rear suspension adjustments

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

I think they're NLA, but not certain. I know they're easy to repop. Al Zim is doing them. We (Pelican) might be able to get ahold of them too.

BTW, raising the ride height at the back end of the car will also take out some of the negative camber that John has.

John, negative camber is a good thing in a couple of ways. Mainly, it's good for cornering traction. It can cause the tires to wear out on the inside edges, especially when combined with toe-out. But a little negative camber is considered a Good Thing. Stock specs call for about 1/2 degree negative camber rear (0 front). I like about 1/2 degree more negative camber on both ends for a street car, maybe a whole degree more for an aggressively-driven street car.

--DD

[mikester]

If you could trace it out completely and provide a scale measurement on the drawing, just mark the actual inches on the drawing of each side, I'll see what I can do and get back on a price and time frame.

[Brad Roberts]

Thanks Ginter for helping out.

Funny. Al Zim is who I used to sell my extra shims too....

B

[Loan Dog]

I have to agree with Brad and bet some good money that unless it's a Porsche shop, they probably won't even know what the shims look like - let alone have them. If you can find some get 'um and take 'um with.
Don

[John2kx]

I don't remember seeing the negative camber in rear of my car prior to installing V8 "and" new Bilsteins. That is why I was thinking that I don't have the shocks set at the right height and raising rear would correct what I "think" is excessive negative camber.

What I think I'll do before making/buying new shims is raise car a notch or two via shocks and then take to shop to get some readings vs. my eyeball methods.

The left shim that is not installed correctly: I was planning on loosening bolts and sliding back in place. Anything I need to watch out for here?

Since my wheels won't be delivered until early next week, I've got some time to work things out. Any tips welcome.

Thanks again guys for all your help.

John

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

If you do that and the outer end of the control arm moves forward or aft at all, you will change the rear toe angle. Not a great thing, but survivable...

--DD

[gint]

I assume after all those changes you'll be getting an alignment soon after you get it on the road again anyway right?

I'll do a drawing this weekend and post it with dimensions.

[Brad Roberts]

John,

I forgot RJ is sending you wheels. Dont sweat any of this until the wheels arrive and you get some tires on it.

Please dont raise your car to compensate for camber. I personally feel your ride height looked great. Most V8 cars are sitting like a 4X4.

B

[Va914]

Very interesting topic guys. I too will need an alignment very soon.

Are the shims very easy to get out? I know of some 914's that are/have been junked out. They may have the rear trailing arms still on. Is it just a matter of removing some bolts and sliding the shims out?


In most cases, can the bolts be loosened by hand tools? Not sure if I can get an air supply for tools to the site

Thanks

[JWest]

Depends. Usually those bolts are a real bear. If you've got big enough tools and it's in the junkyard, hopefully they will just break off and you can get the shims out. You do NOT want this to happen to your own car (ask Milt).

[gint]

I've had good luck with a 3/4" drive ratchet and deep impact socket (14mm?, can't remember). But all of the 3 914's I tried it on were clean in tha long area. If the bolts don't give you a hard time (read-rust), then getting shims out is fairly easy.

[914timo]

I think those three bolts per side are with M10 thread and the socket size is 17mm.

[John2kx]

I've decided to take the advice of you experts and leave my setup alone until wheels/tires are mounted. Not even going to loosen bolts to move shim.......I'll let the alignment shop handle this as well.

I do want to provide them with camber specs for front and rear as well as any other specs they should know. Would like to run this by you guys before next weekend.

My car is strickly used on the street and I want it to handle well (not much to work with here, huh?). I'm by no means a race car driver and have only driven one autocross with no real plans to autocross on a regular basis, but will sign up for at least one for kicks. So I'm not sure what catagory I should be put in......stock or "aggressive" setup as some of you suggest. Having the V8 and only driving on good weather weekends, my car was not built to get 50,000 miles out of a set of tires. The PO was used the car primarily for autocross and did tell me I might not like the twitch setup on front end. It seems fine to me cruising the highway at 70mph and up but have not done any experimenting to see if it can be improved.

I'd like to provide a range of acceptable rear camber specs to the alignment shop so I'll know if I need to buy new shims when the job is done...... as well as specs for front suspension. Looks like:

.5-1.2 degree of negative camber is what you guys recommend for the rear.

What about toe specs for rear?

0-1 degree of negative camber for front looks like what is recommend from this post.

What about toe specs for front?

I'll be running 6x16 Fuchs up front with 7x16 in rear. Tires are Yokahama AVS Sports, 205x55x16 on all four corners.

John

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

General street 914 alignment suggestions:

Front camber -0.5 to -1.0
Rear camber 1/2 degree more negative than the front (-1.0 to -1.5)
Front caster somewhere between stock (6.0) and max, even from side to side
Front toe about 1/16" toe-in
Rear toe about 1/16" toe-in

Front toe-out will make the car twitchy but helps the initial turn-in. Rear toe-out will make the car unstable and in general should be avoided on a street car. Toe-out, especially in combination with negative camber, will really wear the inside edges of the tires.

--DD

[Phoenix-MN]

There is a set on ebay if anyone is looking for some

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1872790548

[John2kx]

Today's the day the Fuchs go on. I'm using 7 x 16 in rear and feel certain some lip rolling will be needed.

I've read where some of you guys are now using the hammer/dolly method over the baseball bat. Could you explain why?

I'll be doing this by myself and believe the ballbat approach would require someone to move car back and forth. Can the bat method work with car not being moved? ie, jack up rear enough to place bat between tire/fender and roll bat between tire/lip?

Looks like the kids have only got aluminum bats and I'll need to purchase the right tool no matter which way I go.

John

[tryan]

sweet looking ride. black is my favorite.

i think you have to put rubber on those shinny things.

aftermarket fuchs replicas or the real thing . do a search on the 911 forum about replicas failing.

shims can be added and removed without removeing the trailing arm.

got brakes?

[John2kx]

Real deal Fuchs are being used. I've decided to wait until 4 wheel alignment is done before buying shims..........lost out on the set on ebay and figured I might get lucky (right) with what I have.

Brake pic attached.

John

[John2kx]

Old and new tires:

Yokahama Sports 205/55/16 vs. 195/60/15

[914timo]

Well, it will be interesting to see how well you will get those tire/wheel combos under your rear fenders.

I have seen one 914 with 7x16 Fuchs and 195/45/16 tires and there where nearly no space between tire and fender lip. There were no chance to use any wider tires.

I look forward to see pics after you have done that bat method. I didnīt dare to do it myself. I know many have done it there, but .... Well, I hope you managed to do it and fit those tires and wheels under the fenders. Good luck and be careful not to destroy that shiny black paint. You seems to have very nice car.