Help! Ride-Height & Lower Control Arm Issues!

[junglejustice]

Hey Guys, I don't get it...

So, trying to reinstall the lower control arms up front (using the thicker torsen/torsion bars) is proving to be a problem...

I have the control arm back on the bar, the bar reinserted back into the splines in the frame and now I am trying to reinstall the two bolts that hold the arm in place, but that's where I am having a problem:

Given the thicker bars, I am "pre-loading" the bar a great deal LESS (because of the stiffer bars...) by installing the control arms at a more level setting.... Given that relatively level positioning (with the floor) of the arm, the mounting bolts that hold the arm in place, can't clear the cross-bar of the arm!

When I hang my 265 pound fat arse from a steel pipe off of that arm about 5 feet away, I am only moving the bar down by half an inch – not enough for the bolts to clear and then the whole damn bar is “bending” and I loose positioning on the two holes for the bolts…

WTF?

[AlfaRacer75]

You have to take the lower A-arm bolts out and turn them around so that they are inserted from the engine side, that way you just put the nut on the A arm side and you're all done.

Problem is... you have to raise the engine up a couple inches to get the bolts in from the inside. You also need to either get thinner nuts or grind down the existing nuts a little so they don't hit the A arm when installed.

Not fun....

[junglejustice]

Is that the only way...? Has this been covered? Sorry...

[75evo]

hehe... that's what I had to go through. But I had to go one step further. Unbolting the cam cover due to the fat brake booster for my non-ABS car.

If I had to do it over, I would call up rsracing.nl and order just the front coilovers. When I tried to buy coilovers there was no kit available. I made my own, but the mounts were not too good.

[AlfaRacer75]

I'm still not 100% sold on the front coilover idea... more weight, and putting much more stress on a part of the car not built strong to withstand it (shock towers). And if you're just using coilovers to suppliment the torsion bars then you can't really adjust rideheight, so the whole point of a coil-over is lost.

Does the rs racing kit completely replace the torsion bars and provide some sort of reinforcement for the shock towers?

[75evo]

Well you have to lower your car first. But it's really easy with the stock torsion bars. 1 hr and the car is all lowered. Now fit the coilovers and it will raise the car up a little. After that you can raise it even more.

For the track I like the car to have its nose lower down a little, but for the street, higher in the front is good to avoid cracking the downpipes and oil sump.

It's only the added weight of the coil spring, which is not much at all, maybe 3 lbs per spring since they are small. It won't put that much stress if you still have the torsion bars and the spring rate is quite low. That's what the kit from RSRacing is based on, the coilovers are just helpers to the stock torsion bars, so strut bars are not necessary.

The best way to do it, is to get threaded bodies, get some old blown out Koni/Bilstein shocks. Weld the threaded bodies on and send out the shocks to be revalved (not safe to weld when the shocks are still charged). Voila. That's what Jeroen Boer (75 3.0 TT) did to his car. You need to trim the upper a-arms a little. But I alread trimmed mine when I had the AVOs.

[BigSwede]

Isn't the coilover thicker in the part that goes through the upper control arm? That would reallt be bad since ýou need the clearance to set proper caster angles...

[junglejustice]

Is anybody there... Hello?

[junglejustice]

Thanks for the additional info on the coilovers.....

I finally grinded down one edge on each of the bolt-heads... I also had to hang my fat arse off of a 6' steel bar (thicker than the new t-bars) while three other guys pound on the bolt-heads...

Not a thread-friendly way of doing it.

I'd love to hear these "suppliers of upgraded bars" word on the proper way to R&R their part.