Hi all,

I am in the planning stages of a complete suspension, steering, and brakes rebuild. I'd like to hear any suggestion/opinions on my plans and hope this can be used as a reference on what it takes to rebuild/improve the entire suspension.

Front Suspension:
Ground Control weight jacks, 800lb maybe 850lb, 9" tall spring? Looking to get about 1" of fender gap
Bilstein HD struts, maybe Koni Yellows?
Ground Control strut mounted bump stops, remove stock bump stops
Stock A-Arms with Global West Delrin Bushings and Spohn ball joints, Maybe Spohn A-Arms with everything already installed?
Stock K-member
Rubber motor mounts, have poly now and hate them
UMI Strut Tower Brace, already purchased
Spohn Strut Mounts
Stock 34mm sway bar, may step up to 36mm, car is a touch loose now
TDS poly sway bar bushings, anything better than poly?
TDS 1LE nylon endlinks
Stock steering brace
Spohn steering rebuild components
Spohn bump steer kit

Rear Suspension:
Ground Control weight jacks, 175lb maybe 200lb, 9" tall spring? Looking to get 1" of fender gap
Bilstein Sport shocks, maybe Koni Yellows?
Ground Control strut mounted bump stops, remove stock bump stops
Spohn Del-Sphere adjustable lower control arms
Spohn LCA relocation brackets
Fays2 Watts Linkage, replaces panhard bar
Spohn Del-Sphere crossmember mounted torque arm
stock 22mm? rear sway bar
TDS poly sway bar bushings, anything better than poly?
TDS 1LE nylon endlinks
Rubber trans mount, have poly now and don't really like it

Other car info:
3450lbs without me
350TPI, probably around 270 RWHP, 330 RWTQ
700R4 trans, would like to swap to T-56 soon
Stock 16x8 IROC wheels
Goodyear GS-D3 tires
Stock 4 wheel disc brakes, changing to Wilwood 4 piston 13" front brakes during suspension rebuild
3.27 9 bolt

So what are you thoughts? Am I missing anything?

Thanks,
John

 

Sounds pretty good. I'll have to do some digging, but I think that's close to the spring rate/heights I'd decided to go with.
I'd go with the Yellows for the shocks.
Saving is unsprung weight is always a good thing, so I'd consider the Spohn arms if you can swing it and think they'll hold up well.
I say grab a few front and rear bars if you can. Always a good tuning aid to have handy.

When it's all said and done, you should have a nice ride. And a pretty penny in it lol.

 

you are right on with the 9" springs, i would recommend the 850/175 combo, and koni yellows. the solid 34mm swaybar is the stiffest stock bar then the hollow 36mm, then then the hollow 34mm, i don't think theres is a 22mm stock sway bar, only 21/23mm,
i have the spohn bump steer kit, and hate it, it has play in it, rebuilt every front end suspension piece and it still had slop, put on the old tie rods and it went away, put on the bump steer kit and it comes back. the crossmember tranny mounted TA's hang very low and like to drag over bumps.



how does your car corner right now, i had an open rear end and could take tight right hand corners at 50mph since i put on the 9 bolt it's closer to 25 mph with the inner tire and outter tire fighting it out, i hate my borg warner rear end, only works good off the line.

ADD drop spindles to the list

 

That's a good point with the rear end. You might want to consider a TR2 rear with a 10 bolt.

 

Thanks for the comments. I have not noticed the problems with the 9 bolt that you are describing. Maybe at full lock, but i don't hit too many corners hard at full lock, . Overall I think the car corners well. It gets a very little bit sloppy when pushed really hard, which i suspect is worn bushings.

I'd like to run drop spindles, but at this point I can't justify the $550 cost. I don't believe I will have any alignment issues with my setup, agreed? I'm probably shooting for about a 2" drop. At some point I have to cut-off expenses on the car. This year it looks like $1500 for stereo and dynamat, $3000 for suspension, $1300 for front brakes.

Interesting regarding the spohn bump steer kit. Do you think you just got a bad set?

Do you guys know if the Koni Yellow's are shorter like Bilstein Sport rears? If not, do you run into any issues where the springs get completely unloaded? Even when jacking up the car? I don't want to constantly have to be re-seating springs.

 

the koni's are made for lowered cars, the bilsteins are not, so the koni will last longer to that respect.

i recently installed the weight jacks on the front of my car, they springs do not unseat at full drop.

 

as far as the bump steer kit goes, it the same on both sides, so i'm guessing its probably crap from china, poor tolerances, should be nice and tight, but is not,

when my car was lowerd only an 1" or so it had way less front body roll than it does now, i'm pretty low though, i know i need drop spindles, but as long as you don't go to low you should be ok.


as far as the springs coming unseated, the fronts don't but the rears can and do, haven't lost a spring yet but get a little airborn or hit a steep driveway at an angle, and you can hear the rear springs drop/move around, if you jack up the car there will be like 3-4" of gap between the spring and chasis. travel limit straps are the solution

 

Your build is almost EXACTLY like mine, except I have drop spindles, stiffer springs, but no watts link. I haven't driven it yet because I just finished bolting it all together this afternoon, and I need an alignment.

If you decide to go with drop spindles and the 850 lb/in 9" tall springs, your car will be LOW. With the weight jack adjusted all the way up, my car measures 24.75" from the ground to the fender.

 

Do you think something like this would work to limit suspension travel?
http://www.streetperformance.com/par...7112-5113.html
Just get the right length strap and bolt to the top and bottom shock bolts. Although you couldn't really do that with top shock bolt on our cars. So somehow you'd have the attach them to the differential on one side and body on the other side.

Any downsides to running limited straps on the street?

 

In case anyone cares, below is what I ended up getting. I'm just waiting for a free weekend to install them.

I may end up going with the Fays 2 watts linkage. But first I wanted to see what a proper panhard bar feels like. I will also be going to 18" wheels sometime in the future.

And Mods, somehow this thread ended up in Wheels and Tires when that board was created. Can we get it moved back to Suspension?

Thanks.

Front Suspension:
Ground Control weight jacks, 850lb
Koni Yellows
Ground Control strut mounted bump stops, remove stock bump stops
Spohn Del-Sphere A-Arms
Spohn K-member
Rubber motor mounts, have poly now and hate them
UMI Strut Tower Brace
J&M Strut Mounts
Stock 34mm sway bar
TDS poly sway bar bushings
"Fiero" rod-ended sway bar end links
Stock steering brace
Spohn steering rebuild components
Tommy Lee rebuilt steering box

Rear Suspension:
Ground Control weight jacks, 175lb
Koni Yellows
Spohn Del-Sphere adjustable lower control arms
Spohn LCA relocation brackets
Spohn Del-Sphere panhard rod
Spohn Del-Sphere crossmember mounted torque arm
stock 23mm rear sway bar
TDS poly sway bar bushings
"Fiero" rod ended sway bar end links
Rubber trans mount

Other car info:
3450lbs without me
350TPI, probably around 270 RWHP, 330 RWTQ
700R4 trans, would like to swap to T-56 soon
Stock 16x8 IROC wheels
Goodyear GS-D3 tires
Wilwood 4 piston 13" front brakes
3.27 9 bolt