Lowering a 911

[1Gunner]

Just how difficult is it to lower/ adjust my 87 911 to European specs?
Time wise and parts wise.....

My dealer indicated it was a 2-3 day job. That just sounds nasty, and maybe there was a communication gap. And this is Porsche dealer.

Anyone??????

[Zendalar]

muhaha, 2-3 hours maybe. Then corner balancing and stuff.

One can make a 911 to a Land Rover look in one hour if one forgets balancing and such

[930Chas]

1gunner, there was a thread on this about 2 weeks ago, Do a search and you should be able to get all the information you need. Lowering the 911 is EASY!!! Just make sure you corner balance it afterwards.

[PDACPA]

Front is turn two bolts. Very easy (if it works).

Rear is a bit more complex.

Wayne's book has it in it and with my purchase of that book, my P Car todo list GREW

[expat]

The front is a half hour job from tool box out to tool box away.

The rear......

Am I missing something...EASY?

The rear appears to be a real PITA. From various threads, all sorts of little challenges can await you eg getting bushings off etc.

When reindexing torsion bars, calculations can be rather specific and according to the tech article you may have to repeat the whole process a few times to get it right.

If your using the stock spring plate adjusters there's stuff all to lower the height so then your into aftermarket adjustable spring plates which is $ and more time.

Sorry, I could be really missing something...if dso please let me know. I really want to get the rear lower but everytime I look at it I think of other things I'd rather do.

Ultimately yo need to corner balance anyway after adjusting the heights so a pro maybe better and quicker anyway. I think the time they quoted you would be how long they need the car, not how much time they were going to spend on it. For a pro it would be a couple of hours with all the right tools and parts ready to go.

Like I say...please... if I'm wrong let me know...I'd love to know the job was easy.

Cheers
Mark

[JWest]

You guys are too hung up on corner balancing.

When you change the ride height, the important thing is to have the ALIGNMENT done.

Corner balancing is secondary. Porsches are not corner balanced from the factory. While it is good to have done, it is not a requirement like an alignment is when changing suspension parts and settings.

[expat]

Interesting James... thanks.

I must admit I've only been a proponent of cnr. bal. from reading this board and driving mine without, and then a friends who had been cnr. bal. and the difference was day and night but then there could be other issues with my car.

My mechanic who races and prepares six 911's said not to worry about cnr. bal. for a street car but I was taking that more as he didn't want to bother with the hassle.

Cheers
Mark

[tobluforu]

2-3 day job? Huh!! No way it would take that amount of time. Unless he's trying to get you to replace torsion bars, spring plates, bushings and such. Not to put down the dealer in any way but, there must be a good "indy" in your area that would do it. Also, lower your car to where you want it. Don't just think that the "European Spec" is the way to go. Some like it lower, some a little bit higher. I also have to agree, although corner balencing is the way to go, it is not necessary. You may not even like the way the car feels after you do this. So, wait on the corner balence until after you drive a bit. But get both front and rear aligned.

[930Chas]

My mistake, the front end is muy sencillo, the rear end is muy dificil. I agree with you, I procrastinated on lowering the rear for a long time. Finally, a 6 pack of Red Stripe later, I talked myself into it and took the challenge. It was rough but she is Euro ride height now.

James, I am just "hung up" on making sure my car is right, know what I am saying? Sorry if that bothers you in anyway.

[KTL]

The front is easy. If you're only going down a little bit, you can do it without taking the front wheels off. Just slightly lift up the front of the car to take some of the load off. If you have to go down a bit more, you'll have to reindex the bar cap. Easy way to do it is to put the front (or the whole car) on stands. Put a jack under the control arm and lift it up to unload the end cap. Remove the adjusting bolt and then the end cap. Now jack up the control arm a bit more to get the car to ride lower. Jack it so when you replace the end cap and adjuster bolt, its adjuster arm sits in the middle of the range. Helps to measure how much you raised the control arm so you can repeat the same amount for the other side. With end cap replaced, put adjuster bolt back in and go to the other side.

Rear is a pain in the butt. It's much easier if you are using the same size (original) torsion bar because there's less guesswork involved in setting the height. Anyway, the adjustment of the spring plates is set at the factory such that you can only raise the car!!!! WTF? I assume this is to allow one to raise the car after years of load make the suspension sag a bit? So, you can't lower the car with the eccentrics on the spring plate. You have to reindex the torsion bar which requires one to unbolt the lower shock bolt, and the four bolts (two hold the plate on the trailing arm and the other two are the toe and camber alignment eccentrics) holding the plate to trailing arm. Once you have the bolts out of the trailing arm, mark/measure the angle of the spring plate so you have a reference point to help you lower the car/raise the spring plate. Then you must remove the bushing retainer at the wheel well and then pry the whole assembly out of the wheel well.

As long as you've got the spring plate and torsion bar out (somewhat easily I hope- sometimes rust can make things stick in there) you should reset the spring plate, if yours are adjustable, in the middle of the adjustment range. Get out the breaker bar as the bolts are torqued to 240Nm/177 ft-lb. Resetting the adjustment range will help you get the car close to the desired ride height when you get everything bolted together again. Reinstall the spring plate and torsion bar and reindex the splines (either within the spring plate or within the chassis or a combination of both) as needed to get the car lower. How much reindexing depends on whether you're changing torsion bars or not. When you get the spring plate reset and place back into the car (rubber mallet helps here), you'll have to rotate the bushing retainer a bit to get the bolt hole to line up again. Rubber mallet helps here too. This takes a little trial and error, but that's the way it goes!!!! Do both sides the same way and you're all set.

The rear is really time consuming because you have to take it apart and put it back together to see how it's going to sit. Air tools save a little time here folks!!!! When you've gotten the ride height relatively close, you can then fine tune it with the eccentric on the spring plate. One problem. The bolt is a jumbo 36mm size and the thin wrench is very handy to have here since they're in a tight space between the spring plate and the wheel well.

All in all a pretty time consuming job for the rear when doing it for the first time (I just did my first).

James is right. The corner balancing is secondary to the alignment. Make sure you get the toe/camber eccentrics for each side installed in relatively the same locations. Then get it aligned. I put a little too much neg. camber in mine! You should get the bolts in the middle of the range (easier said than done) to avoid too much camber or toe? I just wanted to get mine to be the same and then let the alignment shop get it where it needs to be.

Sorry for the length of the post. Should help somebody though!

[JWest]

930Chas - sorry, I did not mean to offend. You're right, we should be hung up on making our cars right - that's why we bought such good cars to begin with. It's just that the alignment is required, and it was not mentioned, whereas a corner balance is not required - just recommended. I was just trying to put the importance of each into perspective.