'78 SC Elephant Racing Suspension Rebuild

[moneymanager]

Craig,
Thanks for this thread. Two questions: you pulled the hub off the trailing arm before removing the trailing arm. Was that necessary or did you just do it then because you were going to do it eventually anyway? And, second, is it feasible to remove and replace one side then do the other side, or must both sides be done at the same time? Many thanks,
Jim

[hdrockerroller]

Great job there.
Brings back memories. I did this same suspension rebuild to my 83 911 SC in 2011.
Poly bronze bushings front and rear, new bilsteins, new seals, bearings everything.
Cleaned up painted and put back together. All the plated parts replated, all new brakes.

Its a big job. And things didn't want to come apart after nearly 30 years of togetherness.
But its been awesome on the road ever since.

Best of luck to you.

[sugarwood]

Craig, can you explain that homemade rod bearing pressing tool?

You are basically using a bolt/washer to push something along that rod?
The other side of the rod needs to be anchored to something via a large washer?
It's basically like a C-clamp kind of ?

Also, why is the rod so long? (T.W.S.S.)

[sugarwood]

Originally Posted by Craig_D

Continued:

The final bearing is seated deep.
It doesn't look like the flat wrench you used would be able to have clearance to spin the bearing rold tool bolt that deep.
How did you get it that far down into the cavity?

[RD911T]

This shows where he pressed the hub into the bearing, not the bearing into the trailing arm. There are washers under the closed end wrench and probably a suitable sized socket (that's what I used) on the backside to catch the lip of the bearing and keep it from being forced out the back side.
Here's the same process in my thread:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/735959-71-coupe-project-4.html#post8269143

[sugarwood]

It's funny how a thread will have different impact on people.

Some are inspired. Personally, I am now having 2nd thoughts, and thinking this is beyond my capability.
It took Craig, someone with far more experience and tools than I, over 3 months to do this work. (8 months if you count the troubleshooting!)
The big fear on a project like this is biting off more than you can chew. Once it's disassembled into a non-roller, you can't even tow it to the shop to finish what you can't do.

At some point, I will research which smaller steps are the most realistic for the novice who is just looking to do a basic refresh a 30 year old OEM suspension.

[sugarwood]

Originally Posted by RD911T

This shows where he pressed the hub into the bearing, not the bearing into the trailing arm. There are washers under the closed end wrench and probably a suitable sized socket (that's what I used) on the backside to catch the lip of the bearing and keep it from being forced out the back side.
Here's the same process in my thread:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/735959-71-coupe-project-4.html#post8269143

Sorry, but I wasn't able to follow the photos. It's not clear what was being removed or installed. No idea what the large socket was doing on the other end, or how it was secured. Not a big deal, I think I understand the basic idea of using a rod with bolt to force things down an axis. Thanks.

[zippy_gg]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

It's funny how a thread will have different impact on people.

Some are inspired. Personally, I am now having 2nd thoughts, and thinking this is beyond my capability.
It took Craig, someone with far more experience and tools than I, over 3 months to do this work. (8 months if you count the troubleshooting!)
The big fear on a project like this is biting off more than you can chew. Once it's disassembled into a non-roller, you can't even tow it to the shop to finish what you can't do.

At some point, I will research which smaller steps are the most realistic for the novice who is just looking to do a basic refresh a 30 year old OEM suspension.

When you reach that point you can always remove the trailing arms and take them to a machine shop where they can use a press to do the work.
Of course this means you disconnect your entire rear suspension, which may or may not be OK depending on the scope of your project.
If you only want to replace the bearings and not touch anything else then you are correct about thinking to take the car to a shop.
If on the other end you are refreshing bushings and brakes then take the whole thing apart and use a machine shop for pressing bearings in.
I made the tools shown in Greg's pictures and it worked great!

[saxen]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

It's funny how a thread will have different impact on people.

Some are inspired. Personally, I am now having 2nd thoughts, and thinking this is beyond my capability.
It took Craig, someone with far more experience and tools than I, over 3 months to do this work. (8 months if you count the troubleshooting!)
The big fear on a project like this is biting off more than you can chew. Once it's disassembled into a non-roller, you can't even tow it to the shop to finish what you can't do.

At some point, I will research which smaller steps are the most realistic for the novice who is just looking to do a basic refresh a 30 year old OEM suspension.

i followed Craigs work here step by step behind him- it took me 4 weekends to do everything he did (except wheel studs, and i went tarett bars) its not that bad when you dive into it esp when you have this thread as a referance. i am so happy i took the time to learn about the suspension. it has made it a lot easer to adjust at the track and understand how it works.
good luck either way- it is a lot of work, very rewarding.

[Craig_D]

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback. It's gratifying to know that my thread is still helping/inspiring people to work on their own cars.

I'm just getting back online after being under the sun in Cancun for a week, and am now awaiting the biggest predicted snow storm for the Denver area in over three years! Wish I could go back to the beach!

Originally Posted by moneymanager

Two questions: you pulled the hub off the trailing arm before removing the trailing arm. Was that necessary or did you just do it then because you were going to do it eventually anyway? And, second, is it feasible to remove and replace one side then do the other side, or must both sides be done at the same time? Many thanks,
Jim

Hi Jim, I pulled the rear hubs off while the trailing arms were mounted in the car to help hold the trailing arms in place. Otherwise I would have had to wrestle with the large trailing arms in a vice, and didn't want to deal with that. For your second question, I guess you're replacing the bearings? If so, I would do both at the same time. I'm the kinda guy who likes symmetry, so I tend to replace things in pairs. In my particular case, I was approaching my project as a complete balanced overhaul, so I had planned to replace all of the "consumable" components while I was in there.

Originally Posted by sugarwood

Craig, can you explain that homemade rod bearing pressing tool?

You are basically using a bolt/washer to push something along that rod?
The other side of the rod needs to be anchored to something via a large washer?
It's basically like a C-clamp kind of ?

Also, why is the rod so long? (T.W.S.S.)

The rod bearing press tool is just a long 3/4" threaded rod with numerous thick washers. I used a closed end crescent wrench on one side, and either a socket wrench, or a closed end ratchet wrench on the other, with washers. When I couldn't get a wrench onto one end, I would use two nuts tightened together (locked) on the unreachable side, then two wrenches on the outer side (one to lock the whole deal down) and the other to tighten the active nut to press the components together.

The reason that the threaded rod is so long, is so that I could also use it to install the ER rubber bushings into my front control/A-arms. One tool to rule them all.

In the pictures shown, I was pressing the rear hubs onto the trailing arms. I actually utilized the (now unused) front strut covers to press the hubs on. Here's THE LINK to that part of my project

Originally Posted by sugarwood

It's funny how a thread will have different impact on people.

Some are inspired. Personally, I am now having 2nd thoughts, and thinking this is beyond my capability.
It took Craig, someone with far more experience and tools than I, over 3 months to do this work. (8 months if you count the troubleshooting!)
The big fear on a project like this is biting off more than you can chew. Once it's disassembled into a non-roller, you can't even tow it to the shop to finish what you can't do.

At some point, I will research which smaller steps are the most realistic for the novice who is just looking to do a basic refresh a 30 year old OEM suspension.

I can understand trepidation at undertaking a project like this, but you can do it. Just take each project one at a time, keep a clean workshop and finish each micro project before moving on. If I tackled this project again, it would take me a couple of weeks instead of months. I move slowly and meticulously when doing new projects, and since this was the first 911 I've worked on, I really took my time to understand how it all works, and what's important.

Hope these answers help!

Cheers.

[SoCalSK8r]

Sugarwood- don't sell yourself short. There is nothing in these steps that's overly hard to do. Tedious, yes. hard, no.

On top of that, you learn a tremendous amount about how your car suspension works, how the adjustments work, etc.

Where do you live? If you get stuck there's plenty of Pelicans who I'm sure would help.

Craig has laid out awesome instructions and practically makes this fool proof to tackle.


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[SoCalSK8r]

And yes, I'm a proud 'student'














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[jjeffries]

Nice work there, Skater. All this plating folks do nowadays looks fantastic. Sure beats rattle can silver and black. John in CT.

[78SCRSMAN]

Originally Posted by Craig_D

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback. It's gratifying to know that my thread is still helping/inspiring people to work on their own cars.

I'm just getting back online after being under the sun in Cancun for a week, and am now awaiting the biggest predicted snow storm for the Denver area in over three years! Wish I could go back to the beach!



Hi Jim, I pulled the rear hubs off while the trailing arms were mounted in the car to help hold the trailing arms in place. Otherwise I would have had to wrestle with the large trailing arms in a vice, and didn't want to deal with that. For your second question, I guess you're replacing the bearings? If so, I would do both at the same time. I'm the kinda guy who likes symmetry, so I tend to replace things in pairs. In my particular case, I was approaching my project as a complete balanced overhaul, so I had planned to replace all of the "consumable" components while I was in there.



The rod bearing press tool is just a long 3/4" threaded rod with numerous thick washers. I used a closed end crescent wrench on one side, and either a socket wrench, or a closed end ratchet wrench on the other, with washers. When I couldn't get a wrench onto one end, I would use two nuts tightened together (locked) on the unreachable side, then two wrenches on the outer side (one to lock the whole deal down) and the other to tighten the active nut to press the components together.

The reason that the threaded rod is so long, is so that I could also use it to install the ER rubber bushings into my front control/A-arms. One tool to rule them all.

In the pictures shown, I was pressing the rear hubs onto the trailing arms. I actually utilized the (now unused) front strut covers to press the hubs on. Here's THE LINK to that part of my project



I can understand trepidation at undertaking a project like this, but you can do it. Just take each project one at a time, keep a clean workshop and finish each micro project before moving on. If I tackled this project again, it would take me a couple of weeks instead of months. I move slowly and meticulously when doing new projects, and since this was the first 911 I've worked on, I really took my time to understand how it all works, and what's important.

Hope these answers help!

Cheers.

About pressing bearings... aside from pressing the outer race you want easy rotational motion while installing, if not then you're pressing against the wrong component! Also, once the hub is in and the big nut is on, rolling the car on it's wheels without axle shafts is okay... on these cars.

[SoCalSK8r]

Originally Posted by jjeffries

Nice work there, Skater. All this plating folks do nowadays looks fantastic. Sure beats rattle can silver and black. John in CT.

Thanks , I went for Cad playing and black powder coat. The calipers were done by PMB and came out amazing.

Since I'm in CA and the car will stay out of crappy conditions it made sense to invest in some nice plating. I'm very happy with the results.


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[Craig_D]

Wow, looks great Skater! Glad I could help make it fool proof...ya know, takes one to make em that way.

[jrolstin]

Craig! What the crap did you do with your sugar scoops! lol

[bugstrider]

Email sent with a couple of basic questions.

Cheers
Trevor


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[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by jrolstin

Craig! What the crap did you do with your sugar scoops! lol

Sold them to me, with the exception of the bezels, lol

[JOHN21BLACK]

With all that work done. All that was missing was the 930 Turbo Brake upgrade. Nice work!