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Ok, I said in the lowering thread that I would go through an install of one of our RSR coilover suspension kits on a 930 this week. I'll put up the rear's today, and try and get the rest of the writeup finished tonight when I have a chance to go through the pictures. First time doing this, plan for at least 10 hours, maybe more if you are having to do it on jack stands. You will find later that when you start adjusting the ride height, there is a lot of raising and lowering the car in the air. There are only two special tools involved, and that is the toothed socket to pull the lower ball joints off in the front, and a tie rod separator. Everything else is basic tools (though some big breaker bars may be needed on some of the bolts).
You will need an alignment after installing the new suspension. For a street driven car, a corner balance is not needed (this car is a daily driver), but for a track car, I highly recommend doing so. I will not be doing a corner balance on this car, but I can put the car on the scales and show you what is involved there.
This writeup is how I do the suspensions. I am sure there are other people's methods of doing things, so modify as you need.
Also, since you will need an alignment, this is a good time to replace the front ball joints and tie rod ends.
Quick rundown of the tools (and I may be forgetting some minor ones). I will edit this as I make the post and my memory is refreshed with the tools needed.
19mm wrench
19mm socket
17mm socket
22mm 1/2" socket and breaker bar
24mm socket
Special socket for pulling front ball joint
Tie rod separator: This is NOT a pickle fork. Pickle forks are for vehicles that start with name John, and end with the last name Deere......not for Porsches.
13mm socket
11mm socket
Hammer
Punch
Needle nose pliers
10mm Allen socket
8mm Allen socket
10mm socket
Phillips screwdriver
vise grips
17mm wrench
5mm Allen wrench or socket
Ok, starting with the rears.
1. Raise and support the vehicle:
2. There is a metal cap at each end of the rocker panels/side skirts. Held in place by two phillips screws. Remove these.
3. Once removed, peel the rubber strip out of the channel. Start at the top edge, work all the way down the length of it, then go back and pull the bottom out, and set the strip aside. This is exactly what I didn't do in my picture, lol.
4. On the bottom side of the rocker, are three mounting screws/bolts that you need to remove with the spacers. Take a good look at the orientation of the spacers. It will go: Screw, flat washer, rocker panel, flat washer, 1 or 2 plastic spacers. Remove these three with a 10mm socket and set aside.
5. From the top, remove the plug for the jacking pad, and you will notice screws running the length of the rocker where the rubber strip was sitting. Remove all these and set the rocker panel aside.
6. Remove the 4 bolts (17mm socket) from the outer torsion bar housing. Underneath the green arrow, there is a spacer on that bolt. It will make sense when you see it, so when you forget where it goes, that is where it goes (between the housing plate and the body).
7. Place a jack or stand under the base of the rear trailing arm near the shock. When you remove the lower shock bolt, the arm will want to drop a few inches, so we need to support it so it does not strip the bolt coming out. Place the jack under the arm, and raise it just a hair to get the weight off the bolt. Remove the bolt with the 22mm socket and breaker bar (this bugger can be really tight. You will have an outer washer and an inner washer you will reuse with the bolt. (replace your torn CV boots while you are in here) Once the bolt is removed, you can drop the jack and let the arm hang freely.
8. If you haven't already done so, carefully remove the access plate from the stone guard (it will be stuck to it, so peel carefully). This is also a great time to replace the stone guards.
9. Picture of it off the car.
Continued.......
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Doc Wilen 86 951....not stock
Last edited by IAPorscheDoc; 01-29-2008 at 09:00 AM.
10. Remove the 4 bolts from the spring plate, and the 1 bolt from the sway bar. They are all 19mm tools. You can lift the trailing arm by hand as needed to work the loose bolts out of the arm.
11.
12. Pry the outer spring plate housing off the rubber mount.
13. Pry the spring plate with torsion bar away from the body. With any luck, the torsion bar will be stuck to the spring plate, and you won't have to fight getting it out of the body.
14.
15. Once out of the car, knock the torsion bar loose from the spring plate, and set aside. You can shine up the torsion bars, put them on your mantle in the house, do whatever with them, because we aren't reusing them
16. Place the spring plate back on the car. I recommend putting on the spring plate, then putting on your outer bushing cover (the one with the 17mm bolts and single spacer), and getting those bolts started first. Screw them in most of the way, but don't torque them down yet. Then once those are installed, lift your trailing arm up by hand, and start installing your 4 bolts that attach the spring plate to the trailing arm (leave the sway bar disconnected until you finish the other side).
17. Still have to get that old shock out. On the 930's, you have to pull the intercooler and the stock airbox to do this. If you have an aftermarket airbox (like our 930 intake), then you can probably work around everything, and just reach over the intercooler and around the airbox to the upper shock nut. With the stock airbox in though, there just isn't room.
Place your 17mm wrench on the nut, and attach a visegrip to the upper shock bolt to keep the shock from spinning. There is a flat spot there made for a wrench, but it is something like a 6mm, so a visegrips is just easier. Remove the nut, washer, and bushing, and drop the shock out the bottom of the car. Notice the orientation of the washers and bushings.
18. With the RSR's, there are rubber bump stops on the shafts of the new shocks. I find that if you leave these in, or at full length, you will be bouncing off them. You have two options here. Cut the new rubber bump stops on the shocks in half, then only use half of the original length, or remove the bump stops all together. I just remove the entire stop. Now, insert the new shock from the bottom. It helps to have one person shove it through, and the other guy up top put on the new bushing, washer and nut). The bushings are like triangles. For the bottom bushing, the narrow end will point down at the floor. For the top bushing, the narrow end will point up.
19. The new shocks have 5mm allen slots in the top of them, so you don't have to use a visegrips. Put on your 17mm wrench, insert your 5mm allen, and tighten the nuts down until they stop. From the bottom of the car, take your jack again, and raise the trailing arm up so the hole is lined up with the lower shock hole. Install your lower shock bolt and washers. Make sure the holes are lined up and that the bolt goes in smoothly....you don't want to cross thread this and bung the hole (Right now the GM mechanics reading this are going..."Hey, cross threads are better than no threads."......this is not a good philosophy).
Repeat for the other side. We will come back to setting ride height once the fronts are installed.....
In short, everything is going back on the car but the old shocks and the torsion bars. At this time, you can reinstall the rocker panels.
__________________
Doc Wilen 86 951....not stock
Last edited by IAPorscheDoc; 01-29-2008 at 09:01 AM.
You ever add gussets for additional support? Heard you could get weakening/tearing if you don't when you go coil over. I fab'd some up and welded them just for good measure. Just wondering if you have ever seen any issues without doing it?
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85' 930 RSR TT - My proverbial "baby"
04' Ram 3500 Dually - Its big and tows
94' VW VR6 Golf Touring 1 - Waste of money
04' S430 4Matic AMG - Daily
You ever add gussets for additional support? Heard you could get weakening/tearing if you don't when you go coil over. I fab'd some up and welded them just for good measure. Just wondering if you have ever seen any issues without doing it?
On a full blown track car this is a good idea. For the street car, occasional novice DE, we don't have any problems.
21. First we will remove the stock torsion bars. You can leave the sway bar in place, but you probably need to remove the lower cover to get the torsion bars enough clearance to slide out. This is done easily with a 8mm Allen, and a 17mm socket (two red arrows). The other 2 red arrows point to the torsion bar end cap, and the adjusting screw. Remove the screw with an 11mm socket
22. With the lower plate out of the way, and the adjusting screw out, take a prybar and pry the cap away from the crossmember, It should pop off the splined end of the torsion bar, but if the torsion bar starts to come out with it, that is fine....just clamp onto the bar with a visegrips, and tap the cap off the end (you will need it off to clear the floor pan).
23. Here you can see the torsion bar sliding out of the lower control arm:
24. Now we just need to slide the torsion bar rearwards and out of the car. The problem is, it will hit the AC lines and the floor pan. Remove a few of the AC line clamps to the body with an 8mm socket, and hang the line down out of the way, and slide the torsion bar out of the car. You may need to loosen (not remove) the main bolts holding the crossmember to the body (19mm socket) to allow enough clearance to slide the bar out. This will drop the angle of the crossmember enough for the torsion bar to slide past the floor pan.
25. Next, remove the lower ball joint from the control arm. Remove the cotter pin and washer plate.
26. With the special tool, remove the locking nut that secures the balljoint to the control arm. If you don't have the tool available, a hammer and a punch can be used to knock the nut counter clockwise. Be gentle.
27. Remove the cotter pin and the nut from the tie rod end on the strut.
28. With the special removal tool, separate the tie rod end from the strut. Again, pickle forks are bad. If you are putting in new tie rod ends like I mentioned before, and a pickle fork is all you have, then you can use it as you will not care if the fork rips the boot.
29. With a 14mm brake line wrench, and a 11mm brake line wrench, separate the brake line where it is connected to the strut (there is a bracket the line passes through, and you need to disconnect the two lines to get it out). Next remove the brake caliper (10mm allen). There is a washer between the caliper and the strut, make sure this goes back in the proper orientation when putting everything back together.
30. Remove the outer bearing dust cap. I screw in a bolt, then use a visegrips and slide hammer to pull them out. You can also put in a long bolt, attach a visegrips on the backside of the head, and pound outward with a hammer.
31. Once the cap is removed, you are looking at the bearing assembly. With a 6mm allen, line up the holes in the hub so you can get to the bolt, and loosen the outer locking screw. Once the bolt is loose, you can spin off the nut. Remove the washer underneath it, the outer bearing, and pull off the rotor.
32. Once the rotor is off, remove the 3 screws holding the dust shield on (13mm socket).
33. With a pry bar, pry the control arm downward, and pull the strut away from the arm.
34. From the trunk, remove the 3 allen bolts (8mm)
35. With the strut now removed from the car, remove the top nut holding the upper strut mount (you will need to use this on the new struts). This is done easiest with an impact wrench.
36. If you are reusing the ball joints, you will need to remove the 13mm nut and pin from the lower strut to get the ball joint separated. Loosen the nut slightly, then tap with a hammer until you can get it out. Do not hit the end of the pin without the nut being on it, or you will bung the threads. Install the ball joint on the new strut and secure it with the pin.
37. This is the ball joint pin and nut.
38. Installation is opposite of reverse. Remember to bleed all 4 brakes since you had the brake lines apart!
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