Front Shock Inserts and Alignment
 

If I'm just replacing the front shock inserts (not the entire strut assembly), do I need to have the front end aligned?

As long as the ride height remains the same, the alignment should not be affected. However when I changed my shocks, the ride height went up an inch (boge to bilstein). I'm hoping it will come back down on its own, sometime soon.

Graham,

That's strange! What's your opinion of your switch to bilsteins?

The Bilsteins are working out just fine. However, I can't really make any comparisons to my old Boges. The old ones were in really bad shape. The fronts seemed ok, but the rear shocks were not putting out much resistance at all.

I can't really explain why the ride height changed. I just don't believe that the gas charge could make such a difference. Nonetheless, the ride height went up.

this is a popular past time!

i'm hoping to do the same on saturday.

any ideas on how long should i expect it to take??

any tips?

i've heard about ride height changes on other threads.

i'm not bothered cause mine real low and i want to add a lip spoiler - i was worried about ground clearance!

Tips:

1) Get a really big breaker bar for the lower bolt on the rear shocks.

2) Find a friend with long arms to reach the top nuts on the rear shocks.

3) I used my fan belt tool (and a hammer) to loosen the flange nut (that holds the innards of the front shock in). I'm sure this was a bad idea...but it worked.

4) If one of the new inserts does not fit in the strut far enough to let the flange nut engage -- then give up and send the insert back to Bilstein. The base of the insert is too fat. (I wasted a week on this one)

That's great advice. Thanks Graham.

yeah, thanks.

i need a breaker bar.

and i seem to remember your thread:(

Yep, it is normal for the Bilsteins to raise the car a bit.

As long as the Bilstein shocks are good the car will not return to the height it had with the old shocks.

Ken

Yea the ride height is affected by the gas pressure in the Bilsteins. The thing is, changing (lowering) the ride height on a 911 (at least on my 89) is about the easiest thing in the world to do. All it takes is a wrench and about 2 minutes.

Assuming that the ride height is increased when you replace both front and rear shocks, can you just lower the car back to the ride height it was with the old shocks without having to deal with any alignment or corner balance issues?

I put new front bilstein inserts (heavy duty) in my car a couple months ago, it did raise the front end up. I was amazed at how much more effort it took to compress the new inserts compared to the old ones.
Mine were the slip-in stuyle inserts for the green housings. It took about 20 minutes to do the pair, but I had the use of an impact gun, made it a lot easier.
I also have a stock fendered SC, if you have wider flares in front it gets a lot more complicated.
I could compress the insert and get it under and out past the fender lip, If I couldn't do that I would have had to pull the ball joints.

I had the alignment done right after, but it needed it anyway. Seems to me that if the alignment was right on before, and if you lowered the car back to exactly where it was before the new inserts, then nothing would change and the alignment would still be good.

Did mine a couple of months ago. My novice experiences are described here:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=358314#post358314

I went from Boge to Boge and did a front alignment since it needed it anyway. Probably was not affected by the shock replacement.

I am in this process myself. I have actually already removed my OE Boge strut guts, replaced them with Bilstein Sport inserts THEN REMOVED IT ALL because of some other complications regarding stuck ball joints.

Anyway, one piece of advice for which I am grateful advises you to duct tape your fender lips with enough coverage to keep from nicking your fenders when taking the strut in/out of the fender well. Be liberal.

This five minute exercise could conceivably save you a lot of anguish if you were to chip your paint.

Also, be careful removing the top nut on the strut (in the luggage compartment). Likely, when you attempt to loosen these nuts you will be turning the washer underneath and might tear the rubber underneath. I used a big pipe wrench on it to make sure that all I turned was, in fact, the nut itself.

Perhaps this is obvious, but remember to pay attention to your brake lines. If you bring the entire strut out of the fender and leave it unsupported, I think the brake line will take up all the slack and bear the weight not borne by the bottom mount of the strut assembly. No sense in that. Just have someone hold it or brace it up somehow if you must let go.

Lastly, I reiterate the above-mentioned need for lots of leverage on the rear, lower shock mount bolts. I struggled with the rears myself. John Walker kindly advised me that he never saw a bolt break. I was worried I would snap one of the bolts off in that big aluminum trailing arm. So, I wasn't muscling it enough to work the bolt loose. After reading Mr. Walker's well-reasoned advice (it's a big damned bolt), I put all my weight on a wrench with my floor jack's handle slipped over the end for leverage. They both came loose this way. Simple physics won out over silly apprehension on my part.

As an aside, the 912E model (which I own and love) takes a lot of abuse by BA and others for it's puny little VW-sourced motor. But, it was not a lick of trouble to reach those rear bolts on the top of the shocks. I could have crawled in there on my hands and knees if I wanted to! Have you ever seen all the room in a 912E engine bay?

Good luck.

David

John probably takes all the fun out of big, tight bolts by blasting them with the air wrench. My garage has always been airless, so I have learned to love those bit tight bolts. Truly, since the manual method is much more fun. Actually, my 5' cheater pipe probably takes the fun out of it.

First cryptomite and now the 5' cheater.....

Super, going soft at the edges....

Been away for awhile, hope your re-install went as "smooth" as the drop.