924Board.org

[paul_mck]

Hi all Im looking at buying a set of coilovers for my 88 924S with alloy rear trailing arms. The coilovers I want say the rears fit steel arms only.

is this correct? if so is it a big problem to fit them?

cheers.

[fiat22turbo]

The mounting bolt diameters are different. The Steel arms use a smaller mounting bolt, so you'll need to have the alloy bolts machined smaller or buy adapters.

The steel arms use smaller bolts because they are mounted in double sheer where the alloy arms are not, so be aware that machining the alloy bolts smaller could result in failure. Especially when used to support coil springs.

Personally, I'd skip the coil over shocks and increase spring rate properly with larger torsion bars (Look at Super Beetle off-road bars) with decent shocks (Koni's) for lower center of gravity and less potential abuse to the shock mounts. Once set properly you shouldn't need to play with ride height or corner weights more than what is available from the stock adjustments on the arms.

BTW, have you seen this thread? http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=25272
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[Grenadiers]

The lower mounting points are different. The aluminum uses a bolt, and the steel has a 'bucket' to fit the shock, and then a bolt through that. Here's a pic.

_________________
'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

[paul_mck]

bugger - I want the SPAX kit which comes in 2 forms:

18mm wide shock mount flange on front with rear alloy arms

or

20mm mount on front and steel rear arms.

I need 20mm mount on front and alloy rear arms. They wont be running coils on rear Im re-indexing the torsion bars to set height with std torsion bars.

So to fit the steel mounting struts on my alloy arms I need to use a thinner bolt, which probably wont even screw into my arms as its too small.

or try to enlarge the holes in the rear strut bottom mount to take the larger bolt I have from my alloy arms.

joy!!!

[fiat22turbo]

This might help:

http://www.paragon-products.com/Racers-Edge-Rear-Shock-Mount-p/re_mc7000.htm

Not cheap, but it will allow you to use any off the shelf shock with a 1/2" eyelet on the bottom, the top can be fixed with a small bushing on the through bolt.

Use the measurement specs from the thread I posted previously to find a shock from your chosen vendor/manufacturer that matches the measurements. You'll probably need to talk to them about valving changes so you'll need to figure out the wheel rate and the corner weights.

There's some interesting suspension info available here:

http://www.944spec.org/944SPEC/technical-articles

and here:

http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/susp-15.htm

Time to do some reading and research!
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[Rasta Monsta]

Opening the holes shouldn't be that big a deal. It's 12mm v 14mm I believe.
_________________
Toofah King Bad

• WeiBe (1987 924S 2.5t) - 931 S3

[paul_mck]

I think Ill just get the steel arm kit and drill the holes out.

Sefan - the kit I want IS for the 924 but specifies steel rear arms, where my S has alloy arms. If the only difference is the mounting bolt at the bottom then enlarging it a little is perfect.

Out of interest which 924 cars came with alloy rear arms?

[fiat22turbo]

only the 924S and the 84 or 85+ 944's came with the aluminum rear arms I believe, at least in the US. Not sure about ROW.

A kit for the 944 should have the proper parts you need. No reason to specify 924 parts as they are functionally the same between the two models, the 924 is just slightly lighter.

As for opening the hole in the shock? Done that on my 924 (with 944 rear arms and 924 shocks) and its a pain in the butt requiring a reamer as a decent drill bit failed to touch the hardened metal on the shocks I was using and I didn't want to reduce the size of the bolt given the length involved could cause it to fail prematurely.
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[paul_mck]

my 924 is the same as the early 944s at the front, and the later 944s at the rear. So there is no kit that satisfies both.

Plan is to buy the 924 kit for steel rear arms and have my local machine shop drill the holes out to 14mm.