steering and suspension Suspension Upgrade Coming Soon

[bluebmw]

"coilovers" are not by definition stiffer than anything, including stock suspensions.   the common misnomer merely means you have an adjustable spring perch allowing you to use standard size springs.  those springs, and the dampers you put in the strut, can be caddy soft or bone jarring stiff and anything in between.

Thank you for clarifying. It's easy to assume people know our jargon and it is often misleading.

 

I purposefully left out my coilover details such as spring rates because they were not terribly relevant to the discussion (being that they are on a 3000lb awd e30).

The idea was that the average/recommended Ground Control setups are generally one of the stiffer systems out there when compared to Bilstein HD/Sport struts paired with a sporty spring (IE stage 1/2, H&R, etc).

Edited September 3, 2015 by BMWnKTM

[Marsattacks]

I have Bilstein sports and IE stage 2 (received a good deal on an unused set of springs and barely used shocks/inserts) plus IE sways. Love the whole setup. Not too harsh, and I'm old. Maybe my shocks are just not so stiff. Perhaps they are older versions. Or maybe my nerve endings are shot.

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Edited September 3, 2015 by Marsattacks

[peterschop]

I have two thirds of that setup. Bilstein HD's and H/R Sports were put on this last winter. The ST bars will be coming soon. Oh, all new rubber bushings up front along with poly sway bar end links on the stock bars. The shocks and springs along with new bushings transformed the car. The ST bars are coming but living in Illinois (they call us flatlanders) I don't miss the bars until I find some twisties or put the car on the track. Good setup.

[rgiles675]

Great feedback from everyone! This is why I love this forum. Like I said I'll give some serious feedback once I get everything installed. I'm sure it's gonna be a mother F&*(&& to install but I'll get it done. 

[Mike Self]

+3 on your ordered setup, except my swaybars are unknown maker, 22 front 19 rear wtih urethane bushings.  Other bushings are all stock rubber and installed when the new springs were.  My Bilsteins have over 130k miles and feel the same as those on my '69 with 15k miles.  

 

I did a couple of columns on replacing the front suspension bushings using home-made bushing pullers/installers made from threaded rod, big (really big!) washers and--plastic plumbing pipe (which is very strong in compression/tension).  IM me with your e-mail address if you'd like a copy.

 

cheers

mike

[zinz]

This really must be the season for suspension refresh! Not even a month ago I put ST springs, ST bars, Billy HDs and rebuilt the front suspension... Most of it went smoothly.

 

Read the suspension refresh Tutorial for lot of tips.  If your lower control arms are bent/tweaked at all, buy new ones and forego the headaches of bushing replacement. The big torsion bar bushing in the front of the subframe is easily pulled into place with the torsion bar itself as a handle... generously lube the bushing with disc brake grease and it pops right into place.  Easy.

 

This '75 handles like butter now.  It's not go-kart-like, like my '71 on chopped springs and Billy Sports, but way smoother for daily commuting. 

 

Ed

[rgiles675]

This really must be the season for suspension refresh! Not even a month ago I put ST springs, ST bars, Billy HDs and rebuilt the front suspension... Most of it went smoothly.

 

Read the suspension refresh Tutorial for lot of tips.  If your lower control arms are bent/tweaked at all, buy new ones and forego the headaches of bushing replacement. The big torsion bar bushing in the front of the subframe is easily pulled into place with the torsion bar itself as a handle... generously lube the bushing with disc brake grease and it pops right into place.  Easy.

 

This '75 handles like butter now.  It's not go-kart-like, like my '71 on chopped springs and Billy Sports, but way smoother for daily commuting. 

 

Ed

Ed I can't wait to get this all installed. I was hoping it was going to be this weekend but it's looking like it's gonna be in a couple weekends. I'll fill you in how she handles. I seriously can't wait. 

[bento]

I've been emailing him about the very same set-up. I plan on doing it next year and saving up over the winter. It should be a totally different car. I'm also a little weary of it all since I've never done anything like this before and want to do the work myself if I can. I am curious about the difference between sports and HDs. I know they're stiffer, just how much stiffer?

I started out with sports when I rebuilt the suspension. I used the Bav Auto springs if that makes any difference but I doubt the spring rates for all these sport springs are drastically different.

It was so stiff my better half wouldn't ride in the car. I swapped out the rears for HDs and left the sports in the fronts and she doesn't really complain about the ride anymore and has even done some multi-hour drives in the car. I'm happy with the sport front/hd rear combo. The springs will probably get replaced over the winter though. Even with my front strut spacers on top of the one dot spring pads in the rear (combo is thicker than three dot pads), the rear still looks a little droopy. The H&R springs are the most likely candidate.

Rockers were close to level after installation but I'll have to measure again now that everything has a few miles on it. I think the rear has settled in a bit more than the front.

I also installed the ST sways. No complaints. The front bar was a tight fit between the subframe and front apron but I figured it out.

I can't compare before/after because my 02 was barely drivable when I bought it.

This is a great first big project. Lots of work but nothing too complicated and a very satisfying end result.The article mentioned above was a huge help.