Click to view attachment

Ok suspension gurus - help me figure out what I have here. The guy that sold me this car was a flipper so he knew very little about it. He did tell me that it had been driven competitively in SCC events and the rear suspension seems to back that up - hard as hell on the butt! My old car was bone stock and had no sway bars so the only things that I know about suspensions is what I've learned from you guys.

The struts have been painted black but there is an orange label on it.

Can't find any markings on the springs. When you guys talk lbs when talking about spring rates - is that the weight required to compress it a certain distance? 1 inch maybe.

The sway bars are bolt to the underside of the trunk and to the trailing arm. The picture below shows where the bar attaches to the rod from the trailing arm. Should there be a big gap like that? Looks like it is necessary to allow the sway bar to move up and down but the rubber bumpers must really take a beating.

Sorry for the newbie questions but I'm a little out of my league here.

If they are Konis, they will be marked with the Koni name ..... how good are you at removing paint?

Sway bar setup is not a stock setup. Looks more like one of dem dere assdragger swaybars.

Springs ... no fuchin' idea. Yes, you compress the spring 1" because spring rates are given in pounds per inch.

That is a really trippy set-up ya got there.

hard as hell on the butt could mean sagging springs/trashed rear shocks.

there's my $.02

can you show a picture of where the link attaches to the trailing arm?

where it is now, there is little leverage to slow swaying unless that's a sway bar from a Suburban.

=)

You have Koni reds in the rear and some type of anti-roll bar attached to the trailing arms.

This is NOT normal.

914 anti-sway bars SHOULD attach to the shock with a special bolt.

I would love to see where the drop link is attached.

Sun has set so I can't get another pic. This one however shows the trailing arm - just the mounting point is obscured by the axle. The car is on jacks so the sway bar is completely unloaded.

The car responds well to the classic bounce test. Doesn't go down very far then returns sharply with no rebound.

If you think the back is trippy wait till you see the front - the sway bar is bolted to the front trunk ahead of the suspension! Click to view attachment

By chance those shocks are not marked Koni it may be possible they are old MulhollandsClick to view attachment. I have these on a 914 but do not know the history. They are older and I understand they have not been made for years.

we have a winner!

stamped on the backside
7351521
Hechno en Mexico
E-149
1/8

when you're taking pictures, see if you can get a few of where the bar mounts to the bottom of the trunk. any extra backing welded on the inside floor of the trunk? is the bottom of the drop link in a bracket welded on the side of the control arm?

k

If I were to throw a suspension together for a roller with the crap I had laying around it would have been better than that.

i should think it rattles like crazy. the raspberry car had some sort of bolt to the front control arm and underside of the front trunk affair. all held together with U bolts.

k

so here's a bit better picture of the mount point. I can't tell if the bracket is welded or not but there is a bolt that runs right through to the other side and is held by a nut and big washer. I think I can see signs on one side that the nut side is actually working the metal of the trailing arm. Don't like that. I have a feeling that the sway bar is going to have to go. Do you think the bar might be reusable if I could source the proper droplink to go on the shock mount? I would have to move the mount point a little farther back in the trunk. Can anyone point me to a picture of how the rear sway bar normally attaches to the body?

BTW - no reinforcemet in the trunk - just big washers again.
Click to view attachment

If I am not mistaken.

Those are ADDCO sway bars made for the 914.

Circa 1980s.

Cheers,
Clayton

I have a similar swaybar on my red 71 although the suspension pickups are on the shock bolt. The trunk connection has a plate that goes inside the trunk although it didn't seem to fit when I first put it on.

The holes for the trunk brackets happened to end up on the removable caps on the trunk floor. It didn't seem right but that was the only place it would go.

Not only that, I had to bend the bar so the bushings fit right.