joseph mitro

hmmm......not sure i follow you. you mean raise the car with the coilover springs? or raise the car by reindexing? if you mean raise the car by the coilover springs, that sounds right, but i only have another 1/2" of threads left on the shock body, so the spring perch won't travel far enough to keep the springs loaded even when the suspension is unloaded.

Riff

IIRC the helper spring is a nominal rate, like 10lbs or so, nothing that would upset the existing set up. Just looked at the KLA website. They are now offering a helper "tender" spring with the rear set ups, so this should solve the problems.

Pix from the KLA site:



Good Luck

joseph mitro

ok, so i adjusted the spring perches to the very bottom of their travel on the shock body, ie, to raise the car slightly. i also adjusted the shock stiffness to 10 of 12, so they are stiffer than before. went for a drive tonight, and it does seem better, although the driver's side rear spring still comes unseated on large bumps.

FWIW, my ride height is now (ground to wheelarch):
RR - 25 1/8"
LR - 25"
RF - 25 1/8"
LF - 24 3/4" (i can easily adjust this with the ARHK)

maybe i'll just have to insert a set of helper springs to remove that last little bit of dead space in the spring travel.

Darth Coupe

On my reindexing, I was able to get the car indexed to a point where there was more than enough preload on the spings. I would think that you would have enough with 6 full clicks. How much did it lower the car when you did the clicks alone? The other option could be to have the helpers on there.

Man, the new reversed KLA's are sweet. Wish that configuration was around when I bought mine.

joseph mitro

i had the coilovers on before reindexing, so i didn't measure the drop, although using paragon's website calculation it should be about a 1.5" drop. without coilovers on, the wheelarches measured about 24.25" to 24.5" in the rear after reindex. i think i may just go with the helper spring setup as the ride height appears to be about where i want it now.

Oddjob

With both bilstein and koni rear coils that I have worked with, the springs are compressed between the spring perches when assembled, before they are even installed on the car. Unless you use a 6” height spring and don’t reindex the t-bars, the spring will never clang around. So apparently the KLA shocks are different.

If you only reindexed the torsion bars 6 clicks (lowering the car 1.5”), I don’t think you don’t have enough preload on the coilovers. The car is still riding primarily on the torsion bars, which is why the coilover spring is clanging around.

I believe the instructions on the paragon site are for reindexing the bars for the purpose of lowering/raising the ride height, not for reindexing to use in conjunction with coilovers. Meaning the 6 clicks were an example; not the necessary change in height/index for use with coilovers.

Darth Coupe

I agree with Oddjob, I do not think you have enough preload on the car. When I lowered the car without the coilovers on I thought the car was about to rest on the rear bumper, but thankfully did not get that low. Some more clicks might just get you where you need to be. Though, the way easier solution would be to go with the helpers.

joseph mitro

thanks a lot, darth and oddjob. that makes sense. yes, the KLA shocks are different because the springs are NOT compressed already. there is about a 2" dead space to make up as the suspension is compressed, then finally the springs rest on the perch as it is compressed far enough.

maybe you're right - i just need more preload on the springs, which means i need to reindex even further down low, correct? so i probably need to drop it about another 1/2-1 inch?

i really don't want the helper springs if i can avoid it. thanks again for the help.

Oddjob

I indexed my torsion bars so the hub/trailing arms are close to ride height when the car is off the ground and before installing the coilover. Im not sure how much difference that was from original to reindexed, but I know it was quite a bit more than 1.5".

DER951

Has anyone had a problem with the transmission cooler rubbing on the right coil? I heard one story of a siezed tranny due to loss of oil. Could be a myth?

Oddjob

I have about an inch of clearance between the cooling coil and the coil spring. Its possible that if the cooling loop is a little out of wack and with a different brand/type of coilover shock that you might want to keep an eye open for rubbing.

David Ray

I'm surprised the 944 Spec guys haven't chimed in here. The Spec car is basically a "really" light NA and a great handling AX or Track car. Besides removing weight from the car, the suspension must stay pretty much as stock as well as the brakes, power plant and transmission.

The first mods are usually a roll bar and five point harness (safety), major (weight reduction), adjustable Koni's front and rear, bigger torsion bars to the rear. adjustable sway bars front/rear or M030. Don't waste your labor dollars on coilovers!

We run the Toyo RA1s (225/15) long lasting and great performance tire. With the NA there's no need for wider tires except to add confidence in driving skills if you don't already have it.

Whether running AX or big track you'll have a great running car at low costs.

Check out the following web sites for more info:
http://www.pcasdr.org
http://www.nasaforums.com
http://www.porscheownersclub.com

joseph mitro

to add information for future searches:

today i reindexed my torsion bars a second time. my first reindex was about a 1.5" drop in the rear, which was apparently not enough preload to keep the coilover springs from clanging around. today i dropped another 1.25" on each side (or 5 clicks of both inner and outer torsion bar spline). so total drop is between 2.75" and 3" in the rear, in addition to the .75" drop from the eccentric bolt. the KLA upper spring perches are at the very bottom of travel, no more threads on the shock body.

i took it for a drive, and...... success........no more clanging around except in the most extreme of bumps or potholes. the only problem is the rear end sits really low with the 8" hypercoil springs. it measures 24.25" to the wheelarches on both sides. i may readjust the eccentric bolt to raise it up a bit. but at least it's better than before.

thanks for all the help.