mj951

seriously, I always thought there was trouble with the amount of lateral movement stock bushings offer? Have not heard of failures with the Elephant bushings, that changes things. My car is currently street/DE so you suggest keeping stock rubber at the spring plates? Err, thought I had this one figured out.

MAGK944

The two main reasons a threaded sleeve is inferior to a threaded body are:

1. The threaded sleeve is held in place in most cases by a rubber o-ring. This really is not an ideal solution as it introduces some play in the assembly and allows for moisture to enter behind the thread and cause corrosion issues.

2. Threaded sleeved coilovers tend to need wider coil springs to go over the thread. In this case the GC uses 2.5in and the Paragon 2.25in springs. This gives you less clearance for wheels, transmission oil cooler, etc.

That said the GC sets are a very good product, I use them and for the price I can deal with the minor issues.

Mike

Jason @ Paragon Products

We will have the same single adjustable Koni coil over on our site shortly...we've already sold several sets. Our kit will include the Racers Edge Lower shock adapters rather than knock offs.

gregeast

This is good news. Approximate cost?

Jason @ Paragon Products

$650 for the pair of shocks, Hypercoil springs and Racers Edge shock mounting bolts.

MAGK944

Very competitive price - will these be on your new site www.suspensiononline.com and when?

Jason @ Paragon Products

Within 7-10 days. We'll have it on both sites.

mj951

Jason, when deleting TB's and going full coilovers on the rear, do you recommend upgrading the spring plate bushings to Elephant Racing polybronze bushings, this is on a street/DE 951?
A fellow lister a few posts up suggests the polybronze bushings on a street car may have contributed to at least one failure of a spring plate, apparently from rough roads.
Any experience and advise with this is appreciated.

MAGK944

I'm chirping in here because I had the same thought when I did mine.

I think on a street car it pays to have a bit of give. Going to a full solid set-up really doesn't have any benefits on the street and quite a few disadvantages - rougher ride, more noise, easy damage from bad road surface, etc.

I went with the delrin spring plate bushings, solid billet upper and lower t-bar tube mounts and a spherical bearing for the inner control arms. My thinking is that the delrin would provide the location but be the "weak link" in the system. If they made the rubber replaceable on the spring plate I would have just replaced with new for a bit more give.

Jason @ Paragon Products

You'll definitely want to replace the spring plate bushings if you're going straight coilover. You can use the Weltmeister poly-graphite, the Racers Edge Delrin or the ER Poly Bronze. Not sure what Dan is speaking of....I'm not aware of any failures caused by using any of the above. Perhaps he can elaborate.

mj951

Thanks Jason, leaning towards the ER poly bronze.

Mike, I'm on a similar path. I picked up a solid lower torsion tube mount, a hard bushing for the inner guide arm point and planning for polybronze spring plate bushings. To help absorb some shock i'm going to keep rubber bushings at the outer bearing flange pivot and the upper torsion tube mount. My car is not a DD and I try to spend my time on known smooth surfaces. I'm hopeing to find a balance between a stiffer suspension with better feed back and one that can handle a few bumpy surfaces be it on the track or street.

M758

If you have an 86 NA why not just upgrade the T-bars? If you are staying under 330lbs-in rear spring rate overall then coil overs are point less. Sure guys talk about easy ride height adjustments, but the stock spring plate gets you +/- 1/2 inch. Plenty to balnace the car. If you want to lower it do it when you do the bars.

BTW.. make sure your rear spring rate balances with the front spring rate whatever you do.

xsboost90

the failure was not in the bushing but in the arm- on a race car- w/ alot of cornering load- broke the trailing arm in half. Im just not willing to make my car that stiff. I may do the delrin or poly-graphite.

Dimi 944

I am planning to do 500#-550# springs at the back....would that put my control arms in jeopardy...does any race/DE cars use that kind of spring rate and have only coilovers?

mj951

Dan thanks for the clarification.
How do you like the 450/525 spring rates?
I'm currently thinking softer springs than you, maybe 275 to 350 in the front and 450 to 550 at the rear, but am planning to go with polybronze and other hard mounts right away.

Dimi, as I understand, it's the spring plates and bushings and not the control arms that are the weak link in the rear suspension. I don't think 500-550# springs are an issue but any upgrade to the rear suspension requires attention to the bushings and mounts.