In A Quandary On Front Suspension Upgrades. Your Advice \ Thoughts Appreciated!

[slow&rusty]

Hey Gang - Well my car has been sitting since September 2009 and have finally got around this past weekend to ripping out all the front suspension and brakes.

I am in a quandary as to what path to choose. I started leaning towards coilovering the front using the neat kit from Elephant Racing, but $2300+ adds up really quickly by the time you add new bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends etc.

I read a post that Jack Olson went back to torsion bars from coilovers and that quite a few folks recommended against it. So now my desire to coilover the front is much less and I love the way the car actually rides with the stock torsion bars.

So now I am thinking:
1) New bushings all the way round (specifically PolyBronze from Elephant and regular rubber bushings for the sway bar)
2) New Ball joints and Tie Rods
3) Tie Rub prevention kit

and that's it...

Also question:
1) How do you check the health of the strut inserts?

This car is strictly a fun street car, will never be tracked or DE'd.

Any advice or guidance is appreciated.
Thanks - Yasin

[Brad394]

Originally Posted by slow&rusty

This car is strictly a fun street car, will never be tracked or DE'd.

Any advice or guidance is appreciated.
Thanks - Yasin

Hey Slow and rusty ..... if you do not intend to DE and track the car might I suggest you just replace the bushings with rubber - Elephant supplies those. You would be surprised at the feel - new car like.

Turbo tie rods for a little extra feel in the steering

The poly-bronze - though very good at holding the suspension in place - require extra care and maintenance.

Forgot - I stayed with stock T-bars as well. ( this is one area I might change - increase to 22/28 )

Just my opinion - did same to my car but used weltmeister bushings - plus hours of fitting for no squeaks - and rides and steers fantastic. Oh and I track it to an inch of its life

Brad

[smurfbus]

Check out rebel racing A-arm bearings.

[slow&rusty]

Originally Posted by Brad394

Hey Slow and rusty ..... if you do not intend to DE and track the car might I suggest you just replace the bushings with rubber - Elephant supplies those. You would be surprised at the feel - new car like.

Turbo tie rods for a little extra feel in the steering

The poly-bronze - though very good at holding the suspension in place - require extra care and maintenance.

Forgot - I stayed with stock T-bars as well. ( this is one area I might change - increase to 22/28 )

Just my opinion - did same to my car but used weltmeister bushings - plus hours of fitting for no squeaks - and rides and steers fantastic. Oh and I track it to an inch of its life

Brad

Thanks for the feedback Brad..that is exactly the advice I was hoping for!! Awesome

Originally Posted by smurfbus

Check out rebel racing A-arm bearings.

I love those...so beautiful..

[DDDD]

There is a fine line with these cars between refurbishing and wasting money. The original rubber bushings worked well for the street. I would spend your money on adjustable Fox Shocks front and rear if you want to spend 2 grand. That is a killer combo with torsion bars.

[jwasbury]

Yasin,

I undertook a complete suspension redo last fall. My set up:

22/29 hollow torsion bars (if I recall correctly)
Polybronze bushings front & rear
Elephant low friction control arm mounts
OEM ball joints
OEM replacement sway bar bushings
Rear trailing arm mono-balls
New tie rods
Bilstein Sports F&R

I had the car lowered, aligned and corner balanced by a local race shop and they added an ERP bump steer kit.

Results...the car is stiff, but still ok for the street IMHO. I use it primarily on the street and will do a couple track events each season. The set up works great on track too...just did an event at New Jersey Motorsports Park and my 30+ year old bucket represented the breed quite well.

[krasuskyp]

(*awesome shot* - ya fokker!!! Tx btw for the shoutout time the other night, huge help!)

[MikeD930]

Originally Posted by krasuskyp

(*awesome shot* - ya fokker!!! Tx btw for the shoutout time the other night, huge help!)

+1...nice track action shot! Hope this is a high resolution photo...for 2012 930 calendar.

Sorry for being off subject!

[onboost]

Originally Posted by smurfbus

Check out rebel racing A-arm bearings.

These are very nice pieces and I'll be using them on another one of my cars

Originally Posted by Brad394

Hey Slow and rusty ..... if you do not intend to DE and track the car might I suggest you just replace the bushings with rubber - Elephant supplies those. You would be surprised at the feel - new car like.

Turbo tie rods for a little extra feel in the steering

Brad

These cars already have them hence the name "Turbo tie rods" all that needs to be replaced would be the outer tie rod end..

[fredmeister]

Yasin,

I rebuilt my suspension in winter 2009 myself. My specs were similar to Jacob's except I am running a heavier rear t-bar:

22/31 hollow torsion bars ,
Elephant Polybronze bushings front w/low friction control arm mounts, Smart racing front and rear sway bar sets,
Elephant Rear trailing arm adjustable sway away w/polybronze bushings,
Front and rear shocks both revalved by Bilstein to my specifications.
Monoball upper strut mounts.

I lowered the car to gain 4-4.5 inch ground clearance to the front RSR style valence (I think this is roughly "Euro height"), aligned and corner balanced by a local race shop when I was all done.
Results...the car is stiff, but still ok for the street with enough ground clearance to get in and out of gas stations and driveways with careful judgement. I use it about 60/40 on the street and track events. I drive it mostly on long distance trips and to and from the track...no trailering this beast except it serves as a the tow vehicle for my mini tire trailer when I drag it to a long distance track event/DE.

Fred

[slow&rusty]

Thanks for the feedback Jacob and Fred, great advice and very much appreciated.

I think I will stick with the stock Torsion bars and sway bars and keep my car's ride height to ROW specs (approx).

I am agreeing with DDDD you can spend an awful lot on these cars, unnecesarily so.

I feel I have a very good road map on how to proceed with parts to buy and the fun part...re-installing it all!

Regards - Yasin

[gumba]

If your strut inserts are original then they could use a re fresh. If you don't want to do that then at least compress the inserts by hand and make sure the rebound is the same. I had mine re-valved by Smart Racing to their F&R 10 setting, which is for the street. I felt the ride was better than the stock struts. They were a little softer on initial compression then got progressively stiffer. Also check the front tire wear. With the stock camber plates I could only get .05 degree neg camber. I had much more tire wear on the outside of the tires. I switched to Wevo camber plates and set the front camber to 1.5.

[zakthor]

I refreshed my suspension a few months ago. Similar to everyone else and I'm very happy.

22/30 hollow
poly bronze front and rear
erp monoball for front strut top
new bilstein hd in front, sport rear
car lowered, fenders now at about 24"

930 suspension in pacific nw?

If you put in the polybronze you'll have the torsion bars out and you'll be realigning and corner balancing, its just cost of torsion bars to replace them. The stock bars are too soft to control squat. Too bad you can't drive one of our redone cars... I think you'll regret staying with the stock bars.

The one thing I'd do differently: save money and just get solid bars, hollow is a waste of money if the car isn't crazy light.

On mechanics advice I obtained 22/21 sway bars from a carerra, refinished them and was planning to install, but I currently don't see a reason. I'm just so delighted with the ride, I don't want to change a thing.

As everyone else says, the polybronze greatly smooth out the ride and even with stiffer torsion bars the ride is smoother and softer than ever.