The suspension upgrade!

[ClickClickBoom]

Well,
The Rebel Racing bushing semi solid kits were being shuffled around the shop bench, and enough is enough!
http://www.rebelracingproducts.com/Suspension/Steering.html
Got the front A-arms off and the rubber bushings burned/slashed off, bonded the rebel races onto the freshly cleaned A-arms. Started bolting the new kit together and adjusted with the new Sander 22MM torsions (28MM rear). Got the front in/adjusted as per the instructions, and moved to the back end.
The rear spring plates came off easy enough, the bushings didn't burn off as easily as the front. Got one side smoked off and wire wheeled, prepared to fit the race. The race wasn't going easy, dang, unbolted the rest of the trailing arm, chucked it into the lathe, and hit it with the 90deg die grinder with an 60 grit disc. Sand, check, sand, check, sand check until the sucker slides on with buttery smoothness. Getting ready to smoke the other side bushings today, as well as JB Weld the races into place. I am estimating about 8 hours to get the front semi solids into position. The rears will take a little more massaging, between toe-in, and camber, more work will be required. I am also gonna throw some rear monoballs into the mix as well, with "new" Elephant Racing Re-valved shocks and strut inserts. The mono-balls look like some awkward work, under the car. Seems like I bit off a bunch of work.
Will post progress reports for those that may be contemplating the same. (corner balance, toe and camber adjustment as well as a 4 wheel brake bleed)

[impactbumper]

best thing you can do to these cars.

[Elombard]

The rear monoballs are not as bad as they look. The car I put them on had the bolts reversed by the PO so I could get them out easily. IIRC the inner rear control arm bushings sit in a thin metal sleeve. I think I mangled the sleeve, get hold of it and it pulled out.... I did not even remove the Rear control arms from the car. I may have used a large C clamp? either way it was not bad and went way quicker than I thought. I experienced no change in NVH with the rear monoballs.

[ClickClickBoom]

I didn't mention, when bone dry, there was just a hint of squeeking from the front suspension, and lo and behold the rubber stock bushings had deformed enough to allow the torsion bar to contact metal. The paint has just scraped off with a miniscule amount of steel from the torsion bar. The rear torsion came out with a little wiggling and pullin, nothing like the horror stories I had read about....

[ClickClickBoom]

Originally Posted by Elombard

The rear monoballs are not as bad as they look. The car I put them on had the bolts reversed by the PO so I could get them out easily. IIRC the inner rear control arm bushings sit in a thin metal sleeve. I think I mangled the sleeve, get hold of it and it pulled out.... I did not even remove the Rear control arms from the car. I may have used a large C clamp? either way it was not bad and went way quicker than I thought. I experienced no change in NVH with the rear monoballs.

Nice, I was preparing to get the plasma cutter out, along with 3-4 lbs of thermite!

[Dr J]

Sounds good. I am in the parts collection stage for a similar suspension project. If you have some pics, load them up!

[ClickClickBoom]

Doc,
When I am in the heat of the battle, cameras get in the way.
Got the rear semisolids, JB Welded into place on the trailing arms and chassis. Parts are in the curing stage. Attacked the rear monoballs, or should I say they attacked me. I tried one still attached and one almost completely detached. Jury is out, each way had its difficulties.
Tomorrow is the rear torsion bar install, and final fitting of the rear outer bushings.
Changed the rear shocks, to the ER rebuilts, monster project!

[ClickClickBoom]

By the way, when I removed the rear spring plate bushings, they were cracked an deformed, glad I am sweating to the tune.
Question, I have the original spring plate full droop angle, but guess it's not gonna give me the height I had. Any suggestions to get close with new different diameter torsions? I am planning trial and error, with the emphasis on error.

[BFT3.2]

This calculator saved the day when I did my rear suspension with stiffer 30mm TBs. It came within 1/2" of the exact ride height I wanted, it was 1/2" lower to be clear. My advice is to go one tooth steeper then what it calls for.

911 Spring Plate Angle Calculator

[ClickClickBoom]

Well,
Spent the day bolting all the stuff back on. It seems that the manufacturing differences between cars means that my right side bushing is .090 too far in. Snap! In and out, slop, everything was so perfect in the dry assembly. Spent a good amount of time cutting from a .500 slab of delrin turning and filing, grinding and more dry fitting. Got that issue done, made a bushing from a 1/2" piece of flat stock. When I measured the depths of the bushing sockets L&R, low and behold .090" difference. Bolting all the stuff back into place, noticed one of the Lemmy CV boots had severe cracking, CV job on the side. The bad news is Redline CV grease is krapola, all the oil was gone and the solids remained, no damage noted, so no harm no foul. I will say I got an Intercomp digital degree thingy, it has magnets imbedded in the bottom and sides, what a great tool. Saved my sanity more than a few times!
More fun and games tomorrow.

[ClickClickBoom]

From yesterday, while removing the CV for cleaning and reinstall I was taking the bolts and Nordlock NLXs off, one bolt, when it broke loose actually shot out sparks. I will say that the NLXs are uber secure and might even be, gasp, overkill! Will be reusing!

[ClickClickBoom]

Finished up the bolting on of the junk, got the Intercomp scales out and dropped El Chup on to see how it worked out. Seems El Chup weighs 2704lbs with a full tank of gas, tools, folding chair, multiple quarts of oil and 3-4 water bottles. With all the crap up front my bias was 50-50, and the corners were within 40lbs. Dropped the rear springplates, rear fender still at a mud bogging, Baja 1000 height of 26", fronts are at 24 3/4". The corners came to within 4lbs after a little jacking.
Any one know if the Sander torsion bars settle?
Gonna call it a preliminary completion. Still have to attack the toe and camber, put the nuts and washers back to the grease shadows, ran outta gas for fine tuning.
Tomorrow for further checks!

[Flieger]

50/50 front to rear? I didn't think it was physically possible to do that on a 911 with the engine installed.

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by Flieger

50/50 front to rear? I didn't think it was physically possible to do that on a 911 with the engine installed.

Maybe there is more than: ... a full tank of gas, tools, folding chair, multiple quarts of oil and 3-4 water bottles.

[Flieger]

Those must be some pretty heavy folding chairs. The full fuel tank doesn't get my car anywhere near 50/50.

Not even the 914 is 50/50.

[Kraftwerk]

My 914 was 50 /50.
Fifty percent of the time on the road and 50 percent of the time on jack stands. Ha ha
Really, I miss that car.

[ClickClickBoom]

Well,
Got it all installed and had to go to work, Didn't have time to do a proper alignment with strings and time. Got back home and decided to tackle the full alignment. Checked the front, all within spec, rear, that's another story.
Had the strings out and pulled, great concept, but for me it was like wrestling with a python. Under, out, under, out tangle, swear, cuss, debate sticking my tongue on the belt sander, curse some more.
I decided that the toe bar gauges I made for the land cruiser might just do the trick for the rear.
The bolt hole are good, and since I am looking for 0.0 degrees toe, lots of geometry issues are nullified. The bars make in essence a variable parallelogram. if the front and rears of the bars are equal the toe is in essence 0.0 deg. Left and right is now the issue, seems that the crankcase parting line is in the center of the rear suspension assembly. Looking at the parting line I noticed a gap in the castings, about .125" worth, slid a piece of 1/8"steel into the gap and dangled it down, with no wiggle room, and insured repeatable measurements by using a torpedo level. Adjusted the left/right variation by using the eccentrics on the banana arms to slide the bananas fore and aft. With this method adjustments are tighter than a tape measure will allow, I estimated by averaging between the tape measure lines. Previous experience says tight tape measure adjustments are as good as necessary for a street car.
Will post some flicks of the bars when I download them off my camera.

[ClickClickBoom]

12MM eccentric adjuster.

[ClickClickBoom]

Center of crankcase:


Obviously caveman drawing not to scale, or even remotely accurate, except for the measurements.
The first drawing got so scribbled, I had to make a new one today. The only important thing is the accuracy and repeatability of the individual measurements, which I did after every tightening of bolts and adjusters. Hopefully some of the brainier members can point out any potential shortcomings I may not have thought of.

[KTL]

Note that toe degrees or fractions of inches is a function of your wheel diameter/point of measurement. I do understand that zero toe is just that- zero regardless of how big the wheel is.

Also, you want more that zero toe on the rear. You want a smidge of toe in for better rear stability IMO.

Here's some toe conversion charts






There's a good DIY 911 alignment book by Ray Scruggs that Pelican people collaborated on getting shared here.

Toe Adjust Techniquest

SOme more debate on toe

How To Measure Toe In/OUt?