I have the coleman collars and hyperco springs; they were supposedly the correct setup for my Bilsteins (and everything basically seems to fit together).

BUT - with the rubber snubbers reinstalled and everything in the places where they seem to belong, there is not enough thread left at the top of the shock rod to get decent engagement on the top nut.

WTF am I doing wrong? Or did they send me the wrong stuff?

Pic to follow in a moment...TIA

Pic -- top one is the current setup (which fits)

OK - this way seems to fit but is it "right"? I moved the threaded thingie under the "hat". I don't want the thing to fall apart at the track...

BTW what are those little spring clips for, and are they necessary? They seem to be redundant if the hat is zip tied to the spring. It's not gonna fall off if the car is jacked.

Crap - that's not right either - no room for the top rubber snubber.

They must've sent me the wrong "hat", can anybody confirm that this one looks wrong for Bilsteins?

I need to get the car back together in the next hour...

THANKS

Take a picture of it dis-assmebled so I can use arrows to point out what you need to do.

We dont use *those* Coleman tops.. but they will work.

You have to modify the cad plated washer. This is normally something I dont share.. because it has to be learned.


But.. for you.. and I can delete this thread..LOL


B

Yes.. the clip is redudant.

B

Chris,
I would suggest that instead of the stock washer you have under the collar, you have a custom washer machined that lowers the perch to eliminate the excess space taken up above the washer.
Or you could do as I did, and modify the stock upper perch to be used with the coilover spring. I cut away the outer part and welded a centering ring inside.

LOL

Well, I put the old setup back on - ran out of time to dick around with it today (loading up the trailer right now.) I think I will try to find a hat that really fits w/o machining or welding. I know Jim Patrick sells one.

with the money this stuff costs why should you have to cut, weld, or modify a goddamn thing. are these parts not DESIGNED for a 914?

kevin

Kevin, nope these are "generic" race parts. BUT there are supposedly some that do fit the 914 Bilsteins and Konis without fab work. From Chris Reale's pics it looks like the Koni shock has a longer threaded portion on the shaft.

Brad,

If you do not use Colman - who's do you use??????????

Ken

I had the same issue with my Bilstein setup (similar to that particular Patrick setup, but with one spring). I would install the spring, the top spring plate, but I didn't have enough room to install the bump stop/snubber the washers and the screw!.

My setup has the adjustable lower spring perch and I realized that it was all the way up and I just screwed the spring perch lower and everything slid down.

And my new top spring perch fit just perfectly inside the factory spring perch. Not sure yet if it's suppopsed to be like that, but it all fits nice and snug.

If you wanna picture, let me know!

ken,

I said, we dont use "those" Coleman tops. We use the solid version without the notch in it for sliding it off the shock.


I dont know if I can explain this, but here goes: The top threaded cad plated piece for the shock needs to be trimmed down on a bench grinder to properly sit inside the aluminum spring top. The cad plated threaded piece has a fat round base on the bottom of it. It needs a few mm's removed all the way around so it will sit correctly in the top cup.

I did buy a set recently that didnt need any modifications.

Oh.. the Patrick pic above with the helper spring is illegal in some classes of SCCA and PCA racing/AutoX.


B

Yeah, I would get the Patrick setup (or similar) w/o the helper springs. Zip ties are fine.

The cad plated special washer fit correctly in this coleman hat i.e. it was fully snug up inside the flat part of the hat. But I think this hat is either just too thick and/or has too steep an "angle" to it. It seems like overkill to make of of alum that must be 3/8" or more thick? The factory shock hat is thin sheet metal.

Anyhoo -- I definitely need to get something done by next event. The current "mystery" springs on my car are just not keeping the rear flat enough and it does not rotate as well as a couple other cars I was following at the track today. There was a POC V5 car (modified 2.0/four) that was running 1 second quicker than me! His car was really hooking up on the upper very-technical part of the track and I could not catch him there. I could rope him in on the braking zones and less-tight sections but it shows how much time can be lost (or gained) in the twisty stuff.

I looked at you pics again.. you need to trim the threaded collar to sit farther into the Coleman cup. Right now the threaded collar is not sitting flush in the Coleman piece which is why you have less room for the rubber grommet.

The Coleman part number we use is: SN 424


B

Here you go. Trim this until it fits closer to here


B

Has anybody tried the Coleman "Shrink Fit" sleeve??

Seems to me this would help keep the sleeve from turning during "corner balancing" - or is the stock sleeve OK??

Ken

I went through this a while back when I had the same problem. The way I got round it was to use a non slotted Eibach hat and drill it to the exact size for the shaft and dispense with the gold coloured washer completly.

I'll take another pic. The plated washer is all the way flush inside the alloy hat. A smaller washer would not go in any further. The hat is like 1/2" thick at the top.

oh... DUH.... Chris... you have it assembled incorrectly. The threaded cad holder goes ON TOP of the aluminum Coleman piece. The Coleman piece floats freely beneath it. Take the cad plated piece and tighten it down against the shaft. If you dont like that method you can use the cad washer that Howard is talking about to sandwhich the two.


B

B - actually I did try that and the clearances were better, but I was thinking there was NO way the alloy Coleman hat would just "float" there? The stock spring hat goes over the cad washer instead of sitting "loose" on top of the spring.

Well, now I have about 3 weeks to dick around with it before the next event. 12/3 is probably the next time I'll go out.

The hat floats there. When you load the car (let it off the jack stands) it will go up and sit against the threaded cad piece.

Dont worry about it. I lost a few nights sleep 5-6 years ago... and have done it this way ever since.

I wish I had a pick of one of our "floaters". It seriously doesnt harm anything.


B