Front end changeover in progress..., 8/8- Alignment woes Options

[jk76.914]

I'm finally getting rid of the 4-to-5 lug adapters and doing a real Porsche 5 lug front suspension. Contrary to normal practice, which is normal for me, I guess, I'm installing real 914/6 struts with new Bilstein inserts. I bought the parts about 5 years ago on eBay, and the kit was all-inclusive, with freshly painted struts and new ball joints, bearings, rotors, pads, and brake hardware, and rebuilt M calipers. My excuse is I didn't know any better at the time, or I'd have looked for a later 911 set with the later bearing type, but alas, I own it now and everything is in real nice shape.

I think I'm good to go on parts and tools, but I'm trying to find out the torque requirement for the lock bolt for the ball joint. It's an M10 x 30mm x 1.5mm pitch, going into steel threads in the strut; presumably the lower part of the strut, below the tube, is forged.

Looks like an M10 grade 12.9 bolt is good for 50 ft-lbs, but I don't want to chance stripping out the threads. Nor do I want the BJ to pop because it's too loose. Does anyone know the torque spec? Thanks! Picture below-

PS- any tips for installing this type of strut? Thanks!

[jk76.914]

Took it for alignment on Thursday morning. They couldn't get the front end camber set. Best they could do is:

Right: -1.4 degrees
Left: -0.8 degrees

Caster OK at 5.5 degrees both sides, the bottom end of the range.

On the front camber, the adjustment topped out at the edge of the adjustment range on the right, and when he tried to match it on the left it bottomed out at the -0.8 degrees.

When I got home, I think I figured out part of the problem- the car is sitting too low. After installing the new Bilsteins, I had to lower it. Makes sense. The old KYBs were shot, and I think the new Bils were lifting the front end maybe 100 pounds? So I lowered it some one night, but didn't settle and recheck it before I went to alignment. Duh. Not only did it settle too low, but the left was about an inch lower then the right. Lowering increases camber by itself, but the tilt will increase it on the right and decrease it on the left on top of it. Is this making sense?

I raised the front end some and leveled it. It's still raked about an inch back to front, but now I'm going to drive it several times, checking and tweaking height in between, before going back to alignment.

Rear is pretty good at -1.5 degrees camber both sides and .12 degrees toe both sides. A bit more camber than I wanted (wanted closer to stock).

It would have been nice if the shop, who specializes in German cars and does a lot of Porsche, would have noticed the height issues....

Car is getting there. The new front end is the biggest improvement to driving of all the work I've done in the past 10 years. Can't wait to get this all dialed in.

Am I right in my assumption that with more negative camber you should have a bit more toe out?