cgfen

sounds like a great project.
FYI if you're interested, i have a Smart Racing Products digital camber gage F/S

http://www.smartracingproducts.com/c.../alignment.htm

i bought it when i was enamored with doing my own alignments, then decided to let the pro's do it instead.
Barely used

$125 + 1/2 shipping.
Does not include hands free adapter or wooden box.

cheers

Craig

ps. illustrative photo from smart racing products website

fast_freddy

Just picked up the car. Alignment will have to wait until Friday when I can get some time on a laser alignment rack at the local technical school rather than screwing around with my own jigs. However, I did drive it home from my friends garage. I gotta say there is zero degradation in ride quality. In fact I'd say it crashes a lot less and is much more fluid and is an improvement. Steering is very direct. I drove slowly though due to the misalignment. The only issue other than alignment is that over the first few bumps and turns I got a "popping" from what I suspect was the sidemounts settling in a bit. That completely went away though.

fast_freddy

I finally got the car aligned today and took it out for a "spirited" drive. All I can say is WOW! What a difference. The car no longer tramlines, has zero bumpsteer and the ride is a bit smoother and more fluid over normal pavement. However, over larger bumps and potholes it does tend to "crash" around a bit. I got a few odd squeaks once in a while but they seemed to lessen a bit over the 50 minute drive.

I completely wish I did this sooner. First track day is memorial day weekend, I can't wait.

camlob

Wow so much good info in this thread. Any update on the upgrades? If I will not lower my car to RS height, do I need EVO uprights? How about the solid side mounts. Any benefit if I dont lower the car to RS height?

Bill Verburg

No, RS/Evo uprights, no benefit unless at RS or lower
No, solid sides mounts, it will get rid of some looser goosey on track but for the street no.

I would highly recommend replacing all the soft stock rubber bushes, 4 in front on the 2 A-arms and you have 4 more rear suspension bushes on each side, 12 bushes in all once you have a mono-ball toe arm.

Elephant Racing has both soft and hard rubber replacements

fast_freddy

Update while the car is hibernating. I totally wish I did this sooner, the car is so direct and communicative now. The only downside is a little more "crashing" over big potholes, that's it. The car doesn't tramline/dart at all and is so much more controllable with the throttle and brakes. The steering is so delicate now too in that its almost like I can tell the yaw angle of the wheels, it's that good. The car doesn't over steer unless I'm a real knucklehead and is very controllable under trail-braking. It only under steers if I get on the throttle way too early. Even if I get on the throttle a little too soon it is very controllable with the right foot.

As a clarification, I sourced all of the bushings through Elephant Racing directly. Apparently, ERP is a different company altogether.

993C4RS

Nice post!

more parts to order now...

smead42

FF,

Just to make sure that I get this through my hard head: you replaced the all the rear link bushings and a arm bushings, except the toe links, with Elephant's sport rubber bushings. You replaced the toe links with an adjustable link w/monoballs... right?

Did you replace the ball joints on the a arm?

Was removal of the rear bushings similar to the removal of the front control arm bushing in difficulty?

Don't want to get the '95 problem up again, but I assume yours and Bill's 993s are not '95s? Is there any thought that the perceived '95 rear problem will be fixed with bushing changes?

Thanks for sharing, it's what makes this a great site.

Bill Verburg

Mongrelcat posted a site in GB that sells arms w/ new ball joints, prior to seeing that I had never heard of the rear ball joints being replaceable. I bought new RS arms for mine(which is a '95). Yes the sport rubber bushes will cure any issues associated w/ '95 arms(other than alignment, you will need to have this done afterward)

The only change in the arms from the 1st '94s to the last '98s was bushing and casting lot, there was no geometry change.

fast_freddy

Correct, I replaced all of the rear and front bushings with Elephant sport bushings. The tie rods with spherical bushing ends as pictured previously. A note of "caution" on the tie rods: With 17" rims and the way they are mounted (from below) they come awfully close to the rims but do clear with no rubbing at all. Mine's a late build 95'. I never had the urban legend catastrophic handling of 993 lore. Front and rear bushings are equally easy to replace with perhaps a little more work on the rears as you need to employ a little more leverage to move the bits around to get the arms out. My ball joints were fine but as Bill stated above I wasn't aware that you could replace just them without replacing the arms. As a result they were left alone. In retrospect I'd do the job again in a New York minute, not only because of the ultimate result but because it was a reasonably easy and satisfying project to complete. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a real ball breaker, I'd give it a six, it's pretty straightforward. It just takes a little time, that's all.

MarinS4

Freddy when you said said you replaced all the bushings with sport hardness from EPR did that include the upper arms in the rear?

I know the factory lower control arms are designed with one of the bushings softer than the other in both stock and RS style. I was told it was to aid in steering. With them all the same now you lose that feature. Is it really that big of a deal?

fast_freddy

Yep, it included the upper arms in the rear. I wasn't aware about the differing hardness of bushings. However, steering is not an issue at all with my setup. In fact it's light years better than stock which is already the best out there, if thats posssible. In my opinion of course...

I'd like to reiterate I bought the bushings through Elephant Racing directly, not ERP which is a different company.

Paddy

Bill, I was talking to my wrench the other day about the solid side mounts and he's been seeing a lot more customers having knock sensor issues recently and wonders if it has to do with the solid side mounts, thoughts?

smead42

FF,

Did you have any problem breaking the ball joints loose... just an old American crow-foot or the "special" Porsche tool.
Did you see a lot of difference in the ball links that are out there: Tarrett , ERP, SmartRacing, etc.
Any seals on the ends?
Also, on the ends of the links there appears to be a bushing on one end and a bolt/bushing on the other. You just pressed-in a bushing and used a nut and bolt to attach on this end?

Thanks again,
SM

MarinS4

Got it.....Thanks!

When they say 8 bushings needed for the rear I guess that does that not include the toe link? I have a solid toe link anyway just wanted to ask to be sure.