Amber Gramps

Well then, OK, that dog's got a perty good track record so far.......

dshepp806

What (exactly) is the difference between the Neutrix and the Porsche pieces above?
They certainly look the same,....materials?

Thanks,

Doyle

rusnak

In my opinion, the factory Porsche piece is superior because the rubber is moulded and cured right onto the steel springplate. It is bonded, believe me. This creates a virtually frictionless and springy part that assists the torsion bars and dampeners at the same time.

The problem is that the rubber loses it's shape, and begins to soften. If you look at the Porsche part, it is deformed. The rear suspension needs to be held precisely by the body for it to do it's job as the car moves through a corner.

When the rubber is worn out, you have two options: (1) buy the factory Porsche part, or (2) go with one of many aftermarket parts.

The factory Porsche springplate is good, but expensive. If you were to go this route, a Wevo or Elephant springplate would be very tempting. I wanted to stay with rubber for reasons of ride comfort and noise attenuation. I bought the Neatrix bushings, but it looks like the new Elephant rubber bushings might be a better product for about the same price.

I'm preparing a second set of springplates now, and will go with 25mm torsion bars and try the Elephant bushings.

rusnak

hmm...yet another innovation by Chuck at Elephant Racing.

Here is a neat camber adjuster. I have to crawl under my car to take a look, and see how this thing would work.

In this pic, he has it installed on the toe eccentric bolt hole. It looks like the bolt pushes up on the bannana arm, and adds "negative camber". I wonder how everything stays solid? That looks like a grade 8 hopefully, and not a grade 5 bolt.

http://www.elephantracing.com/suspen...rearcamber.htm

Amber Gramps

A certain someome once told me for the guys on a really really tight budget you can flip the stock bushings. Putting the left one on the right, and vise versa. Not perfect, not bad, free.....

rusnak

I wouldn't attempt that, DB. The rubber center would be so large, the springplate would flop around in the rubber bushing.

And if you are going from factory, those things have to be set on fire, cut with a hacksaw, set on fire again, and then sanded to remove them. They come off in about a few hundred pieces, in other words.

Besides, I think the Elephant rubber is like $70 for 4 bushings. You don't get any more economical than that, and you get Chuck's superior engineering.

Here's an experiment to try: Set the rear of the car on jackstands, but instead of on the torsion bar springplate, set it on the torsion bar covers. This will push the springplate back to the center of the rubber. When you drive away, the rear will be squirrely and scary because the springplate will be moving around inside the torsion tube.

Amber Gramps

You are trying to go the other way, no? You want less neg.

I wonder if anyone ever just re-slots the spring plats with longer slots for even more rotation?

Amber Gramps

That sounds like the car I started with.

rusnak

I'm embarrased to say what came to mind when I saw that camber thing by Chuck. I am among friends here right? Friends don't let friends install Chuck's parts upside down to get more positive camber......

Amber Gramps

I'd let you, but I'd also tell you to send Chuck an extra 5 bucks....

It actually looks like the exact device we put on our kids BMX bikes. We call them chain tensioners.


http://www.danscomp.com/440054.php

rusnak

Today was productive - no shims, no fancy parts, just some patient wrenching and mechanical persuation. I overshot, and now have zero camber, but within a few hours more work I'll have negative 1 degree camber, on both sides and correct ride height.

Here are some pics from just now, with a full tank of gas.

Amber Gramps

Dude, you have two dogs?!? That explains everything.... Winky and a poodle, I was so confused for the last week thinking that winky was yours, yet the poodle showed up in one of your threads. I now know that ......wait, you didn't photoshop winky in there did you? Anyway, glad to see you let your dogs show you how to do it.

rusnak

lol Doug!!

Yep, here's "Winky" and her pal.

KeithC2Turto

Total max rear camber is a function of ride height. If the car is at US delivery height it is tough to get much. Lower it to Euro Spec style and -2 to -2.5 is about the max unless you elongate the bottom rear sloted hole.

You can get what looks like more neg rear camber but that it untill you set the rear toe correctly.

Every deg of neg camber in the back is equal to about 7 to 9mm of change in ride height. This is why I think it is better to set the ride height, then alignment before corner ballancing.

I did not glue my Neatrix but kind of wish I had. You can gear the moveing with big changes in suspention travel like going over the gutter at an angle. That noise is potentally early ware to the rubber bushings. Stiff torsion bars would minimize this I suspect. We need to find a glue that will hold them as the rubber actually becomes part of the rear spring rate. Watch the ER vidio on the front rubber bushings to see an example of this.

rusnak

Keith,

I completely agree that it's best to do ride height first. I found that toe and camber are related as well.

I wish I had used grease on my Neatrix. I am noodling the idea of taking them back out yet again in order to grease them, but I had so much trouble getting the camber right, and probably with grease on them, I will have to go back through and re-set ride height all over again. I'll probably leave everything as-is, since they are working well and holding alignment.

Another tidbit I might pass on to someone who is going to do this job is to clean the bosses with a tap before pressing the torsion covers back on. Go slowly, use a back and forth motion.