porsche_fan

I am in the process of installing PSS10s onto a 993 C4S and could use some help from those with greater wisdom.

I have seen a lot of discussion about the various options for ride height and where to measure it from the car to the ground.

Assuming I want to set the ride height to ROW sport (Front 144mm and Rear 127mm), how should that be done on the strut spring assembly? What should be the appropriate measurement from the locking collar to the strut mount or top of the strut? How I can figure out where to set the lock collar to get the desired ride height once everything is installed?

As always, any advice is very much appreciated. Thanks.

jlivingood

I am 1/2 way through my PSS10 install and found this in a prior thread:
Pre-install: Front 5 7/8". Rear 7 5/8". Top of drop link mount to C/L of bottom shock mount hole 6 3/4". All are +/- 1/8" or so.

In the end they looked roughly like that out of the box. They are on the car now but it is still on jackstands - hope to finish it next weekend or the weekend thereafter.

JB 911

ANother thing to keep in mind is to let the car settle before measuring/readjusting or you'll never finish. When I changed the height of my PSS9s they would settle over 24 or 48 hours to a stabile height. When fine tuning adjustments mark the thread and measure from there and I found that to be a pretty accurate change (24/48 hours and a drive later).

k722070

this is pretty tough advice to give due to wheel and tire size, oem strut mounts or monoball mounts and since the consequences could be more work.
I've done a few experiments so here's some interweb advice
start with the rears.
the rear collar range from the 2nd to last page of the manual is 195mm-210mm.
set the ride height collars at 208 exactly for each side. this should end up around row 127 with the oem strut mounts and 18's.
if using the bilstein drop links and sway bar above toe link spin the perch and collar up to the suggested spread from pss10 toe link hole of 175mm,
get this exact side to side to reduce preload on the sway bar.
if using curved drop links and bar below toe link spin the perch and collar close to the bottom and get it exactly the same right to left.
this is important because once you mount the shock to the body there is not enough space to spin the drop link perch for height change.

the range for front pss10 in the manual is 120mm to 140mm.
I'd suggest setting the collars between 125 and 130. this will put you within 10mm of row 144, probably around 135mm at the measuring point on the front suspension.
again just make sure the collars are set exactly the same right to left.
give this a day to settle and bounce around. you should end up with about .5 degrees of forward rake and be within +/-10mm of the row height for front and rear.
if you set the collars exactly equal side to side the car should be very easy to corner balance, like within 10lbs per corner, so 1/2 turn of only 1 front corner.
if you want to change the ride height the good news is you know the rear is as high as it can go so that's one variable out of the way.

mstolo

I'm in process of doing this process as well. George / JB, let me know how you end up.

I'm doing the rears 1st as I just had the engine out and I want to get all that buttoned up. I was trying to put the PSS10s into place and they don't exactly slide in. I guess you need to coax them in with some pressure from a jack. Haven't yet figured out how to torque them down. I guess I will go shopping for a O2 sensor socket as suggested in another thread.

I guess I'll try the above advice on setting the height.

k722070

what are you trying to torque down mike?
you don't need any pressure to put this together, usually needing pressure or force means something is not correct.
those collar heights of 208 in the rear and 125-130 are from my 96 cab so they should work as a good starting point for your car. only difference is I have 17's and looks like you have 18's.

jcochran1

Does anyone know if the distance you move the collars is a 1 for 1 in ride height adjustment? For example if i want to raise the car 5mm, can I get that result by raising my collars 5mm? I thought I read somewhere that each collar turn represents one millimeter in ride height adjustment. Thoughts?

I have Bilsteins but anyone who has other brands feel free to chime in also.

mstolo

Thanks Mr. Utah! Love your pic, spent a week at Alta and Snowbird last Christmas. Great place to ski.

I was just putting my notes together to do the job. Old ones out, have the new ones laid out ready to put in. I'll use the distances you guys gave me here and see how it comes out. I was thinking the same thing, once you get them in there, was planning to put some pressure on the rotor to compress the spring / get the shock in there. I was thinking I wouldn't be torquing it that hard.

Once the car is up and running, its heading straight to get an alignment, so I can have that shop make any necessary adjustments.

JB 911

For me it was. Just remember it has to settle when you bring in down off the jack/jackstands, you can't measure right way. The first time I raised mine about 10mm (it was below RS height) I measured right away and it was like US stock height. I was like but the next day and a drive later it was close to +10mm

I imagine shops that install these know exactly where to set the collars before putting them on the cars. At least the ones who do it right anyway.

porsche_fan

Thanks for the input everyone.

mstolo

My rears are in now. Used a jack pushing on the rotor to get some compression and coax them in (not much pressure). I have abt an inch of shock shaft exposed above the nut from inside the engine compartment, and that was just using a deep well socket (shaft wasn't spinning). Will go with that for now, and have the shop torque down when i get the alignment done. Wish I would have had the shocks with the red dot facing to the engine so I can see it, but I'm not changing it now.

Now I can get back to buttoning up the engine to get it started.

k722070

key tool for tightening the rear strut lock nut
http://www.harborfreight.com/combo-g...-pc-67974.html
and pretty nice product to have around anyway.

k722070

thanks for supporting my lifestyle. ski areas certainly can't exist on freeloading season pass holders such as myself. let me know when you visit and I'll show you the fun pointy stuff, and why the locals wear so much body armor.

mstolo

Looks like a pic from Feb this year! My boys found quite a bit of the hairy stuff, they kept getting me in tough spots that had me swearing at them as I'm skiing down a narrow gulley in the trees. Really incredible skiing and we didn't have the best snow at the time.

Project update: Shocks are in, finished bolting up engine and transmission last night. Now just to hook everything up and give her a crank. Maybe Sunday or early next week.