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So now I'm confused. The parts from elephant arrived to make their rear monoball hats mate to the eibach springs, which are effectively the same diameter as stock.
So they sent oem perches for me to use. But then their hats are still made to work with a spring that has an ID of 2.25 inches. So I am missing how these oem parts they sent will make this work properly.
More to come. There will likely be a simple answer.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mike is using red lens paint and clear coat to rehab his rear lenses, This is a pic of the quick test I did...should come out looking great.
Ok. The Alabama car has rear struts. Big day. Easy to get the top hats installed, but very very difficult to line up the studs into the three holes at the top of the strut tower. If anyone knows a trick, please share. Bottom bolts torqued to 148 ft/lbs, thank god I bought a 24 inch CDI torque wrench this year that goes to 250 ft/lbs. otherwise that wouldn't have been fun. 148 under a car with 14 inches of space is a lot of torque.
Tomorrow we put the air box and the heater blower back in, torque the top nuts on the strut towers, bleed the car and hopefully off for a same-day alignment.
And on to mikes freshly painted, soon to have an awesome interior monster from Maine...and teardown madness begins again.
Well, we may be bleeding two cars, since another carrera RS4 may be heading this way...Dave?
Ok. The Alabama car has rear struts. Big day. Easy to get the top hats installed, but very very difficult to line up the studs into the three holes at the top of the strut tower. If anyone knows a trick, please share. Bottom bolts torqued to 148 ft/lbs, thank god I bought a 24 inch CDI torque wrench this year that goes to 250 ft/lbs. otherwise that wouldn't have been fun. 148 under a car with 14 inches of space is a lot of torque.
Yeah, I remember that being a challenge. It's definitely a two person job to line up the studs and put the nuts in place. I had my younger son with smaller hands help put the nuts on while I "wiggled" the strut in place underneath the car. The left side with the bracket was the more difficult side for me. I have the same torque wrench and agree that it's a great tool for the price.
One car down. Put all the stuff back in the engine bay today. Bled the entire system, and then dropped it on the ground and torqued the wheels and the four hub bolts. Took it for a drive. Alignment is all over the map, but it drives straight enough to drive it.
So here's the kicker...with all the new "harder" stuff, new 25% harder bushings, new heavy swaybars, tarret solid drop links in the rear, monoball top hats in the rear...it's smoother than before and there is less vibration...I'm assuming the rear swaybar having been previously installed upside down and therefore solidly resting on the trailing arms and the transaxle made an awful lot of harshness and vibration. Imagine...
Anyway. Long and short, so far, it's everything it's supposed to be, and once properly aligned, it's going to be amazing.
Goughary I just installed struts last weekend and tackled the rears alone-
"Easy to get the top hats installed, but very very difficult to line up the studs into the three holes at the top of the strut tower. If anyone knows a trick, please share."
I used the old hats which may have been key as they had indentations or some other markings where the studs were on the bottom of the hat (you could see it as you looked up under the car). I positioned those near to where I thought the mount holes were, pushed it up to the mount and slowly rotated them untill they found the holes and popped in. Because I was working alone I needed a way to hold the strut in place while I went to the topside to put on the nuts. I found that if I put a jack under the control arm and elevated it to line up with the strut then placed the bolt that goes through the bottom of the strut (the one that requires 147 ft/lbs) in the control arm that it holds the assembly in place as you tighten the nuts up top.
Originally Posted by Goughary
I had somewhere, printable sheets with the alignment specs for RS, ROW, and US... No clue where those are anymore.
Does anyone have a good alignment setup for the street that is tried and true???
Looking for strong recommendations from someone that has a clue.
I spoke with a shop well versed in 964 alignment and they suggested this-
"Set the front height to where you want it. Then measure FROM THE ROCKER PANEL TO GROUND and make ~1/4-3/8" higher in the rear. DON"T USE THE FENDER WELLS FOR THIS MEASUREMENT."
In the shot below I set the front to be ~4.5" between the front of the rocker and the ground. The front is about one finger width between the fender and the wheel. I will be taking this to that shop for a corner balance so this height will likely be adjusted.
Nice! Car looks great. I'm hoping to get the Alabama car out to alignment this week. Maybe tomorrow.
Today was all about vintage Matco toolboxes. I don't have rebuild thread pics on this, but all three sets of boxes I have should have had their own teardown madness threads. Garage journal anyone???
Mainer and norotoner came up today, both for heater blower motor issues. And both now have heat. So all in all a productive day.
This thread goes in my select "sticky" file titled, "suspension madness" ... I now have a clear understanding of key bushings... Gives me confidence that i could install my new Bilstein/Eibach setup presently sitting in the closet, myself, if I so choose
I shall stop using impact on lug nuts too... Fortunately, I never cross threaded a lug and don't want the experience ... Really appreciate the time you spent documenting the process.
I've been driving the car the last few days. Someone said before all this began, the elephant bushings at 25% harder than stock was the way the cars should have come from the factory. I couldn't agree more now having driven on them. No real harshness and more more direct.
Also the swaybars. Fun. Tarret drop links, can't yet speak to longevity, but wow.
New wheel bearings. Quiet and an east install.
The car is amazing. What a difference. (It's for sale btw. I have it listed for 185k. I put my initials on the back, right next to the fender flares....RWG.) it's worth it, I swear...
10-29-2015, 10:07 PM
