'78 SC Elephant Racing Suspension Rebuild

[Craig_D]

Hi folks, I am currently walking down the suspension upgrade path that many of you have done before (and thank you for posting your builds!).

Here's what I have from ER:
- ER 30mm raised spindles - Bilstein struts (custom valved) with welded gussets
- Racing bump steer kit with rubber boots, weld-on steering knuckle brace
- 21/28 hollow torsion bars
- ER Poly Bronze rear spring plate bushings
- ER Rubber bushings front A arms
- Ball joints
- ER Mono-ball upper strut mounts
- ER Low-friction control arm mounts
- ER Quick-change adjustable spring plates

Other New Parts:
- Rebuilt Carrera front calipers (kits from our host)
- PMB fully restored/rebuilt/replated SC Rear calipers
- Stainless Steel brake lines (fr/rr) (from our host)
- New Carrera front rotors (from our host)
- New SC rear rotors (from our host)
- New rear bearings (from our host)
- Pedal bronze bushing rebuild kit (from our host)
- VW Rubber upper strut covers (Thanks for that tip Trog!)
- Brand new drive axles with CV joints (from our host)
- New semi-metallic brake pads with new caliper clips (from our host)

What I'm reusing:
- Rear Bilstein Sports (less than 4k miles)
- Later Carrera sways fr/rr
- Tarrett rear sway bar links
- ER strut brace

I've started working on this last week and have removed the front suspension and brakes. Today I'll start to disassemble the control arms and clean up the camber plates. It's as cold as a meat locker in the garage, so I may head out and pick up a propane garage heater. Here are some pics of the work so far.

Pelicans have been very helpful and I've saved a lot of time by learning from others. ...and by using a heat gun, penetrating oil and an air gun to remove everything.

Thanks also to Chuck at ER who's been very helpful, assisting me to put together a great mountain/canyon carving set up!

More updates as I work through the front end, then it'll be on to the rear end, then the brakes.

Cheers, - Craig_D

[Craig_D]

[Craig_D]

[hcoles]

nice work, can I send my car out to you? ;-)

[cnielsen]

I'm about to tackle the same job...

[Craig_D]

Originally Posted by bkreigsr

as long as you have everything out, why not go to a through-the-body front bar?
the (anti-sway) bar will be your non-adjustable 'weak-link' after you get all that heavy duty equipment installed. Bill K

Well, I totally understand the "while you're there", but it comes down to cost. I have a lot of projects, including three motorcycle front ends, and a bunch of work on a '77 CB750, and since I already have the uprated Carrera sway bars (and have removed ~200 lbs from my car), I was thinking I'd run it like that for the coming season.

I talked to Chuck about it, and with the Carrera sways fr/rr, this would be a well balanced system. If I did the through the body front sway, I'd have to do a new rear sway also, and then we're talking about some pretty good extra coin.

If I do go with the through-body sway, it wouldn't be too hard to do later.

[GaryR]

Originally Posted by Craig_D

Well, I totally understand the "while you're there", but it comes down to cost. I have a lot of projects, including three motorcycle front ends, and a bunch of work on a '77 CB750, and since I already have the uprated Carrera sway bars (and have removed ~200 lbs from my car), I was thinking I'd run it like that for the coming season.

I talked to Chuck about it, and with the Carrera sways fr/rr, this would be a well balanced system. If I did the through the body front sway, I'd have to do a new rear sway also, and then we're talking about some pretty good extra coin.

If I do go with the through-body sway, it wouldn't be too hard to do later.

I agree with Chuck, it will be fine with stock sways with 21/28 TBs for a street car. For increased size rear sways you also need to reinforce (at least) or replace with Wevo (at best) the sway bar mounts or they are pretty much guaranteed to crack/break with spirited driving.

[Canada Kev]

Nice project. I helped a friend do the same thing last winter. Lots of fun. I really like the idea of using the roasting tins for the parts and/or catching brake fluid drips. Good idea...

[wachuko]

Subscribed!!

[JP911]

Beautiful! Planning to do the alignment work yourself?

[Pyrrhus17]

Hey just was reading your build posts any time you need help working on your porsche let me know I am hoping to one day buy a 911 of my own and any education would help ! I live in Arvada so I am quite close . Looks Great . Patrick

[Craig_D]

I'll do some basic alignement myself, just enough to get me to the shop that will corner balance and align her.

I had to warm up the CB750 and bring her back into the garage to help warm it up! Pretty damn cold out there! haha

Ok, back to stripping the control arms..

[Kraftwerk]

Originally Posted by cnielsen

I'm about to tackle the same job...

ditto... will be watching this post...

btw, I used to have a '76 Super Sport 400-four, the little brother to that big 750.

[DaddyGlenn]

Originally Posted by Craig_D

{snip}...I had to warm up the CB750 and bring her back into the garage to help warm it up! Pretty damn cold out there! ...{snip}

Got one of these for Christmas, makes a huge difference.

[Craig_D]

Questions for those in the know...so one Boge strut's spindle had a spacer on it (which was a pain to get off) and the other side DIDN'T!

In looking at the Bentley book, I see TWO spacers on the spindle. One is labeled "Spacer", and the other is not labeled or even acknowledged.

The question is: is the Bentley diagram just showing the ONE spacer (per side), twice (Once on the spindle and once exploded). So, there's supposed to be ONE spacer per side, correct?

Why the hell did the other side NOT have a spacer...??





If my thinking is correct, I have to order TWO of these spacers.

[zippy_gg]

Craig, it seems you used your impact gun quite a bit. What is the capacity of your compressor? Thx!

[DaddyGlenn]

Could the missing spacer be stuck to the old inner bearing?

[zippy_gg]

Originally Posted by Craig_D

Questions for those in the know...so one Boge strut's spindle had a spacer on it (which was a pain to get off) and the other side DIDN'T!

In looking at the Bentley book, I see TWO spacers on the spindle. One is labeled "Spacer", and the other is not labeled or even acknowledged.

The question is: is the Bentley diagram just showing the ONE spacer (per side), twice (Once on the spindle and once exploded). So, there's supposed to be ONE spacer per side, correct?

Why the hell did the other side NOT have a spacer...??

If my thinking is correct, I have to order TWO of these spacers.

Interesting! The PP diagram only shows 1 per side on the spindle side, and none on the rotor side.

[JP911]

The Boge strut changed in '86. The biggest concern is usually getting the correct insert, as the design changed. I wonder if the spindle also changed and, if it did, you had a previous owner who replaced one of the struts at some point. Regardless, this should not be a big issue since you have shiny new struts. I replaced my Boge's with raised Bilsteins similar to yours and never had to deal with any spacers; just the normal bearing setup.

Edit: just looked at the pics of your struts and noticed that the spacer isn't there on your new struts. Oops!

[Craig_D]

Originally Posted by zippy_gg

Craig, it seems you used your impact gun quite a bit. What is the capacity of your compressor? Thx!

Hey Zippy, this air gun makes a job like this MUCH easier. I only have a Craftsman 150psi 5-Gallon compressor, with a small air gun. It can removed up to 260 lb/ft of force. I never install components with it...I use my Snap-On torque wrench.



For the spindle spacer; I've tested it's placement in the bearing seal and it seems that there should be ONE per spindle, as far as I can tell. I've ordered a set from our host, along with all new front inner and outer bearings. I'm guessing that at least the side without the spacer is worn strangely, and this isn't where I want to save some dollars.