I-Mac

I have a 964, completely standard on 16" original wheels, took them off and fitted OEM 17" Cup 1s and a "Bilstein B16 PSS9/10" suspension kit...However it appears that the camber cannot be adjusted with these.....which would be fine.... but to get the camber adjusted (using laser alignment) the same on both sides one of the top mounts needed to be reversed.....making it look really weird in the front trunk. This is the kit:
http://www.design911.co.uk/fu/prod21...its-48-132633/

So the Bilsteins use the original top mounts and do not come supplied with top mounts. As the flanges that connect the hub carrier to the bottom of the front shock are not elongated there does not seem to be any way to adjust the camber other than with aftermarket top mounts?!? Basically normal bolts fix the hub carrier to the shock body at a fixed non-adjustable point.

I want to correct the camber to be the same on both sides, but wonder why the top mounts are so far out from side to side?!? I don't want aftermarket top mounts as they all seem to be spherical bearing and this is a road car.

Any ideas? Has anyone had issue with this Bilstein kit?? - I wonder if it is a manufacturing issue to do with where the holes are located on the flanges that accept the hub carrier??
(For the record, the car is low miles and very original and has definitely not been in an accident, so shell should be as straight as they get.)

Any ideas??

Cheers

porsche mania

Can you not just use the eccentric bolt on the bottom ball joint to adjust the camber?

JohnK964

I think the eccentric on the ball joints adjusts caster not camber.

Ken D

Are you quite sure about that? The top hole should be elongated. If it isn't you should ring Bilstein in the UK (I assume that's your location), they have a technical centre in Leicester. Take a pic of the strut and they can confirm if it's a manufacturing issue. Good luck!

JohnK964

Is he saying this hole is not elongated see arrow on pic.

Ken D

Yup

JohnK964

That is what I thought. I just don’t see how that could have got by quality control at the factory.

Ken D

Agreed, and on both sides no less.

JohnK964

having to turn One top mount opposite of the other seems to be a bigger issue something is definitely wrong I hope OP lets us know what he finds out

porsche mania

Of course it does. Doh!
Thinking about this though the adjuster spins 360 so would it make a difference to the camber you can get if one side has the ball joint in the out board position and the the other in board? Assuming the caster isn't set all the way one way?
Scrap that, just remembered the other mount is in a fixed position on the ball joint. Back to sleep.

Rocket Rob

Can you take a picture of the top mounts as installed in your trunk? In the factory manual they show a picture on chassis, page 40-10a where they describe the orientation of the top mount. On the C2/C4, the top of the strut is closest to the center of the car. On the turbos, its offset to the outside of the car due to the wider track.

I-Mac

OK, so I don't have the car at mine so cannot take a pic sadly.

The car is at a garage getting the suspension fitted (completed now) and Carrera RS geo set (as I didn't have the time and it needed laser aligned anyway).

So the Bilsteins do have a small elongation on the upper hole like your posted pics above, but the guy at the garage says it is not enough on one side... It doesn't sound right to me. If the car is straight (shell I mean) what could cause this? Could the rear axle alignment be out and that throws the front alignment out meaning one side is seriously out of tolerance? Should be able to fix with offset bolts according to my mechanic.