Made lots of changes, now it pushes, Yes, I know I shouldn't have Options

[nhallman]

OK, so I finally decided to do some suspension upgrades on my autocross car ('75 1.8), and I kind of did everything at once (yeah, yeah, I know):

Koni yellow shocks/struts
930 tie rods
22mm Weltmeister front sway bar
180# Weltmeister springs
disconnected (stock) rear sway bar

I was sort of following an old (mid-90's) Weltmeister guide for autocross setup that I found on the Pelican board, except they recommended 21mm torsion bars up front. I sort of ran out of cash, so I left the stock torsion bars on the car.

So, I figured that by not stiffening the front as much as recommended, but making all the other changes, the car would tend toward loose (especially since that's how I tend to drive it). Wrong. It pushes... badly.

When I made my first few runs, I had the Koni's on full stiff. I took a full turn out of the front and that helped, but the car still pushed. I played with pressures, taking 3 lbs. out of the rear (Kumho V710's - an R compound tire), leaving the front at 35 lbs. and the rear at 32 lbs. That helped, too, but it did still push and was a concern because the car had been so neutral prior to the changes that I rarely had to adjust tire pressure.

So... now what? I have all this adjustment available to me, and I don't know what to try.

My fear is that in my quest to get the car back to neutral, I'll take away some of the major gains I've made in grip (did I mention it did stick like 500% better?). I don't want to do that.

My thoughts (ranging from simplest to craziest):

- adjust my driving style and deal with it
- soften the front struts even more
- loosen the front sway bar (currently set to full stiff)
- reconnect the rear sway bar
- set the rear toe to 0 (currently 1/16 toe in, front is 3/32 toe out)
- cut a coil from the rear springs (only a consideration b/c I can only get ~1.2 deg negative camber in the rear - all shims removed)

Any ideas? I'm a fairly experienced autocrosser with a lot of seat time in this car, but I'm a total novice at suspension setup. I just tended to jump in the car and drive it up till now.

TIA...

[914forme]

That is very minal camber there. You will notice that the tops on your stuts, can be swapped side to side. It might help you with a little extra. You get them mixed up????

The rears should be able to go way more than that also, the rear shims come in different thicknesses, also.

Another thing I see is you changed your bushings. That could have changed your posistiion also. The down side of deformed bushings is that they are compliant. So at rest you could be getting a very bogus reading, they would have had to let your front arms push out but it is possible. The rears it is much more doable that the bushings allowed for a higher degree of camber.

Nothing wrong with changing everything at once. Now just change one thing at a time and see the results, keep notes and understand what hte changes you do, and how they effected your car.

BTW, 5.5" are kinda narrow for hte V710s yes lots of people do them, but I would recommend a rim width increase myself. And yes they are on Kumho's size chart for hte tire but I consider them small for that app. I would run 7s or 6.5s if you can find them.

I happen to be one that run a rear bar, it could be used to increase rear stiffeness and thus help balance out your car. But you do run the risk, of wheel lift. I have in the past.

[nhallman]

Awesome... thanks for checking on that, Josh.

So the Koni page says any spring with a 2.5" ID should fit on the perch. Are the Weltmeister 180 lb. springs too small? Too large?

I'll check the tops on the strut tower... I could very well have mixed them up. I wouldn't put it past me. :-)

About the shims on the rear. I have removed all of them, which made the camber more negative. If all the shims are out, then I have no more adjustment I can do, correct?

New wheels are on the list, I've held off because I'm kicking around the idea of flares which will of course significantly affect what wheel and tire width I run.

[jhadler]

Awesome... thanks for checking on that, Josh.

So the Koni page says any spring with a 2.5" ID should fit on the perch. Are the Weltmeister 180 lb. springs too small? Too large?

Regular 914 springs are too large. Never fear, once you get the coilovers on, you can change springs on both sides in less than 30 minutes. No more spring compressors!!!

2.5" ID springs are the most common, and can be had in practically any length, and rate your heart desires.

About the shims on the rear. I have removed all of them, which made the camber more negative. If all the shims are out, then I have no more adjustment I can do, correct?

Get the chassis checked to see if it's straight. Check the bushings to see if they haven't deformed, and lower the car. If you still don't have camber after all that, then something is definitely odd...

New wheels are on the list, I've held off because I'm kicking around the idea of flares which will of course significantly affect what wheel and tire width I run.

Well, what did you have in mind? You don't neccessarilly need flares for more rubber. Well, okay, the rear you pretty much have to do something, but big flares are not always needed... What are you looking to do?

-Josh2