Teardown begins. Suspension madness...
11-03-2015, 10:33 AM
#168
11-03-2015, 10:54 PM
#170
Race Car
Thread Starter
Today was more toolbox Reno...
John's car went off for alignment. I've been driving it all week to get things as settled as possible prior to alignment. Can't wait to drive it when it doesn't exhibit multiple handling characteristics at any one time...
Attached are some pics of toolbox hell. I wish people would learn to not force toolbox drawers...there is no reason why old boxes need to always be so bent...what a drag.
John's car went off for alignment. I've been driving it all week to get things as settled as possible prior to alignment. Can't wait to drive it when it doesn't exhibit multiple handling characteristics at any one time...
Attached are some pics of toolbox hell. I wish people would learn to not force toolbox drawers...there is no reason why old boxes need to always be so bent...what a drag.
11-04-2015, 01:32 AM
#171
Burning Brakes
Join Date: Feb 2014
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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.
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.
11-05-2015, 12:28 AM
#172
Race Car
Thread Starter
Got the car back from alignment and corner balancing today. It's beyond my expectations.
Planted, immediate, consistent. Does exactly what you tell it to do. This is exactly what you dream a 911 would be before putting the key in the ignition the first time. What a transformation.
Four more to go....and maybe along the way we will convince Dave to take darkstar to the same level.
In the meantime, we did a full bleed on daves C4 today while the bammer was being set straight on the alignment rack. Found no real issues while underneath it...which is good.
Mike drops the Mainer here tomorrow and teardown begins again. This one gets all the same treatment, a bit of rust remediation, and a set of Godspeed coil overs...so we get to see how those work first hand, which is great because the price is outstanding. While it's on stands it'll also get some pedal bushings, and a rennline fully adjustable pedal.
Back at the farm...I have an idea that may need to be 3D printed and will be essential for anyone taking the intake off the top of the motor. More on that after I do it and have it working...just something simple and very helpful.
Planted, immediate, consistent. Does exactly what you tell it to do. This is exactly what you dream a 911 would be before putting the key in the ignition the first time. What a transformation.
Four more to go....and maybe along the way we will convince Dave to take darkstar to the same level.
In the meantime, we did a full bleed on daves C4 today while the bammer was being set straight on the alignment rack. Found no real issues while underneath it...which is good.
Mike drops the Mainer here tomorrow and teardown begins again. This one gets all the same treatment, a bit of rust remediation, and a set of Godspeed coil overs...so we get to see how those work first hand, which is great because the price is outstanding. While it's on stands it'll also get some pedal bushings, and a rennline fully adjustable pedal.
Back at the farm...I have an idea that may need to be 3D printed and will be essential for anyone taking the intake off the top of the motor. More on that after I do it and have it working...just something simple and very helpful.
11-06-2015, 09:16 AM
#173
Race Car
Thread Starter
Started putting mikes car on stands yesterday to begin teardown and we found the front jack points are tearing themselves from the car. Not safe. So that needs to be remedied before proceeding...
11-07-2015, 12:06 AM
#175
Race Car
Thread Starter
Yikes is exactly right. So to make myself feel better I spent the day driving the bammer and trying to figure out if it's well balanced. I never went over 25 mph, I swear....and I have to say, the car is very balanced under many situations. I was impressed. It really came out great, and until the PDAS kicks in it's great. A little trail braking solves that and wow. Very nice.
And then...since I'm a glutton for punishment, I fixed the squeak in his steering wheel and re-aligned the controls behind the wheel as they were crooked...nice and straight now.
And then...on to toolboxes. Bought a spool of office carpet runner at Home Depot. And am cutting that up to line my drawers...couple pics below. Much cheeper than the crap most people sell as drawer liner. And since I always clean my tools at the end of a day of work, these are perfect.
And then...since I'm a glutton for punishment, I fixed the squeak in his steering wheel and re-aligned the controls behind the wheel as they were crooked...nice and straight now.
And then...on to toolboxes. Bought a spool of office carpet runner at Home Depot. And am cutting that up to line my drawers...couple pics below. Much cheeper than the crap most people sell as drawer liner. And since I always clean my tools at the end of a day of work, these are perfect.
11-07-2015, 12:20 AM
#176
Instructor
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Westchester County, NY
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Spoke to Stuart Morton of Morton Competition in Stamford, CT today. He said it's pretty common to rip up the jackpoints. "Anythings fixable," he said. Spoken like a race car builder. 
made me feel much better.
Hoping to get the car in soon to fix them. Will try to take care of the leaking shift rod seal at the same time since he says he can replace it without dropping the engine.
Then it's on to suspension madness ( which is really resto-madness in my case).
made me feel much better. Hoping to get the car in soon to fix them. Will try to take care of the leaking shift rod seal at the same time since he says he can replace it without dropping the engine.
Then it's on to suspension madness ( which is really resto-madness in my case).
11-07-2015, 07:59 PM
#177
Race Car
Thread Starter
It's been a while since this began. So since the first car was picked up today. I'll recap before moving on.
End result:
Elephant racing sport hardness front control arm bushings,
Elephant racing spring plate bushings,
Oem (did not replace) trailing arm bushing,
New wheel bearings front and rear,
New ball joints,
New end links front,
Tarett rod end drop links rear,
H&R swaybars 24mm front, 26mm rear,
Elephant Racing monoball rear top hats
Eibach springs w/bilstein HD (were already on the car),
Oem front top hats.
Pressed in new bushings into the rear bilsteins.
So that gives you the base setup. The alignment sheet is attached. We lowered the spring perches so they were too low, and had the shop first do corner balancing, keeping the car as low as it could go on the HD struts w/eibach, and still be properly raked, properly corner balanced, and then also not have bump steer, and then did the alignment per the attached sheet.
Set up this way, the car feels great, is very well balanced, fun to drive, and looks fantastic. So if anyone is looking for someone else to tell them how to set up a C4, it's totally subjective, and the info on rennlist is not only all over the map, but much of it is simply wrong. The experts will confuse the lay person. And they never want to say "this is right" because it varies from car to car, driver to driver and basis the application.
But. Honeslty, I just want to drive the thing and have it set up well for street and slightly aggressive. I'm not racing an identical 964 and trying to edge out an extra 0.10 seconds in a laptime. So here you go. This is what I offer. This setup works, really well. Not right for everyone, not the best track setup (which would change for every track, where you quality on the grid, and weather and tire selection), but over-all, a great way to set up a car as a baseline. I'm happy with it.
Enjoy.
End result:
Elephant racing sport hardness front control arm bushings,
Elephant racing spring plate bushings,
Oem (did not replace) trailing arm bushing,
New wheel bearings front and rear,
New ball joints,
New end links front,
Tarett rod end drop links rear,
H&R swaybars 24mm front, 26mm rear,
Elephant Racing monoball rear top hats
Eibach springs w/bilstein HD (were already on the car),
Oem front top hats.
Pressed in new bushings into the rear bilsteins.
So that gives you the base setup. The alignment sheet is attached. We lowered the spring perches so they were too low, and had the shop first do corner balancing, keeping the car as low as it could go on the HD struts w/eibach, and still be properly raked, properly corner balanced, and then also not have bump steer, and then did the alignment per the attached sheet.
Set up this way, the car feels great, is very well balanced, fun to drive, and looks fantastic. So if anyone is looking for someone else to tell them how to set up a C4, it's totally subjective, and the info on rennlist is not only all over the map, but much of it is simply wrong. The experts will confuse the lay person. And they never want to say "this is right" because it varies from car to car, driver to driver and basis the application.
But. Honeslty, I just want to drive the thing and have it set up well for street and slightly aggressive. I'm not racing an identical 964 and trying to edge out an extra 0.10 seconds in a laptime. So here you go. This is what I offer. This setup works, really well. Not right for everyone, not the best track setup (which would change for every track, where you quality on the grid, and weather and tire selection), but over-all, a great way to set up a car as a baseline. I'm happy with it.
Enjoy.
11-10-2015, 09:33 PM
#178
In the picture with the rear bumper off, it seems like there is space to remove the driver side timing chain cover with the distributor in. Is this possible or is there not enough clearance?
11-10-2015, 09:51 PM
#179
Holy crap, that could have been bad. Glad you guys spotted that and no one got hurt. What happened, did the welds let go?
11-10-2015, 09:51 PM
#180
Drifting
It's been a while since this began. So since the first car was picked up today. I'll recap before moving on.
End result:
Elephant racing sport hardness front control arm bushings,
Elephant racing spring plate bushings,
Oem (did not replace) trailing arm bushing,
New wheel bearings front and rear,
New ball joints,
New end links front,
Tarett rod end drop links rear,
H&R swaybars 24mm front, 26mm rear,
Elephant Racing monoball rear top hats
Eibach springs w/bilstein HD (were already on the car),
Oem front top hats.
Pressed in new bushings into the rear bilsteins.
Set up this way, the car feels great, is very well balanced, fun to drive, and looks fantastic. I'm happy with it.
End result:
Elephant racing sport hardness front control arm bushings,
Elephant racing spring plate bushings,
Oem (did not replace) trailing arm bushing,
New wheel bearings front and rear,
New ball joints,
New end links front,
Tarett rod end drop links rear,
H&R swaybars 24mm front, 26mm rear,
Elephant Racing monoball rear top hats
Eibach springs w/bilstein HD (were already on the car),
Oem front top hats.
Pressed in new bushings into the rear bilsteins.
Set up this way, the car feels great, is very well balanced, fun to drive, and looks fantastic. I'm happy with it.
