So I'm starting to tear apart the front end for my suspension upgrade (springs, struts, a arms, and k member, and maybe a brake upgrade [undecided]). I didn't get any hardware for the Spohn K member when I bought it off another member on the board.

Does anyone know the length of the 12mm bolts? I've listened to Spohn's video and he says stock bolts will be to long.

Does anyone know the specs length/size of the brake mounting tab hardware for use on the Spohn K member?

Also he has down he's using grade 10.9 bolts for the k member. Will grade 5 or grade 8 bolts work? I'm not at all familar with grade 10.9. From the research I did on Google it appears 10.9 is for metric bolts, but everything I've seen here has been grade 5, 8, etc.

 

Just phone spohn and they will hook you up with the proper hardware and probably instructions too. Their tech guys can explain things really well over the phone. The spohn k member lines up real nice, at least on my camaro they did. But be prepared to do some grinding on the holes if they don't line up, sometimes creative jacking can help align the mounting holes if there is alignment issues (at least on fox bodied cars). Some stainless lines and good cross drilled rotors are a nice upgrade, most of the 3rd gens I seen (I owned 5 now) have had poor rotting brake lines also leaking master cylinders. Just where the resevoir connects to the lines, brake fluid seems to eat paint pretty good.

 

all metric bolts are better grade then grade 5. You will be ok with any metric bolts you select.

 

Talked to Spohn Rep on the live support chat tool.

12 mm x 40 mm flange bolts for the K member
1/4" x 3/4" for the brake mounting hardware

I have the wheels off the front of the car now and started tearing apart the driverside. I'm working on getting the lower strut bolt out. I have the nut off but the bolt appears to be rusted solid to the spindle or the strut surface. I can't even turn it with an impact. Also tried putting the nut back on and using a hammer on it. I have it soaking in PB Blaster hopefully will pop loose tonight.

 

You will probably need to heat it up with a torch or cut it off.

 

Bolts came out. I did end up mushrooming the end of the nut beating the crap out of it. No big deal I needed hardware for the K member anyway. Both A arms are now off. I have the pass. lower mount unbolted. Should be able to get the K member to drop out tomorrow hopefully. I'm just praying solid motor mounts line up correctly on the new one and there is no issues with new A arms positioning being to far forward or backward.

 

Had to loosen both headers and pull the back pipe off passenger side long tube. K member came out with a little wiggle.

Still undecided if I want to do brake upgrade. I have a pair of 12.2"x1.25" rotors that would be nice on there, but it would be horribly close for a 15" rim.

Off to get some bolts. Here's current mess:

 

Weight differences seem pretty small I would probably say 5 lbs (I didn't weigh them). Here are some pictures of the differences between the old k member and the new one and the install so far. All pictures are clickable to a larger version.

New K member next to the stock K member:






I used the old stock bolts for the front mounts to position them. I found the 40mm length ones make it very hard to move the K member in and tighten the bolts. I've switched driverside out to the 40mm ones and plan on doing the same on passenger side. I ran into my first issue with the K member not fitting. The K member isn't aligning properly on the passenger side. The alignment pin will not go in and the back A Arm bracket is against the sheetmetal. The driverside is in and there is no slack to slide it around any so I can't pivot for more clearance. I'm going to take a break to think about it, but I might just drill out the alignment opening some.

 

After talking to Spohn Live Support they sugguested acouple things:
1) Take the driverside down and try to start the passenger side pin in first. Since that's the one that doesn't want to start.
2) Make sure all bolts are in the K Member and loose. (Previously all bolts except one were in and all were loose)
3) Use a crowbar and pry on it, "without going to town", to see if I can make it to fit.

I seriously do not want to resort to prying on anything besides pulling on it with my hands, which I'm already doing. It's almost like my front frame is slightly tweaked as the back a arm bracket is against the sheet metal, but the pin doesn't line up and the bolt doesn't go in the middle mounting hole on that side. I think the front hole might not even line up with the properly 40mm length.

I backed out all the bolts so they are just barely in there. Now neither one of the alignment pins are in the holes in the frame. I guess I'll go get another floor jack and support the middle when I try to move it around to align it up. This K member is really starting to **** me off.

Also I was only able to find 8.8 grade hex bolts so I'm just using those for now with washers.

 

You can oval the holes slightly if you have to. No 2 F-Bodies are the same, literally, they all sag differently as they age, like all unibody car eventually do. I can say the same for Fox bodied mustangs. This is normal don't be discouraged.

 

Ball peen hammer did the trick. I scribed the outline of the K member on the pass. side back where the A Arm bracket was rubbing (last picture prior to this post). I used the rounded end of a ball peen hammer and dented that area in slightly on the car's sheet metal. K member slide right into place without effort.

Issue #2: My grade 8.8 M12x40mm hex bolts are not fitting. Apparently Hex bolts and flange bolts have different head sizes. Hex bolts apparently are larger and it's hard for me to get my socket in the very front holes that recess into the k member and tighten them down. I've already checked 3 hardware stores in the area there are no grade 10.9 and no flange bolts available in that size. Time to jump on Fastenal's Sebsite and find me some 10.9 rated flange style.

 

Nice to see you working on the car. You are killing me man. I had convinced myself I did not need a K member, but after seeing this I am starting to sway. You suck :-)

 

Your local ACE Hardware should have any of the fasteners you need for this project.

 

Tried ACE Hardware already. They did not stock any 10.9 grade bolts, and only had flange bolts up to 6mm or 8mm.
I also tried Farm and Fleet (farm supply store) only grade 8.8 that's where I got the hex bolts and washers. I also tried Menards they didn't even have M12x40mm in grade 8.8 hex.

Called Fastenal at the local store that's only 20-30 miles away. They're on order and will come in tomorrow with no shipping charge. They'll run me $19+ for 6 of them. I guess I'll take the other ones back after I swap them out and get my $10 back from them.

Next issue I see so far is the middle mounting bolt has a large gap. When I went to tighten it made the K member deflect a little bit. I'm probably going to use some high grade washers as a spacer there to take up the gap. I'd hate to flex it and cause stress to welds or not tighten it all the way and see if flex and bounce like that.

 

I went the prybar route and just about "went to town" on it. Everything is in though. I just figured a previous accident made my car a little off...

Good to hear yours is going in easier.

 

Bummer, must be a regional thing, my ACE Hardware stores are very well stocked. Fastenal will get you hooked up.

 

Well here's the latest update.

K member is in with the new flange bolts. There's still a gap in the mid bolt location. When I went to tighten it the bracket began to distort so I stopped. I had the idea to use some Grade 8 washers as shims (2 driver's side and 1 on passenger's side) and torqued the bolts to 60 ft-lbs. I put the triangle front braces back on and the motor mounts are now out of alignment. There off by about 1/4-1/2" on the passenger side. I took the mounts off the block side and made sure the lower mounts did line up with the k member. Either my washers are throwing everything out of alignment or I've ran into the Moroso Solid Mounts issue with the Spohn K member. I doubt that since they worked fine with the OEM k member.

I took the k member off again. I used the hammer to dent in around the spring perch area on the sheet metal. Seems like the Spohn design was rubbing around that area. It's not nearly as tight now at the mounts and also the gap at the mid bolts is mostly gone. After few hours of cursing I managed to get the mount bolts started for the motor mounts. I need to make another hardware run. My old stock k member only allowed for 3 bolts to be used each side this one will allow all 4. At least I have 2 to 3 bolts started on each side right now. For all this trouble I'm starting to wonder if the K member swap was really worth it. It's not like I'm going to a coil over setup. This one uses spring perches and main reason was just extra room for my long tubes.

 

I have a 1987 camaro im getting ready to take the k member out of. Is there a certain measurement you need to put it back in so everything lines up?

 

Alignment pins take care of that. Worse part is switching motor mounts around.

 

Just an update it's been pretty hot finally cooled down here.

Motor mounts are in and bolted down. That took quite some time with a pry bar to get Moroso solid mounts to line up.

Passenger side header needs to go back on now. Do to that I'll have to remove the starter to get in there. Long tubes are such a bitch when it comes to installing...

I forsee this project taking at least another month now.

 

Im waiting on you to finish, because im sitting on the fence about this upgrade. Everyone I ask about this set up has mixed answers. I have everything picked out at Spohn to do the whole swap and even the sales lady ask me how big I was, She ment how strong am I to be able to stear the car with the rack steering. She said even though it drops weight its harder to steer on the street and I drive on the street alot. What is the total weight savings? 125lbs? Is $3600 worth a tenth of a second? I think I can make more HP with that kind of money. Let me hear your thoughts.

 

i would be surprised if you would lose half that weight.

3600bux is supercharger money....

 

I agree. I hope to work some more this weekend. It's just been too hot and humid here.

 

K member is in had to fight the headers a lot! FYI passenger side longtube no longer fits from top side of bay. They will hit spring perch. I had to remove the starter and jack the car 2 feet+ off the ground and install from underside of the car. Yes I removed spark plugs and slip tube. Header bolts were a pain to get back in too but that's long tubes for ya. Pictures to come tomorrow.

For those of you who are prehaps looking to switch K members just for long tube clearance it looks like these do offer a lot more clearance than stock (over an inch or so by my rear brackets). Still have to bend my brake lines and attach those to the brackets and re-install things.

Here are the pictures of the Spring Perch type Spohn K member bolted on:













Teaser of some of the other parts waiting to be installed:

 

Did some more work today that it was nice out. Hardlines are now bent and bolted back down. New spohn perch a arms are on and torqued. Also loosely bolted new strut mounts in. I'll put up pics later or tomorrow. Only issue I had was passenger side brake line mount was way too close to the header. So close a bolt didn't even fit in the mount. I bent it down just far enough to get a bolt and washer in. It didn't chip powdercoating that I can tell. Only other gripe I have from today is apparently there is no center line mount so I had an extra brake line clip left over. The center line is 1/2 inch or so from the front of the oil pan bottom so there is little worries of it getting caught on anything.

 

Back from the dead! Been a long year. Between work and having a baby girl car projects got to sit this year out.

My spindles and dust shields have been painted red to match the A Arms. I pulled a used strut mounting nut from the Junk Yard last weekend since I mushroomed mine hitting it to get the bolt loose.

I foresee an epic fight with the Edelbrock Drag Launch Front Coils. I tried just putting them in A Arm to see if I could use the shade tree method of nylon strapping them to the arm and compressing them with a jack. There is no way they will fit that way. I'm off to pick up an internal spring compressor from OReilly AutoParts today. If the spring compressor doesn't work I might have to take the A Arm back off and compress the spring, then jack the A Arm into place all as one unit. I really don't want to attempt that though as my face is already ugly enough without getting smacked with a 900 lb spring. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the new Drag Launch compared to the stock WS6 ones for reference before I install them, but they are huge.

 

Do you have to compress the spring with a machine to remove it? Some people remove the ball joint and lower that way no?

 

Yes I did it without the spring compressor on removal. I put a chain and cheap pad lock through the middle of the stock springs chaining it to the A Arm with some slack then put a jack under the ball joint, undid the ball joint castle nut, and lowered it with the jack slowly. Stock springs came out like cake.

Stock WS6 Spring next to the new one:


Driverside spring is in. It's still not properly indexed. I'll need to loosen the tool and move it. The current way it is the forks of the bottom plate hit the A Arm. I'm about 90* from being properly indexed currently.

Making progress the 90/10 Lakewood strut is on with the bump stop and the Spohn fabricated mount.

 

Springs are in now and indexed. I need to run by auto parts store and see if they have a flexible boot that fits the strut. Stock dust shields don't work well with the bearing on the fabricated mounts. I will probably take the struts back off because I forgot to tap them for the bracket line bracket. Unless I can find a smaller tap tool.

 

Boot is a little long but I think it should work fine. It's a generic Rancho Shock Boot from Auto Parts Store for $5 each. At least it will allow the bearing to rotate properly and protect the strut from dirt and debris.