I want to go this route, but need to know who sells them? I've been unable to find it on the net. (for a SC front suspension)

Also, how difficult is it to do on your own and how exactly is it done?
Does any one have any detailed pics of a raised spindle shock/strut?

for local, I'd try SmartRacing Products, give them a call, if they cannot point you to someone, I know Chris Foley does them back East CFR Welding

I would think there has to be someone local that does this

www.tangerineracing.com

Racer Chris does them. Send him yours, and some cash...

Mine look good (already done by Chris).

not that I'm an expert on this...
and for the record, I've never done it as it wasn't class legal in most places.....

but I think it depends upon the brand of strut you have as to how easy and affordable this is...

It is not a cheap process

I'll let others (chris foley) etc, give you educated advice.

brant

Brant.....Audi motor, audi transmission.....no worries about "class legal"

I've never done it. My understanding is the welds attaching the spindle to the strut tube are simply ground off, then the spindle is repositioned and rewelded.

hey Sonu....I'll buy those early 5 lug flanges off of you if you still have them....

oh yeah...
1.8T .... duh...

Still if memory serves, one type of strut (? Bilsteen/boge) is easy or hard due to the shape of the tube....

After he learns the answer I don't know... he may want to buy the correct brand and send them as cores, then re-sell his..

It might be cheaper to go with the smart racing bumpsteer kit than to go the spindle route.

brant

Unless you also bend the steering "knuckles" you'd still need to deal with bumpsteer issues if you raise the spindles.

Raising the spindles is the same as lowering the car through the t-bars (bumpsteer wise)

The benefits of raising the spindles is keeping suspension (shock) travel and a-arm geometry

I remember the Jaide guys explaining they made their raised spindles by friction welding. High speed spinning them into a stationary part. Don't know if that is still done or if it was all a dream...

Sonu,
Is it driveable now? I can't seem to get a half day to come see your car.
Felix

i thought the 4 cyl boges were tapered. and the 6cyl counterparts arent

Has anybody or does anybody know of someone using the Fox spindles sold by Smart Racing? They appear to be the cat's ass, but I would need some
unbiased reporting before sprining for that kinda money. ...or they could send me some & lemme give an objective report

different 6clinder struts have different shapes...
there are 3 different versions (4 if you count pnematics)
I think...

brant

ohh... good point...

there is another less talked about route too.
Its a strut chop.. to achieve a body drop.
We went that route.
on my pictures in the signature link, you can see a weld line where our koni tubes were sectioned and then re-put-back together...

(but this requires different inserts)

brant

JP my friend has the Fox shocks, they are the shizzle. a bit out of my price range though.

To raise the spindle on 911 struts you need to drill out the rosette weld on the spindle, then just tap the spindle up the tube the amount you want. Then reweld the spindle in its new location. Its also a good idea to weld little gussets in while your at it. Like Jereon mentioned heat the steering arms and bend them down the amount you raised the spindles..


Its really not a big deal, you need a welding machine, drill and torch.

Still got em...they're yours.

Here is the poop:

Bilstein spindles can be raised. Use a 3/4 end mill to cut the stock weld, it's just a round button type weld.

Raise the spindle to desired height and re-weld. Max that you can raise with 15 inch rims is 19mm, and even that will likely require grinding of the control arm and ball joint ring to clearance and/or wheel spacers.

While you're at it, weld on some re-inforcements to the spindle ala RSR struts.

Boge struts should not be raised. The strut diameter increases just above the spindle collar preventing it from sliding up. Some people have machined the spindle collar to increase it's diameter such that it can slide up, but this weakens the collar - not advised.

Not only does raising spindles not fix bump steer issues, it actually makes it worse. So if you rasie spindles plan on addressing the bump steer in some fashion.

Not drivealbe yet...havn't really been working too hard on it lately. But I think i should be able to get it driving in the next week~week and half. Just need to attach the linkage (which I finally figured out how to do ) and hook up the hydrolic hose to the clutch ms/tranny, and go get an exhaust put on.

I've got Koni Yellow's (I was told by the PO; confirmed on the rears) on my 914. I want to install the '89 911 suspension, but would prefer to keep the Koni's. Anyone know if the two strut tubes are the same diameter on the small end? This would allow me to swap the spindles on the tubes. BTW, how exactly do you remove the rossette welds, as they're below the surface of the forging? Hope I didn't derail the thread

Andy

hmmm.... i need to see which ones I have in the car.

But i'm thninking about the strut chop option. It seems the leaset difficult and probobly something I could do myself. Wouldn't really mess up suspension allignment. But I guess it will always have the shock copressed a little more (whatever the amount chopped is). But a few inches should not hurt the shocks too much I guess.

mine are off my 73 /4, and they aren't tapered... car came w/ reds all around.

dont have any pics, yet.

I've raised the spindles on quite a few Boge (tapered) struts, both 914 and 911. Price is $270 plus shipping.
BTW, 911 spindles are about 1/4" higher than 914s already.

Dave,
Yours are the tapered type. The tube below the spindle is smaller than the tube above.

Mine are out of a 82 SC. Are they tapered?

ah HAH!! im not crazy!!!!!!

boge, koni or bilstein?

don't know....if i remember correctly, they are green. Does that indicate which they are?

bilsteins....(i believe you can only use bilstein inserts)

chris can tell you if they can be modded

oopps

I have a set of those. I don't think you can remove the shock absorber in order to work on the strut. They don't have a screw cap at the top.

Chris, there is a roll pin near the bottom of the strut, punch that out and remove the shock insert

Thanks Tim!

Why do you feel you need to raise the spindles? On a street car this is not a really useful mod, even on a race car you end up messing up the already bad front suspension geometry. When you lower the front you need to lower the back and when you go to low on the back you really mess things up.

I've raised Koni's. They max out at the tapper when raising. Meaning, you can only get 18mm out of them.

Chuck... are you sure about the 19mm and the 15"er's? Mine are 18mm and they are too damn close as it is. They tore off all the weights on the inside and are only about 1/8" off the wheel. I think 19mm might be too much for 15's. RSR's were raised 18mm by the factory.

Andy picture to follow (camera wasn't focusing too well in low light):

914_1.8T,

I think if you chop the strut, you really need different inserts..... Just lowering a car (too much) will cause you to blow struts much more often. A friend of mine had a track car with Koni struts that he had to buy new front shocks for every season becuase he had his car dropped too much.

how low do you want to go.
You can just turn the adjuster screw and get a car pretty dang low (enough to blow shocks out) without all of this fiddling.....

brant

Brant, if you raise the spindles you can lower the car and maintain the same amount of shock travel. If you raise the spindles, and use the adjuster to lower the ride height, you can run out of shock travel., just like if you just lower the car via the adjuster.

Bilstein and Koni can shorten the strut inserts if needed

19mm is the max you can go with 15s. Like I said, this will likely require grinding or spacers. Wheel weights will certainly need to be located "off line".

B,

Can you enlighted me? Splain how!

The stock suspension was set up for adequate performance within the constraints of a passenger car. The lower a-arms are too short thus causing the roll center to move all over the planet when the car goes into roll. The radical changes in length as it goes through travel can create a wierd sensation for the driver. Most race cars run such high spring rates and little suspension travel that this is not a problem, but 914 race cars still have a pretty high degree of travel compared to other types of cars. Another problem is the bumpsteer issue that we are all familiar with. Raising the spindles only makes this worse. The spacer kits only work with a limited range of bumpsteer correction. The proper way to adjust bumpsteer is with a kit like the ERP kit. When you bend the steering arm you shorten the arm as well. Thus changing the steering angle.

Since the front suspension is the easiest to change it tends to get more attention than the rear. The rear suspension has a big problem of toe change and roll center change when you lower the trailing arms past level. When the trailing arms go past level through their travel they load and unload the front wheels.
Imagine a broomstick. When you take this broomstick and hold it straight out and push against the wall what happens? Nothing. Now take that same broomstick and hold it at a 15deg downward angle. Lean on it. What happens?(watch out for the wall) The same thing happens with the rear suspension. When you roll into the power the rear suspension, that is at the wrong angle, will cause the chassis to lift or drop and it will unload the diagonal front wheel. When you unload a wheel you lose grip and the car will no longer turn. Welcome to "pushville".

I am working on the numbers now but I am not done yet so I can't/won't share anything concrete right now, maybe later.

wow....this seems a like a lot of extra trouble to get the car to sit low. My situation is that I got some 180's in the back and they really lowered the car...actually i like it nice and low. I wanted to get the front equally low so the back of the car is not lower than the front. When I did this the front suspension has almost no travel left. Initially i thought about running 15" rims in the front (instead of the 16's which are on the car now) with lower profile rubber...that way I could raise the car a little and still have it sit low and have enough travel.

Now I've decided to put 18's on the car...since I have a set sitting that I am not using. They are 18x8.5 fronts (with 225/40zr18) and 18x9.5" rear (with 265/35zr18). So bumping the tire/rim size down is no longer an option. That is why I want the lowered spindles.

By the way, here is a pic of the car at it's present ride height (which is how low i want to be with the 18s):

What kind of flares?
Felix

It's easy enough to prevent the shocks from being damaged by bottoming out. All you need is some slotted plastic washers on the shock shaft (available from racing parts stores like Truechoice). That will stop the shock from bottoming internally. You would still have the problem of loss of control when the suspension reaches the limit of travel though.
If I were you I would go ahead and have the spindles raised, somewhere between 19-25 mm. I seriously doubt you will ever notice the evils that Brett described from lowering the car.

From your picture it looks like the car is/was being painted. The rear wheels/tires you plan on installing will require about a 2" flare, but it doesn't look like you have any flares.