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As my 40th Anniversary is coming up on being 20 years old and 77K miles... with mechanical refresh activities handled by www.visionmotorsports.com (I've always thought of Vision as one of the best shops in So Cal IMHO), It was time for a suspension refresh, which I thought I could wrench on myself. And sure enough, pretty much anything rubber was all but destroyed. The Tarett sway bars, drop links and tie rods came from MGC (www.mgcsuspensions.com), nicest experience with them on this by the way. Also good support from Tarett ( tarett.com) on questions and guidance. The control arms are carparts.com's Truedrive branded parts line, price was right and the units seem well built, time will tell on this. Coil overs are H&R RSS Sport Coil-Over (RSS1513-1), thought of these as best bang for the buck on a car that will be a week-end and a few yearly hpde events here and there.
All the bits and pieces went in relatively straight forward enough. The videos from FCP Euro are perfect. My next upgrade purchases will be from FCP Euro just because of these videos. Mike Hidalgo (sp?) does an excellent explanation for pretty much everything. (youtu.be/BJiQzTthDCU, youtu.be/zgXA1ssP0PI)
I'm hoping I wrenched everything without major screw-ups. First time doing something this involved.
The original parts were really bad, the bushings were all loose and destroyed. If the bump stops are any indication, then you get an idea of what the rest of it felt like.
The replacement parts... nice and shiny.
Front Front Rear (will replace drop links with Tarett) Rear Done.. Front 25.125", Rear 25.75" ground to bumper lip. Front needs to come up maybe 0.5". Front 25.125", Rear 25.75" ground to bumper lip. Front needs to come up maybe 0.5".
Question for H&R experts here (also waiting on comments from their tech support)... I have the rear pretty much at its highest adjustable setting. There is maybe another ~20++mm of thread left. BUT, is that lower spring supposed to be completely compressed? Does this spring help with rebound duties and its supposed to be compressed like this?
--> Update: H&R confirms install is as expected and the bottom spring compression is normal.
Unloaded, vehicle on stands, wheels off. On the ground On the ground On the ground
All left are to swap the rear drop links with Tarett adjustable versions and get the car to alignment, balancing etc..
Very nice write up and work on the install... I am going to check out Vision Motorsports for my 996 work as well, but looking to do my own suspension refresh too.
With that said, those small springs are helper springs and are designed to keep tension on the main spring through all suspension travel (being fully compressed when when loaded is normal)
Thanks for the spring explanation. Also confirmed by H&R tech support indicating bottom spring compression is normal. If you're going to do suspension yourself, the rear control arm removal is a PITA, get a good ball joint separator / pickle fork.
Nice write up, thanks. Getting ready to do the same. Where did you get that ruler? I once had one similar and loaned it out-wish I had it back at least once a week...
The bottom spring is a "helper spring". It's only there to keep the main spring in place during full suspension droop (fully extended suspension travel). It should be fully compressed when the car is sitting normally.
Nice work! Interesting choice of components. The only thing I would caution you about is making sure you have the car's full weight on the suspension before fully tightening anything. You don't want to preload any of the rubber bushings.
Where did you get that ruler? I once had one similar and loaned it out-wish I had it back at least once a week...
I was curious too so I googled it. It's a PCB ruler made by Digikey. I use Digikey for some of my electronic component orders and recognized their logo.
Nice write up, thanks. Getting ready to do the same. Where did you get that ruler? I once had one similar and loaned it out-wish I had it back at least once a week...
I wish I had done my own. Had a local indy porsche suspension shop do it. They replaced the stuts and drop links, and front bump rubber and left everything else as said it was okay. But realizing since they had almost everything off, I could have saved on labor and swapped out with new parts.
I then found out when I raised the car to check transmission fluid they never replaced the rear bump rubber. When I ask why, they just ummed and awwed about supply chain issues or "the rubber is really still okay" (it's not, it's totally disintegrated).
I'm probably going to take everything apart again and replace what I can. I went OEM B4s, but finding I probably drive the car in the canyons more than those were intended for.. Good call on coil overs.
07-18-2023, 01:52 PM
40th Anniv. Suspension refresh.
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