I've read almost all the threads covering the lowering of a 914. Reindexing the torsions gives you about 2 inches, raising the spindles gives you about an inch. So now you're almost at the bottom. You're at the point where the rubber inserts bottom on the struts and the ride quality suffers.


So I was wondering if anyone out there had ever considered or researched cutting the strut tube shorter and finding a shorter insert. The super beetles have this and it solves bottoming out. Just throwing this out there. Maybe someone here has done it.

I did this way back when Carrera shocks were using my IMSA 914-6 as a test bed. circa late 70's. We used shorter inserts that they made and shortened the shock tube.
I believe the inserts were from a 240Z but age does something to memory.
It gained us about an inch.

I believe VW Rabbit inserts are slightly shorter. That's from memory though so could be wrong.

I have run cut koni struts on my current racecar for the last15 years

This is not uncommon in racing
Currently with custom koni race inserts of the correct length
Double adjustable

one advantage of cutting the strut is technical compliance with rules

some vintage rules do not allow "changes to pick up points"
but the cut strut has stock upper and lower pick up points.

prior to going to a cut strut, I had the car too low
this causes frequent shock bottoming and blow out
there was a time on my previous 914 race car where I had to replace front inserts annually.... your not getting the travel to make the car handle in that instance.

raise the ride height and you will have a better handling car in many instances.

each of the different brand of struts (koni, bilsteen, boge) have a different tube taper
so for me the koni is much easier to use as the taper is workable.

You can instead buy a raised mounting bracket thing for the front so you can still use stock style shocks. I don’t remember the link right now

Chris at Tangerine Racing offers a way to raise the strut tops front and rear, with two heights available at the back (to accommodate the targa top or not).

On my wish list...

http://www.tangerineracing.com/chassis.htm

I cut the spacers off the bottom of my Koni sports. About an inch there. I then sent the struts to Chris at Tangerine. He raised my Spindles 19mm and chopped that inch out of the top of the strut.
.Click to view attachment

Raising the spindles has no effect on shock travel. The only limitation is fitting the a-arm & ball joint inside the wheel.
When you run the struts that low, instead of rubber bumpers, packing washers will keep you from bottoming and ruining the shocks. The strut will behave normally right up until the packing washers hit the upper strut bushing.
However, it may not be advantageous to lower the car that far anyway. Poor A-arm geometry promotes camber loss at the outside wheel, with a resulting loss of grip.
The a-arm pivot point should be above the ball joint centerline at rest. A well engineered 935 style front end can mitigate this issue.

Excellent information. So is it only the Konis that can be cut or does this work on all other shocks?


Here's a shot of my front end. The torsions are adjusted down, and I removed the bump stops just to make sure they weren't holding up the front end. Ideally, I would like that stance but with suspension travel. Tires are 195/50/15 and don't rub at all. I have about an inch before it bottoms out.

Click to view attachment

you can index your torsion bars when they are maxed out and that will give you the ability to lower much more

however that will not give you shock travel
and not give you good handling geometry

too low is not the way to go

other brands of struts can be cut
cutting struts is an expensive proposition
CFR I believe does this to a stock 914 strut even

but this is generally a modification for racing and not street cars
as I said, too low only makes the car handle poorly.... even with shock travel restored as the geometry is poor.

Sorry but I do not understand why for a street car that going up driveways where the lot is level with the sidewalk 10 ft. in you would want to go lower than what is easily adjustable from the front-end adjustment. At least in Los Angeles.

I have lowered my 914s and 911s for street use over the years with just the front-end adjustment over the years and they aligned and worked fine.

If you want to slam them down that is different. I guess that is for race or low looks


Bob B

looking at your picture again
its not super low

re index your front torsion bars
and then as you lower the front look at your A-arm orientation to the ground

then realign (all 4)

I think some clarification needs to be made here. What are you guys referring to as "cutting the strut?" Shortening the strut body and using a custom shorter strut insert?

Raising the spindle on the strut body, if done properly, does not shorten strut travel and does not affect A arm geometry because the pickup points remain the same. Several vendors offer this service including Elephant Racing, but I did it myself. It's not hard although you need to be a good welder and pay attention to alignment.

Using a combination of this method and the torsion bar adjustment screw, (with the initial Aarm angle of 20 deg unloaded) I could get my 914 front end REALLY low if I wanted to. These are my 19mm raised struts (actually 911T strut bodies) with double sheer steering knuckle

Click to view attachment

Yes. Cutting the strut is a separate thing from raising the steering arm

The spindle arm can be raised to restore the steering geometry (spacer racks also accomplish this in small degree and my pictured tie rod extensions accomplish the same thing in another way)

Cutting the strut housing is one way to restore the shock travel (with shorter modified inserts). Raising the pick up points also restores shock travel but is not legal in all racing classes

2 separate things

Not sure how low the original poster wants to go, or the stated purpose.

On my street driven auto-x car, I have scrapes on the RennMetal front tie downs. Which are just below the LE valance on the car. This is with a set of 19mm raised spindles, 15" wheels with 205/50 DOT-Rs. It was low, matter of fact to low in the rear that I had to raise it to get the handling back on track. New iteration the spindles got raised to fit the 17 inch wheels I would have ran, and adding camber plates and modified strut tops from Tangerine Racing, the Rear was going up 2" to raised the rear pickup points to correct the geometry back there, and the shock towers have been raised with Tangerine Racing tall kit. I never take the top off, suspension travel is more important.

If it was dedicated auto-xer I would still do all the above, except raise the rear with a 3" raised pickup points.

Of course the tie rods where setup with proper bump steer system in double sheer, etc...

Not sure how low you really need to go, but I guess if you want just make the suspension solid do not stiffen the car, and well now you have a go kart. But you can be as low as you want to be.

I would add some titanium skid plates to allow you to scrape if it is good enough for the F1 guys it is good enough for a 914.

Click to view attachment

I've already reindexed the torsion and I barely have suspension travel with the height in the above picture. Raising the spindle is something I would consider but it's only 3/4 inch. I will look into cutting the strut body so I can get some suspension travel before bottoming out. Thanks for all the input.