live2shift

After reading many of the posts on which suspension to use and talking to quite a few of the tuners out there I went with the boring but proven Bilstein PSS9 with H&R Sway Bars. I am an agressive driver, and do half a dozen track days a year. My goals are to set up the car to handle as tight as possible without having to feel like I am in a buckboard.

I need help debugging the setup, and possibly the installation, something seems to be wrong.

Here was the install by Autosport Engineering:
-Lowered to ROW Height (20mm).
-Align and corner balance, and recalibrate steering position sensor.
-PSS9 set to 4 in front, 3 in rear.
-H&R Front bar with stock drop links set to middle
-H&R rear bar with stock drop link could only set to soft in rear because of right side drop link hitting suspension link.

The one major concearn is that the right rear drop link just touches the lower suspension link on the softest setting, so the sway bar cannot be adjusted any firmer, and it just plain should not hit! Everyone I talked to said you do not need adjustable drop links with this bar. It was verified that the bar is not installed upside down. The left side of teh bar clears the suspension by a good finger width. I talked to Bilstein , H&R, and several others trying to debug(thank you all! )

Results:
Car handles like a BOAT! tons of body roll, knumb steering response, and massive understeer. Feels like a worn out 914 with skinny tires!

First step to try to prevent any damage to suspension:
I felt uncomfortable leaving the Rear sway bar in the car hitting the suspension so I switched it back to the stock rear sway. (As a note: the left side still has at least 2-3 mm more room to clear the suspension than the right.)

First step to try to resolve handling:
Played around with PSS9 settings and found that with factory rear bar, and H&R set to medium in front, Bilstiens set to 3F/1R makes that car handle pretty darn normal again, somewhat near stock, Thank God! I was very suprized to see I had to go to the #1 setting in the rear to achive this. With the rear set to 2 there is simply just way too much body roll.

Questions:
1. What could be wrong in the rear causing me to require adjustable drop links with the H&R bar, so I don't hit the suspension with the drop link on the right side?
2. If I install adjustable rear drop links so that nothing hits, will this just mask/band-aid a more serious problem?
3. IfI put back the H&R sway bar in the rear with adjustable links and set to firmest setting, can I relax the settings on my rear shocks? Having to set the Bilstiens to #1 in the rear to be able to geat any form of decent handling just seems wrong based on what other have done.

delirium

any resolution?

996TT_STEVO

Listen! you are not alone.

I have JIC Sport Cross to install along with the rear GT3/GT2 sway bar and have been advised that I need new drop links (which I think you do too, by the looks of things!) but the ones I'm looking at come in different lengths 100mm/150mm/200mm/250mm/300mm but nobody will give me a rough indication to what size that I require! Thing that gets me is that there is loads out there using the JIC set up with a GT3/GT2 rear sway.

live2shift

I am buying adjustable drop links, but I still don't have answers to my questions.....

Woodster

I bought Cross JIC suspension and have it at X-73 ride height and needed sharper turn in.
After talking to Sharkey, he told me to get the H&R rear sway bar, it needed absolutely nothing
(no extra gadgets, and bolted right in) I have rear set in middle setting, no rubbing, no mess!
On my 19" street wheels/tires, it does get a little rigid, however. I run my factory wheels
on the track with Hoosier R6 and it just all comes together perfectly!!!

good luck.

MK

live2shift

Hey Woodster, how did you setup your suspension front compared to rear (hard vs soft)