FINALLY tearing into Brakes/Suspension
 

The ol' Carrera goes up on jack stands tonight to get the full suspension/brake workover. Took some time off this afternoon to clean and organize the shop, then rolled it it. Here's what we're doing:

Elephant Racing front control arm PolyBronze kits and front mounts.
New ball joints, retainers, etc.
Rack spacer kit (already has Turbo tie rods).
Elephant Racing rear spring plate PolyBronze kits.
Elephant Racing rear control arm monoballs (you know, while I'm in there).
Blisteins - HD fronts, Sport rears.
All sway bar bushings and rear end links (already has the HD rear mounts).
New front and rear wheel bearings.
Zimmermann front and rear drilled rotors (I know, I know, save it).
AJ front brake ducts and blockoff plates.
Rebuilt calipers (I think I'll send them to Gold Line).
Metal Master front and rear brake pads, new parking brake shoes.
Stainless brake hoses (I know, I know, ditto).
New master cylinder (have a stock 21 mm and a 23 mm Turbo - not sure which I'll use yet).
And of course, Super Blue.

The control arms and spring plates will get cleaned, painted or plated as required.

Then it will get a final ride height adjustment if it needs it, then corner balancing and alignment at Reid Vann in St. Louis.

I wanted to take care of everything that's hard to get to while I was in there. I'll probably add a front strut brace soon, and maybe front monoballs at some future time.

I expect to be very pleased about a month from now. And worn out. But I already bought everything so I'm already broke - at least that's out of the way.

This is my next step. What do you expect your total parts cost to be? Keep us posted on your progress & good luck.

Do not use the turbo (23mm) MC with the standard carrera brakes. It is too big.

Nice looking parts list, should be a joy to drive when you are done!

Cheers, Jeff

Good luck to you and have fun while you're in there. I just finished the same job and cannot be happier with the results. I added bigger torsion bars while I was in there.

Keep us posted!

Not to highjack...but why is this too big?

-Britain

Right - interesting discussion here (thanks for the link, KTL):

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/68165-master-cylinder.html

I tend to agree with Wayne's last post on this one. Pretty sure I'll stick with the stock MC for now.

Thanks, Jeff.

450knotoffice: been following your project with great interest! I thought I'd do it with stock torsions and sways for now and see how it feels. But since it's going to get lowered again, I should probably be thinking about going up on the torsions.

Wow! Sounds like your ride will be down for a bit, but I'm sure it'll be worth it! Keep us (photographically) posted!

ianc

I think the 25% effort that Bill V mentions in that thread would be significant, but I do not know for sure. I have the turbo MC in my car, but I also have rather huge brakes! I think Wayne sums it up best in his reply.

Jeff

Yeah, I figure at least a month. I've had a lot of the parts since last fall, but my business and family have been taking all of my time since then. I hate to park it during the best driving season, but it will never get done otherwise. Trying to get all this done, plus the Ruf bumpers and Carrera spoiler, before Sioux Falls. I'll take pics along the way, but it seems many others have done the same thing recently.

I agree with both points, Jeff.

Well, wish I hadn't totalled this up, but $3105 so far. But that includes some other unrelated parts which probably total $120, plus caliper seal kits, hardware kits and bleeders which total another $160 (which I won't be using). So about $2800 net. Plus about $300 to get the calipers remanufactured and polymer coated. Jesus, thanks for asking!

"Jesus, thanks for asking!"

My pleasure, my son.

I just got back from a DE day and it is obvious that I need some susp. help. I'll probably start with bigger torsion bars and R compounds and then get into the Elephant stuff.

Update:

Got the car up on stands this week, pulled the calipers and sent them off to GoldLine. Just finished pulling the front rotors, hubs, backing plates, brake hoses and metal lines, brake pad sensors, and the same stuff on the rear, plus the parking brake parts. Still need to pull the master cylinder, and I'm going to start tearing the suspension parts out tomorrow. Hopefully next week I can finish the teardown and get everything cleaned up and painted.

A few observations:

Rear parking brake drums were severely cracked and the linings were busted off the shoes - I figure the PO must have driven it with the parking brake on at some point.

I used the muffler-clamp method (learned from someone here) to pull the front hub covers - made the job a piece of cake!

The boots on the one-year-old cheapo eBay Turbo tie rod ends are completely disintegrated. They'll be replaced with OEM Porsche parts.

Other than that, everything has come off nice and easy. Hope it stays that way!

EDIT 6/5: swapped the master cylinder today, and of course forgot to check the brake light switches - original had 2-prong, replacement had 3-prong, therefore spent 45 minutes cranking the rear one out in the car, one flat of a 12-point socket at a time. I would have been better off pulling the whole cylinder out again.

Update 8/29:

Got the suspension torn down a bit at a time over the summer, between family and business obligations. Things were worse than I expected for a 76K mile, 2-owner car. In the front, the rear A- arm bushings were collapsed and both torsion bars were rubbing on the housings - the right side rather severely, had a nice gouge in it. The left rear spring plate bushings were also collapsed and the housing was severely rusted from the inside out.

So - I had no other choice than to replace the front bars, which of course meant I might as well go up a few milimeters, and which of course meant I also had to replace the rears with bigger bars. I love the way it's so easy to justify spending money on the 911. Decided to go with 21mm front, 28mm rear since it's a 95% street driven car. Oh - new spring plate bushing covers too.

Got the calipers back from Goldline with a lovely black polymer coating - they look better than new.

Spent the remaining few free moments I had over the summer cleaning and painting parts. Got the rear wheel bearings pulled, but gave up on the trailing arm bushings - I bought sealed monoballs but I'm going to wait until the tranny is out to replace them. I finally got the wheel wells scrubbed out over the weekend and I believe I'm actually ready to start reassembly!

I'll try to post some pics of all the nice clean stuff in the next few days.

Nice work Dave. I know how hard it is to get work done on one's car with other obligations pulling in every direction.

Slap that sucker together!

Elephant Racing parts installed on cleaned and painted control arms and spring plates, new ball joints, new spring plate covers. Blisteins - HD fronts with housings and covers painted to match Sport rears, 21mm front and 28mm rear torsion bars.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1126038963.jpg

Zimmermann front and rear drilled rotors,AJ front brake ducts and blockoff plates, Goldline rebuilt calipers, glassbeaded hubs.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1126039149.jpg

Cleaned up tub, ready for new stuff.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1126039279.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1126039348.jpg

I used the turbo MC on my car with SC brakes before I upgraded to turbo brakes. I loved it! It was firm, but not too firm and not difficult to modulate at all. Maybe its personal preference, but using a 23mm MC with SC or Carrera brakes is a viable option.

Great looking stuff Wavey, you really went the extra mile. If only I could take mine down long enough to do something similar, but it's a daily driver...

Any trouble getting the Elephant bushings into the body? I seem to remember Vash had a little trouble with this,

ianc

Thanks! Mine is also driven on a regular basis so a lot of this cleaning/painting will eventually be a wasted effort, but I had to do it anyway. Wish I could get the oil lines, A/C lines, etc. to look better. The biggest pain was cleaning the trailing arms on the car - used a plastic wire wheel on a cordless drill, took at least an hour a side.

No problem at all pressing the rear bushings into the body - in fact it was the easiest part. I made sure the opening in the tub was really clean, started them by hand, then pressed them in using the cover, a block of wood and an air ratchet. I did have a little trouble with the bushings that go on the inner sides of the rear spring plates - the ends of the tubes were a little flared out and it was difficult to get the Elephant pieces started.

Vash (Cliff) helped out with mine, but there were no problems getting them into the body. PRESS them in using the bolts and torsion bar cover. The shims were a little tricky to install without deformation, but even that was pretty basic. LOVE the ride when completed :)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=227364&highlight=spring +AND+plate+AND+bushing+AND+install


-Chris