944 lowering

BASS944 · 03-19-2001, 05:16 PM

Last year I got a coil-over kit from Paragon Products with the intention of using it in with the Boge shocks I had installed a few years ago. Before I installed, I decided to wait and install with new KONI or Bilstein shocks, which I have not yet purchased. I am leaning towards the KONI adjustables because the front coil-over kit supposedly is designed for use with these. Have any of you guys used these kits before?

I want to lower the car in the rear using factory torsion bar set-up with the KONI shocks in the rear for now, but I think that I might have to roll the fenders to clear the 17" Cup wheels I have on the car right now. If any of you have done a similiar lowering with similiar equipment , let me know.

I will also have the Boge shocks for sale when I get the new KONIs.

wolfrpi · 03-19-2001, 05:27 PM

Do yourself a favor and install the rear torsion bar if you are going to lay out the kind of money you are planning to. I played around for a while with stiffer front springs, konis all around, and weltmeisters. While the car handled decently, the rear torsion setup is pretty soft (guessing 140 lbs). I like yellow konis all around and 250 - 275 lbs in front and 28 mm rear bars. The ride may be stiff, but the car will handle nocticably better than with the soft rear torsions. The procedure is not that bad - most faqs say you have to take the car apart 3 times - but it only takes once if you do a little math and have decent vision. Its up to you though...

Erick

monteness · monteness's Garage

You can lower the rear about 7/8" or 21-22mm with the two nut/bolt combination, rear of the torsion bar housing. The front one A, is the locking nut, B is the rear one and it is the eccentric and this is the one to turn.

Scribe a mark on the outside piece where the nuts(24mm) are. Break A, then B and see if you move the head on B, if not then loosen a bit more. To lower the ride height, this mark will need to be lower than the mark on the trailing arm piece. The bolt head will get some spring in it when you approach the limit so have the pull bar ready to tighten the nut.

This is just a way to get the car a little lower in the rear without reindexing or changing the torsion bars. Good luck

todd951 · 03-20-2001, 10:16 AM

wolfrpi, have you actually done the torsion bar replacement? I agree that you should be able to get it right on the first try if you do some calculations, but things rarely work out in the real world like they do on paper.

wolfrpi · 03-20-2001, 12:10 PM

Yeah i did the replacement two weeks ago and it was really not that big of a deal. With a friend, it took the bettter part of a day taking our time, eating takeout, and generally making sure we didn't cut any corners. The bars are great and the car is easier to control at the limit.

Erick

Hint: If you go with the 28's on a stock 944 Turbo (probably others also as the rates weren't that different), you should turn either end of the new bar about 1 turn away from stock. Because the eccentrics allow you to adjust the height within a reasonable up and down range you will come out with exactly the ride height you want. There is a web page detailing the calculations - I think 944 faq has the link. In a nutshell, you divide the weight of the rear of your car and calculate how many inches the suspension sinks. Then you determined whether you would like to lower it from your stock setting and perform the calculations for this lowering (something like turning one side of the bar 9 turns and the other 8 (example)). Then just claculate the amount the car will sink with your new bars (I believe 28's are around 250 lb rate) and adjust accordingly. To keep it simple, just turn either end 1 turn and make sure that the housings that attach to the torsion bars on each side are lined up with each other. It should take you one try using this method and no fiddling around. It was funny because my car had previously been lowered by an idiot and actually sat about an inch higher on one side (Don't think the factory intentionally does this). It was nice "correcting" the mistake while replacing the bars at the same time.

BASS944 · 03-20-2001, 04:11 PM

Thanks for the replies. I have the 250 lb springs to install , and am concentrating on that first, before I purchase any new torsion bars or even a rear coil-over set up($$$$??). I have talked with a couple of club racers who still have the factory rear torsion bars with the same coil over kit and 250 lb springs on the front. They said it understeers a little, which I would expect.
Will I be able to get enough lowering capability with just cranking down my rears?
Will I need to "roll" my fenders?
Ride quality is not an issue to me, since this will be a track/autocross/non-daily driver.