early85944

Who has a good price on rear rsr coilovers

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

If you'll forgive me,......price isn't the only factor here.

Stock RSR valving is terrible (181/180) and that MUST be changed for those shocks to work properly. You ought to be asking who can provide properly valved RSR shock for YOUR car's current suspension configuration.

JMHO of course,

early85944

Steve,
I am looking for something streetable to assist the existing torsion bars.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

There are a lot of variables here,...

1) What size torsion bars do you have?

2) How low is the car?

3) Do you do any track events?

Generally speaking, adding rear coilover springs to supplement torsion bars doesn't help much on cabriolet due to lack of sufficient chassis rigidity and especially in the rear frame rails and upper shock mounts.

early85944

The main reason I want to go to coilovers is to be able to adjust the rear ride height without reindexing the torsion bars

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

I hope you'll forgive me for saying this but thats a poor reason for installing coilovers on a street car,......especially a cab.

Let me outline several reasons for you:

1) Currently, there are excellent choices in adjustable spring plates and IF properly installed, one doesn't need to re-index them for ride heigh & corner weight corrections.

2) The chassis's static and dynamic weight loadings are supported at the suspension pan where the torsion bars are anchored. The shocks are attached to thin sheet metal that was never intended to support that weight. This is one reason why coilover'ed 911's get a full and complete roll cage that connects/triangulates all the suspension pickup points together to support all the suspension loads, and a host of reinforcements to the rear shock console. When one installs coilovers in place of torsion bars with all of the above, all you get is a whole bunch of chassis flex and unresponsive handling.

3) Coupes are a LOT stiffer than Cabs so this situation is magnified unless additional chassis stiffening is used such as the above. Needless to say, these measures are not particulary practical on street cars and I always recommend torsion bars unless the required spring rates cannot be achieved by those components.

This is a gross oversimplification of these issues but I hope this shines some light on this for you. I would recommend a torsion bar suspension and a pair of the new Elephant Racing adjustable spring plates. Those have all the features you are look for that will work a LOT better than coilovers for your car.

Hope this helps a little,

spence88mph

This mod early85944 is talking about seems pretty common with the boys over on the turbo section of the pelican site to cure excessive squat with high hp. I've read many times you dont need to reinforce when using 'helper' coil overs even when using just coil overs. These views have even been from other reliable sources (always value your input as highly as anyones Steve), high profile shops etc.

I've always had the view you do Steve, the towers weren't designed to carry that much weight, why are there so many conflicting views on this? From what I've gathered, you get 2 opinions: *No way they wont support the weight of the car and *As long as the car isn't a track pig they hold up fine.

J. Brinkley

I wanted to say the same thing, but wasn't gonna do it, thanks Spence.
I really would like you thoughts Steve, I have stock carrera bars and 200lb helpers that are nearly slack when the car is at rest.
They solved my squat issue perfectly without any major headaches

early85944

Thanks for the input guys. I just want to cure the sag and not necessarilly support the weight of the car. I am talking mabe a half inch change in rear ride height if that

jester911

You never did say what size torsion bars you had. If they are stock '76 they definitely need some help with the motor you have in it. Truth is they probably need to be changed anyway if they are 30 years old. Putting coilovers on the car without addressing the Tbars is a bandaid on the situation if in fact they are original IMHO.

early85944

I will need to go through the receipts from the PO. I believe he upgraded them when he installed a 3.2l. I need to check though. I am not looking for a bandaid of a solution. Is there a chance I can get the extra ride height out of coverting to a heavier valved set of bilsteins w/o the coilover springs?

jester911

You should listen to Steve above. The shocks really were not meant to carry the load of the car. They are just dampers. This is the torsion bars job. They determine the spring rate for the car. If you start transferring too much of the load somewhere else you may find yourself doing other repairs. Don't be intimidated about addressing the torsion bars and spring plates.
Good luck.

early85944

Not intimdated just thinking about possible solutions, and maybe making room for a different transmission!

jester911

Sounds like you need to plan what you intend to do with the tranny and what it will effect. What tranny is in it now, G50?

early85944

No a 915