my car rode rough and cornered like... well less than i expected after the first suspension upgrade. every expansion joint a pita, lliterally. i thought it was just the koni and mild rear spring. specificly AFTER the big fancy alignment and corner balance at a "race shop" in bellevue. well shit. it came back low all right. the adjusters are tuned down to the point where is 1/2 of 1 complete thread showing on the top portion.

b mentioned some time ago about a members car riding on the rubber snubbers/cushions on the fronts. well mine were too. to the point where the bottom ring was collasped, as in partialy shoved up inside of the next ring. so my konis were not working at all, the only, "work", i had going on was the COMPRESSION of the snubbers inside of each other. now it gets even better, or worse depending what side of the computer screen you are on.

i purchased some mono balls from triad when i was doing the front end. there is supposed to be a sleeve type affair that slides up from the bottom securing the strut rod in the monoball. well that f-er wasn't there either. i only started with the drivers side. no point in putting back together WITH OUT ALL OF THE DAMN PARTS!! i didn't drop or misplace it. the fool didn't not put it in.

well i know i'm going to have raise the front end a bit. how could it have truly been balanced whe the car was sitting on the hard on the front. i've just about had enough. AARRGGHH!!! another alingment is in the works. f me to tears. i'm going to break down and have a becks

kevin

So the ""race shop" in bellevue" is not going to see your car again? Sounds like a real mess-up. I'd love to hear their explanation; I'm a real science fiction fan, but I have a well developed BS filter too.

i think i'll just set the height to where i want it and take it to the p dealership for an alignment. i don't know what else to do. if i go to the outfit that did the work i will wind up in the king county jail.

kevin

Kev who did you use. I took min over to the shop by fishermans terminal prior to my stint with PROformance drivers school at Pacific Raceways. My 73 was already lowered but they 4 wheel alighned and corner balanced it (w 200Lbs of dead wt = me) and it was a NOTICEABLE improvement.
Perhaps if you use someone else.

Hay Kevin, I had mine aligned at a place not far from where you probly went. The guy knew teeners very well and gave me a print out of before and after laser alingment. Dead on . I just needed to supply rear shims. Im sure the Seattle guys know other places but to me it was $160 well spent.

pm me if ya want their number.

Tim

Engman has a nice supply of alignment shims.

Kevin, call me I will take care of your concern. Only problem is that the crispy cremes will have to come to Port Townsend. Are you up to muscling(?) Korijos car on Saturday? If the ride is to violent I can transport(read that MoooseDrool) Lary

Kevin, thank you for posting this.

I'm planning to do a suspension upgrade like yours, and I was going to take it to that shop for a corner balance and performance street alignment.. but now I'll take it elsewhere.

I hope everything turns out well for you.

Ok, bite me. WTF shop are you talking about????


Geoff <_<

cough* fordahls * cough

This is why I do all my own work. These cars are simple, you should do your own work too.

I set toe for alignment (and ride height) its not that hard.

When everything is done, I'll find a experienced alignment shop to double check my settings. Even then I watch over their shoulder.

I stood right there when mounted my tires on the rims, I took them rims only, not touching my ride with an impact.

Al lot of these guys have the same experiece I had when I was 16.

I'd insist the shop that did the work make it right. Do I understand they actually kept some of the parts that should have been installed? In terms of alignments, a highly recommended Porsche place is:

http://www.trulineframeandwheel.com/

Anybody know of a good alignment shop in Calgary? This sounds like a road I do not want to go down.

I always just take them the rims to mount the tire on. Friend here took his 73 in with Fuchs and new center caps. The shop (cough-discount-cough) wouldn't let in in to watch but he caught the kid banging out the caps while looking thru a window. Hmm, all 4 caps now are smashed from the kid using a hammer to bang them out. The Manger says"what are we supposed to do as thats how they came in here"..
My friend is still pissed.....



Geoff <_<

...and to keep your lowerd car off the bump stops cut them down by about 1/3.

-Ben M.

$10 says its Fordahls. Surprising, since I have heard they do good work. Not doubting Kevin at all....although Kev is a bit crazy

Hi Kevin,

Up to now I've only heard good things about them. I have a friend who has used them for his 911, Ghia, and 914 with nothing but nice things to report. You really should let them have a chance to make good after you cool down. Your frustration is completely understandable. This stuff sure can be a pain in the ass! Let us know how it turns out.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

i will dive into things after a bit. dave ellison came through with 2 of the items for the monoballs, that i will need to put it together. i don't know if i will need one of them for the pass side yet. he broke up a complete set to give me the pieces. HOORRAH triad. he too said i should raise a little dust. i will let it go. a phone conversation will be pointless, and i'm not going to drive 45 miles one way through crap traffic for a pissing match. i'm so calm these days.

my guess is when i bolt things up there will be a drastic dif left to right in the ride height. with the car previously sitting hard on the struts (the compression of the stop being the only give), and the rubber stop being cut down, i figure the drivers side will drop. chris, you should check your car out. i think you and i are riding on the same ferry.

kevin

Shave the bump stops....

did it yesterday when i was trying to put the stuff together the first time. your escapade yesterday was pretty good mike . are you just as much fun in person?

kevin

Dylan, I'm in the same boat you are. It shouldn't be too bad finding a place in Calgary, but finding somewhere in Regina is pretty tough. I took my car to what was supposed to be "the place" for alignments. I gave him the specs that I wanted the car aligned to, front and rear. I left my cell number and told them to call if there were any questions or issues.

A couple hours later I stop in to pick it up. All that had been adjusted was the toe. The wrench says that there isn't enough adjustment to do the camber and caster ( a lie). He also told me that the rear isn't adjustable, I told him it was. So he starts back tracking and tells me I never told him to do the rear. When looking at the specs, the rear toe was positive on one side, and negative on the other! Why wouldn't I want that fixed?!?

I figure he had no idea what he was doing, and he was just trying to hide his incompetence. So, I understand the frustration. I'd call and complain. Have them redo it for free, while you stand over the guys shoulder.

" can i watch?". "our insurance company prohibits customers being in the work area".

kevin

"My common sense prohibits me from letting you touch my car, without me there."

where did the expansion joints go? the car came down near 1 1/4" after cutting the bumper stops. raised it back up and i think i'm pretty close. hard to tell exactly using a framing square on the concete floor. my street intersects at a 90* angle with an arterial. i could get the rear end to step out pretty easily before, with a little throttle turning right onto my street. ass end stays put now. time to crank up the dampening and see if i can get a ticket.

ps. i think the bumpstops should arrive precut. if someone missed this one and a couple of other obscure threads, they would'nt know how important it is.

kevin

The guy up the street (Carl's Alignment) that does my alignment hates my car.....but he still does it every year. We swap lies while he works on it and cusses ......kinda like I do when I work on it.

I do all the work I can....camber & ride height ...he tweaks them in...... but I make no attempt to set toe or caster.

I would recommend learning to do this stuff, then finding a guy like Carl.

I have a buddy that took his Boxster S to Fordahl's for an AX set-up. He didn't like the way it felt and was pretty vocal about it. Now that he's used to it, he's going faster and don't say much....go figure.

elmers, 7:00am, on the other side if the freeway? i know fer sure sunday is the correct day.

kevin

Hey Mike I can ask a friend of mine from The Big Regina if he knows of a place. He grew up there. (along with everyone else that lives here now )

Dylan, that'd be great. Is it wrong that I want to move to Calgary too? A lot of my friends have moved there. A great city, I think.

It is one of the best citys in Canada. Jobs, no provincal debt, low crime etc. You can come but don't tell anyone how nice it is. OK The winters can suck though. You already know that from living where you do now. I was born here and have really watched it grow. We are falling behind in infastructure.