'86 944 n/a, freshening suspension
06-09-2010, 07:14 PM
#16
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. I've been doing a lot of searchs on the forums the last few days and i may PM some of you for more info on you suspension setups and other mods.
Another bugbear i've living with but seriously need to solve as its getting to me is my car goes *clunk!*
To be more specific, at anytime that i apply power the car jerks pretty hard and i get a knocking sound from the back. It can do it at any speed, any gear and when changing gear but not in neutral. It started happening on a hard, late night long distance drive where i missed a gear and then found I couldn't get back into gear for the space of maybe 10 seconds. The shift linkage was inspected and it was fine but from that weekend the clunk started.
A mate commented on it when he drove my car at a track day last August. And at this track day i had another 2 times where i couldn't get into gear at speed downchanging into a corner. Luckily this didnt happen this track day.
I can be in 3rd gear and be at 1/4 or 3/4 throttle, lift off, throttle back on *clunk!* and the car jerks. once i have throttle on at whatever input i can increase or decrease input and its fine, it's only when i completely take load off and put it back on that it clunks and jerks.
It makes it pretty horrible to drive as you don't relax and on the track its not smooth and upsets the car under different cornering conditions on the track. It really makes changing gears a chore so I'm not as aggressive on my brakes and downshifts in the corners and i'm pretty sure the gear changing is becoming more sluggish.
In the last TD thread a mate commented about my car jerking around when he was behind me in the corners, this was it!
TBH I dont think I should do anything else on the car, or take it to another TD until I can get it sorted as I won't be getting what I really need out of by going to them as is.
Any thoughts appreciated!
Another bugbear i've living with but seriously need to solve as its getting to me is my car goes *clunk!*
To be more specific, at anytime that i apply power the car jerks pretty hard and i get a knocking sound from the back. It can do it at any speed, any gear and when changing gear but not in neutral. It started happening on a hard, late night long distance drive where i missed a gear and then found I couldn't get back into gear for the space of maybe 10 seconds. The shift linkage was inspected and it was fine but from that weekend the clunk started.
A mate commented on it when he drove my car at a track day last August. And at this track day i had another 2 times where i couldn't get into gear at speed downchanging into a corner. Luckily this didnt happen this track day.
I can be in 3rd gear and be at 1/4 or 3/4 throttle, lift off, throttle back on *clunk!* and the car jerks. once i have throttle on at whatever input i can increase or decrease input and its fine, it's only when i completely take load off and put it back on that it clunks and jerks.
It makes it pretty horrible to drive as you don't relax and on the track its not smooth and upsets the car under different cornering conditions on the track. It really makes changing gears a chore so I'm not as aggressive on my brakes and downshifts in the corners and i'm pretty sure the gear changing is becoming more sluggish.
In the last TD thread a mate commented about my car jerking around when he was behind me in the corners, this was it!
TBH I dont think I should do anything else on the car, or take it to another TD until I can get it sorted as I won't be getting what I really need out of by going to them as is.
Any thoughts appreciated!
Last edited by J1NX3D; 06-09-2010 at 09:21 PM.
06-09-2010, 10:06 PM
#17
Rennlist Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Biloxi MS, USA
Posts: 58
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I just got a set or the Sachs front struts along with the bilsteins HD shocks for the rear.
I also got a hold of some S2 front and rear sway bars which I'll be making the stiffening brackets for them too.
I bought a set of used pillow ***** for the front in which I had to upgrade them with some chromoly plate in place of the garbage that came with them.
You can see what I did with them here.
They came out great and can't wait to install all this in the next month or so.
I'm not going to worry about springs or torsion bars just yet as I'm going to be autocrossing the car once everything is done. I'm going to be staying with the rules for the cars and it's class so it should be fun.
Anyway, good luck with your suspension build.
I also got a hold of some S2 front and rear sway bars which I'll be making the stiffening brackets for them too.
I bought a set of used pillow ***** for the front in which I had to upgrade them with some chromoly plate in place of the garbage that came with them.
You can see what I did with them here.
They came out great and can't wait to install all this in the next month or so.
I'm not going to worry about springs or torsion bars just yet as I'm going to be autocrossing the car once everything is done. I'm going to be staying with the rules for the cars and it's class so it should be fun.
Anyway, good luck with your suspension build.
06-10-2010, 05:37 AM
#18
I had a new set of shocks put on my 944 about 6 months ago and they made a huge difference. I ended up going with Bilsteins rather than Konis on the recommendation of Steve Rasmussen, based on the fact that my car will likely always be a 99.9% road car. His opinion was that the Bilsteins were slightly better for a road car, and I don't really need the adjustability of the Konis.
The front shocks were replaced first as the old ones were the originals and knackered (they had become a WOF issue). In Steve's words, they were "poo-ed"...
Driving with the new front shocks was amazing, the front of the car felt heavier -- but of course it wasn't heavier, it just wasn't moving all over the road!
The rear shocks were done a couple of months later and I didn't notice such a difference with those, probably because the old ones were still servicable.
I'll be interested to hear where you end up going with the suspension changes, as I've been wondering idly what I could do next. It's important to me that the ride isn't ruined though, since we use it for long trips and my partner would complain otherwise.
The front shocks were replaced first as the old ones were the originals and knackered (they had become a WOF issue). In Steve's words, they were "poo-ed"...
Driving with the new front shocks was amazing, the front of the car felt heavier -- but of course it wasn't heavier, it just wasn't moving all over the road!
The rear shocks were done a couple of months later and I didn't notice such a difference with those, probably because the old ones were still servicable.
I'll be interested to hear where you end up going with the suspension changes, as I've been wondering idly what I could do next. It's important to me that the ride isn't ruined though, since we use it for long trips and my partner would complain otherwise.
