My 1988 Turbo S is in need of struts and springs as all of a sudden my tires are rubbing. I am told the left front stut is binding. I am thinkibng of sending my stock Konis back to Koni for a rebuild. Would this be better than buying new. I have the ride hight adjustable shocks (I think) and want to keep them the same. I am also thihnking of upgrading the springs but want to leave the stock torsion bar. What springs shoudl I go with? I resently have a 19mm rear sway bar set to the mediium setting and a 26.8 front sway bar which I am probably upgrading to a 30mm bar.

Any and all suggestions are welcomed.

 

i would say dont go over a 250lb front spring w/ stock rear torsions- ive driven a turbo w/ that setup and it seemed pretty balanced. Getting the konis rebuilt would be great. With a 19mm rear bar i would go to a 30mm front anyway.

 

Should I go full stiff on the rear bar.

I was told 250 lb springs by a few people but alot of people said I MUST change the rear torsion bar also. Then someone mentioned 220 lb springs.

What do you think?

 

It's about balance. If you stiffen up the front, you'll want to stiffen up the rear as well. Unless you like plowing.

 

so reconditioned struts, 250 lb springs,30mm front sway rear 19mm sway bar set to stiff and stock torsion bars would make for a good balance?

 

The stock torsion bars on the Turbo S are 25.5mm, or around 175lb effective rate. You can probably get away with 250lbs in the front but the general nature of the car will be understeer. This should be curable (or maybe a better term will be 'maskable')with proper sway bar setup. Mind you a 30mm front bar will make understeer worse than the 26.8mm.

Ideally, i would say a 27mm rear torsion bar (220lb effective) would be ideal for 250lb springs in the front. 250lb/27mm will keep the same stock spring rate ratio.

 

Trying to avoid the nightmare of changing the torsion bar.

 

So then, what's the problem with just sticking with the Turbo S progressive springs?

 

Not all turbo S are equiped witht he progressive rate springs, if you mean the "Turbo Cup" springs. I might be wrong though..

 

I *thought* the turbo S springs were progressive... but I may be thinking about the cup ones - I know those are...

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

 

I am currently in the process of upgrading my shot springs AND saggy torsion bars. 180-410 progressive front springs, 30mm rear torsion bars. Weltmeister adjustable front and rear sway bars. Really liked that setup on my other 944 TurboS.

 

I had problems with my tires rubbing on my 88 non S. I went to 220 lb front springs, changed front bars from 25.5 to 26.8mm and Weltmeister adjustable bars in the rear. I have had one track day since. The tires do not rub and I was able to adjust the rear to a mid level and get it neutral. I am happy with this set up. Increasing the rear torsion bars to match the front would be ideal, along with increasing the front sway bar to match the rear. This could happen some day, but not real soon. I hope this helps.
Norm

 

The progressive rate springs are the M030 ones.

I just fitted M030 rear torsion bars with my KW install and it has not upset the balance too much. Even M030 is pretty soft compared with modern cars. I'd only replace your rear torsion bars if you are looking to change the ride height of the car, if not i'd compensate with rear coil overs (if you are planning on fitting rear coil overs)

Stock turbo torsion bars are something like 23.5mm dia and 944 M030 are 25mm dia. Not sure what TurboS stock torsion bars are. I can't imagine them being larger dia than than M030, unless they moved from solid to tubular or visa versa.

My KW's are rated at 250 ish lb at the front and 330ish lb for the rear with the M030 torsion bar so i'm not sure what combined effective spring rate would, and I find the setup very balanced and pretty stiff, though not too stiff for the road so a good road/track compromise.

 

Any idea what a set of coilovers would go for?

 

What?!? you are upgrading the front springs and compensating for that upgrade in the rear with sway bars? To me that is a horrible compromise just because replacing the rear torsion bars is more difficult.