Suspension and Setup Advice, Upgrades are done...now tuning. Options

[914_teener]

Ok....so missed some of the driving rallies but finally have the car back together and on the ground again. Read through some old posts about alignment set ups ect. I have realized through the whole process that ( and remembering my dynamics in college) how the whole thing (suspension) is a dynamic system. Finally got around to driving the car after a long trip back East and a helluva work week this last week.

Here is what I have:

Tires- 205 -60's Barely fit with rolled fenders and 15 in fuch's

Front end:

Turbo tie rods- stock sway bar with adjustable drop links- Bilstein inserts.

Rear- Relatively new poly bushings- Bilstiens sports with adjustable perches and 140 lb springs.

I decided that I wanted to save the $500 in alignment costs and do it myself. Not that hard.

Here is what I got.

Front:

.125 toe in with -.25 degree camber and 6 degrees castor....so pretty close to spec.

Rear:

.0625 toe in with -.75 degree camber on driver and -1.15 degree camber on the passenger side. Note: There was no weight in the driver seat.


Drove the car and the difference with the sway bar and the springs was unbelievable........meaning good. The only thing it seems to me is that there is a touch of over-steer on the flat road at about 40 to 50 Mph.

Any thoughts on this are welcome. I have a tendency to over analyze.

Couple of things I've noticed. While I have adjustable drop links...I dont have adjustable sway bar arms. The car is raked about 3/4 from front to back and the drop links are about maxed out from preloading the bar.

Thoughts?

[76-914]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) I've been putting this off and may lean on your experience for some future alignment. My issue is getting enough time to take it in so I need to do this myself. I'd love to get something like this on video. Andy just posted a link on this which I need to bookmark. How about sharing "your" process with detailed pic's and/or drawings? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) Kent

[EdwardBlume]

Is it a competition set up or street?

What did you do with the torsion bar? Rear bar?

I personally loved having bigger torsion bars, over the sway bar on the front, and I also am a fan of the stock rear sway bar with 140 rear springs. Alignment specs seem OK, but be careful with the toe in. Too much is too squirrelly.

I also ran 1/4 inch spacers on those tires....


Here's what mine used to look like...

[914_teener]

Set up is for spirited street driving.

I think the spring rate is nearly balanced but I think the toe is a tad much which makes me think why I feel the little twitch oversteer.

I post some pic later....I may even take it for another drive today. The weather is beautiful today.

I used the Scruggs instructions for the alignment Kent. I'ts been posted here. The caster was the most difficult to do. Other than that it was pretty easy. I think Andy should put that thread into the Classics. There is another on the Bird Board as well.

I realized that this it by driver "taste" and required some experimenting. That's why I decided to learn how to do it myself. One thing that I realized that's important is a flat surface. Fortunately my garage floor is pretty flat.

[napasteve]

Forgive the thread hijack but I was struck by how weirdly similar my current garage shot looks to Rob's old garage shot: