hot-J

Does anyone have a lead on one of these???

http://www.kokeln.com/rear_suspension_kit.php

gt37vgt

go to any decent race car fab and chassis place and they will make one in an afternoon

ritzblitz

...and don't forget a blank check

gt37vgt

get 10 mates and some one should knock them out at 60% of what Koklen are asking ..I probably would
there are plenty off skilled unemployed people Detroit joining gangs as they have nothing better to do .

TonyG

so the question was... does anybody have one of these? (not can you have the Kokeln design copied for less....)


TonyG

Julian Allen

I have always thought there was an opportunity to make a better piece.

The Kokeln part makes you cut away part of the rear seat bottoms, so why not make the inner trailing arm pivot a camberbox like on 911's, so you can adjust the camber without messing with the 944 style blades?

And, the spring plates are made of aluminum rather than steel like the (rather beautiful) 911 plates made by ERP.

The Kokeln piece discards the long arm mounting the torsion carrier to the body in the rear.

Finally, I'd like to see the aluminum carrier mount custom made for this type of suspension, losing the short "damper" mount (no way this mount is designed to carry any significant torsional load) and make the piece look more like the one ERP mounts to 911's.

But in answer to your question, I sent the one I tried back, so no, I don't have a lead on one either.

mikeyoman

I didn't have to cut anything away to fit my Kokeln Carrier.
Didn't throw away the long arm either. I assume you mean the angular piece that keeps the transmission tunnel from caving in ?
Did have some issues initially with the accuracy of the machining on the Al spring plates but got it sorted very quickly.
I had some new camber adjust bolts made up to allow for the extra thickness of the spring plates as I didn't want 2 mm of shoulder on the steel bolt fitting to 10mm of aluminium plate.
I do have a major issue with the geometry of this kit related to using solid bushings (spherical joints) but this is maybe not only a Koklen thing.

When you adjust toe using solid bushings the bushings themselves will always try to move in or out laterally. They are bolted to the carrier so cannot move, resulting in something else having to bend.
This will put massive strain on the sides of the spherical joint.
I had to setup toe with the joints loosely bolted in place and fit large washers to take up the slack before torquing the bolts once I had found the correct toe setting.
The original rubber bushing can accomodate this lateral movement so not a problem.
Not sure how Elephant racing bushes move when adjusting toe.

BTW - I have not used this Kokeln setup on the road yet so I have no idea how it will perform.

sorry for the legs !

hot-J

Thanks Tony......... This is turning into an interesting discussion though. I had just assumed this piece would correct the geometry issues most of us have running soild spring plate bushings with a lowered car. Maybe I am better off switching to the elephant racing ones instead. I do know for sure the weltmeister ones in my car now have to go.

TonyG

mikeyoman

Interesting. But I must be missing something..... the toe adjuster has a spherical joint on the end. Given this, can't it simply "swing out" as necessary so as to not bind? Is the race on the joint touching the carrier at that angle?

I'm just having a hard time understanding what the issue is based off of your pic with the angle lines.

Thanks,


TonyG

TonyG

hot-J

What geometry issues are you having?


TonyG

mikeyoman

TonyG

The problem with that is the Spring Plates are bound to the swing arm and so cannot swing in that plane. When toe is adjusted the swing arm moveds back and forth, as in the pic, but the spring plate also moves with the arm and so the end of the spiring plate and thus the spherical joint will tend to move left to right as viewed in my pic.
To take up the gap between the end of the Kokeln carrier and the joint you need to add some thick washers.
This problem may not be as severe as I make out in actual use, but I haven't set up my suspension yet as the car hasn't been on the road for 6 years.

regards
Mike

daigo

I never thought of that, but looking at it in the picture, you are correct on that is a design that can not avoid bending the spring plate.

TonyG

mikeyoman

ahhh ok I see the issue.

Should have been designed with a double (forward/reverse thread) spherical joint rather than one end threaded in to the spring plate.

Probably designed for the correct toe setting. My guess is that the thinking at the time was that the range of needed adjustment is so little that that binding does not occur.

I've heard that this piece works well on the track. I'm sure it will work out.

Good luck,

TonyG

TRP951

I know MPD47 had one but idk if he sold it already when he parted out his 951 stuff

Julian Allen

The double threaded adapter is the one used on the ERP 911 spring plates.
The arm I'm talking about is the long curved plate attached to the original torsion bar carrier and mounts to the body further back than the axles. Mounting there and to the body up front would make the suspension more rigidly mounted to the body. Just using the points on the aluminum casting just can't be that strong. I agree with needing the aluminum rear cross bar that keeps the tunnel in shape.
I really like the idea of camber boxes for the inner mount: then the toe is at the spring plated and the camber adjusts separately at the inner pivot point.
I thought I had recalled there was a need to trim the seat. My bad. I did however have to machine the aluminum casting to clear the pivot bolt when using the upper hole.
Like I was saying, I like the piece but just think it doesn't go far enough.