Techno Duck

Chris, some good questions there .

I am not 100% sure on the spring rates yet, i need to do some more reading but there are a handful of good threads on the 968 forum aswell as the UK based Porsche forums. There is a thread posted by Karl Glynn in the 968 section that has some very informative links. I suppose i could also contact KW directly and ask them what they think will work with the torsion bars gone. DVC said he was running 500lb in the back with deleted torsion bars and mentioned that KW said it was fine with the valving they come with.

As also mentioned in this thread, i am going to buy them through Autotalent probably. I contacted them Oct. of last year asking for a quote and they told me $2290 shipped. I was going to buy them over the summer but ended up moving down to TX. I am sure that price has changed and will email them again in a couple days to see where its at. If anyone has leads on good suppliers for the KW suspension please do tell. I have checked Vivid Racing and Speedware but they all are list price at ~$2800.
My concern about the lower shock bolt is the KW has what looks like a typical rubber bushing style end. The 'upgraded' shock bolt from RE requires a spherical type end. I remember reading about people modifying the Bilstein Escort rear coil overs to a spherical type bushing (it comes with a rubber type like the KW) but wonder what everyone was doing. I would like to delete torsion bars for sake of simplicity, some weight loss and no need to screw around with trying to reindex and get the right ride height. However it seems the KW setup is pretty well thought out to be run with torsion bars.

Frankly i am just lazy and dont want to be bothered reindexing the torsion bars.. i figure its just easier to take them out completely . I probably will never adjust the ride height again after installing and having the car corner balanced. I am very much a set it and forget it type when it comes to my suspension setup. However i did read a few accounts of 'funky' handling due to coil over / torsion setups if not setup correctly. Id hate to have one of those funky handling rear ends.. .

I am not sure about camber plates yet. Honestly i will probably never screw around with the adjustment on them. I usually run around 1.5-1.75 negative camber on the front with zero front toe and have done this for a couple years and many street miles. I saw very little uneven tire wear and am not worried about that really. Plus i dont like how its essentially not possible to adjust the camber via the plates without changing your toe. It seems like its a compromise either way (camber plates or no) you go. I also have no need to run mega front negative camber, so the extra adjustment is not a factor for me. I ran the KLA monoballs on my n/a and liked those, i think they are a great alternative to the factory mounts which are like $400 each (KLA were around $200 for the pair last i checked), also no rubber which is always a good thing. I was going to replace all the bushings with the exception of the banana arm (going to leave stock rubber). It was going to be a mix match of RE, Elephant Racing and the group buy torsion carrier mounts i bought. Probably not this year, but probably next i want to go with the RE control arms and bushings in the front to finally do away with the alloy Porsche arms. Its not a high item on my list as one of the PO's of my car replaced the arms with factory new 968 arms at the tune of about $1k about 20k miles ago.

Its going to be a huge job. I need to replace my torque tube also, so i was planning on dropping the entire rear suspension, transmission (need to install new trans mount also) and wrestle the old torque tube out. 'While your in there.."

Thankfully this car is not my daily driver anymore, but i know i am still going to drive it as much as i can on the street (easily 10-12k a year)whenever i happen to move back to NY. That plus it still needs to get me to the track and back home..and all track ventures mean i need to cut through Manhattan or take the Cross Bronx to get on the GW... and both of those roads just plain suck. All i know is i need to ditch the Koni / stock spring setup on my car right now. The car is just way to undersprung.. on tight auto-x turns and also going into the bowl at Pocono the front splitter actually drags on the pavement from the amount of lean the front end has. I thought my wheel bearings wear toast at one auto-x as all i heard was this awful grinding / scraping sound on hard cornering, then one corner worker told me my front end was touching the pavement!

Mark944na86

Patrick,

Any feedback from the Oz importer on the front camber nut/bolt issue?

333pg333

No Mark, he has unfortunately long since given up the distribution and got out of the business. I know some guys down south in Sydney who have the agency but haven't spoken to them about this. You could give them a call. Ask for David. East Coast Suspension.
http://www.eastcoastsuspensions.com.au/

Mark944na86

I realise this issue is going back to August/Sep 2008 now, so has there been any formal word from KW on it to anyone's knowledge? A technical bulletin or equivalent?

If not, is Alex's suggested fix above still considered the best unofficial advice available? Has Glen Messenger &/or Tom Edge at KW USA offered any advice/opinion?

We should probably try to get this issue nailed down once and for all...

marcoturbo

I speak for Sly, he has put around 35000 miles on his car for the last 2 years and didn't complain anymore about this issue. I'll ask him to be sure.

DVC

It looks like I started this thread in '07. I must say, after constant daily use, my V3s are still performing brilliantly. Wouldn't hesitate buying them again.

Mark944na86

Thanks -- that would be great.

marcoturbo

I asked him yesterday night. No more issue after he had changed to OEM bolts and nuts.

I also went back to stock stuff (I drove less than 1000 miles with the KW stuff), no negative feedback but I haven't driven as many miles as him

333pg333

Hey Travis, what was the end result of all the crap you had to go through? That same thing happened on mine too. KW Germany knew about it, but I didn't want to send them back over there. We wound up welding those 'U' grooves into place.
I had a problem with the adj camber plates too. Nothing major, but still somewhat disappointing.

DVC

I came to the same result as you, Patrick. They wouldn't fix it unless I sent it back to them first (disappointing considering it's a Known issue). I think it's important to find a good dealer to be the middle man though. I had great service from AutoTalent. They were even going to cover my shipping the unit back. I guess I should have taken them up on it instead of fixing it myself. At that point I was really strapped for time and didn't have a spare. Good thing they work so well.

Joel8005

Hey Guys,

After reading this thread and a couple of UK based site I have a couple of Q's.

1. Is anybody running KW3's on a TRACK CAR with spherical bearings and t bar delete?

2. Who did the bearing install?

3. What is the spring rate for the rears and how did you come up with that rate?

Cheers,

gt37vgt

In my experience and I've asked heaps of people there is no Australian agent can supply decent suspension for reasonable money .and when i say reasonable i a,m willing to pay +30% than the US price
have it sent in 2 or more parcels 25kg is the limit for manual handling and also it is also at the piont customs jumps on it have it declared no parcel over about 900Au lindsey racing and Eshocks can't realy be beaten on price ..

Joel8005

Ok. Anybody else?

Darwantae951

Dude...buy them and have them sent to my house, I can pack it into smaller boxes and ship it to you, you just cover the shipping. I'll be home from Iraq May 8th.

333pg333

How much are you getting quoted down here for KWs?
I can't see that it would be much of a problem to have someone break up the kit from the OE packaging and sending them down in smaller parts?
I think V3s are available for about $2200US? I've heard somewhere near $5k+ for them down here.