on whether to clean up the control arms as they are bit more scruffier now I have them off the car....

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Part one of suspention refresh competed! As usual with my bigger tasks a bit too much time spent cleaning and painting bits:

49406559123_a647701433_c.jpg

49407238682_b57f033108_c.jpg

I was going to use a bit of threaded rod to to push on the new bushes on but I didn’t want to remove the end caps so went with the ratchet stap method, which worked ok ish but was fiddly without a 2nd pair of hands. Sash clamp (Thanks again Mike D) was a bit easier to handle the job solo.

49407238922_2127524579_c.jpg

Getting the ball joint nuts up to the required 250 FT. lbs was a bit of a stretch on my little  bench vice so they were finished off on the car.

49406559253_ac2ff4219e_c.jpg

All ready to get fitted.

49407238797_783bfac586_c.jpg

Went back on as easily as the came off....the grey bits on the control arm are actually the reflection off the ground.

49406558463_98ecef18e6_c.jpg

Set the TB adjuster caps at slightly south of middle (after much interweb research) adjusted them to the desired height first attempt without having to re-index them.

49407238727_ba14e4186b_c.jpg

After a decent run around the local roads to bed everything in, the improvment was noticible straight away! bumps were soaked up,steering was lighter and more precise.And that was without a needed wheel alignment. Not going to bother with that as I'm getting straight on to the rear (well soon ish).

Front ride height now sitting at 24.75'' with the rear stiil at 25.5''' so sloping a little too much for now.

49407153006_6aabe7ae97_c.jpg

49407346857_3776c5d17f_c.jpg

Overall this was a pretty straightforward job, that with an already re-furbished pair of control arms could be done in a morning i reckon.

To be continued.....

P.S

A few glamour shots of the SxC blonde taken by Calum Balinger of Car & Coffee fame.

 

49279947926_219cb27bcb_c.jpg 

49279947631_506a79caeb_c.jpg

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49279947491_e35c8fb3e8_c.jpg911 Glamour Shots by Mike Smith, on Flickr 

 

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