Hi everybody!

I just replaced a totally worn out suspension on my '88 GTU with:
KYB GR2 + Gas-A-Just
Eibach Pro Kit
Energy Suspension Master Bushing Kit
Racing Beat Rear Steering Eliminator Bushing Kit
New Strut Tops + a lot of new miscellanious bushings
New Pillow *****
New ball-joints
New tie rods + tie rod's ends
did alignment on all 4 wheels off course

My old springs were worn out and car has been lower than it should. After the installation of new springs it should have been at least stay the same or even become slightly higher (old springs were too bad), but it became even lower!

Now the clearance between the wheel and fender is no more than 1 inch, although it is a Pro Kit, not a Sport Line from Eibach!!! And the ride is VERY harsh now, i can't push the front of the body down with the weight of my whole body (rear is pushing a little). And the car now handles even a worser than it was and is unstable on speeds over 60 MPH...

at the moment bad handling i would explain as understeer (i think) which is because of too stiff and too low front...

I was thinking maybe springs need some specific orientation which i missed or supplier sent me a wrong springs?

All in all i have a feeling that i've installed something wrong - the springs or the shocks... If anybody can give any clue on what to look for i'd be really apreciate!

[FIRST PIC - BEFORE, SECOND - AFTER]

 

meh....very very hard to say if you've done something wrong installation wise, there are no pictures of anything you installed, just a height reference.

Understeer is entering a corner, turning the wheel, and having the front end not respond (or continue gong straight).....this is what you're experiencing?

Harsh ride? welcome to performance suspension. Although if you can't ACTUALLY make the front end of the car go down AT ALL......I mean even a 1/4.........then something is wrong, even tokico illuminas on thier hardest setting will give 1/8" when you push on the front end.

You mentioned those shocks are gas adjusting (I assume this is what "gas-a-just" means) have you cranked them to their softest setting?

 

What did you do with the sway bars? Looks very nice, dont know what to say about ride quality.

 

The KYB Gas-a-Just aren't manually adjustable, the have internal valving that "adjusts" according to load. But the are stiffer than stock shocks, same with the Gr-2's (just not as stiff). The eibachs have a stiffer spring rate and lower the car more than the stock suspension. Same with the bushings you have. So that explains why the ride is harder and more rough.
As far as the bad handling, it sounds like something wasn't tightened done or put in incorrectly. The sturts have a little notch where the spring end sits and as long as they are matched up your good.
I agree with the guy above, it sounds like a sway bar problem. I would go back under there and make sure everything is tight and well lubed. Hehe. -Jeromy

 

all of those combinations will equal a very harsh street drive, mainly it is the poly bushings that cause the harshness so what can i say? it is probably normal...

as for the instability at high speeds, that would depend on what you mean by unstable.. does the car vibrate? probably tires are out of balance. does the car tend to follow grooves in the road? well then you have an alignment that is off and tires that have worn to the improper alignment - or you have worn steering components.

 

did you "open" the strut? most struts are shipped compressed and are internally locked into place. you have to turn the strut and unlock it so it will move. this could cause all of your problems. of course it would be extremely hard to install springs on a fully compressed strut. any other info would be good.

 

your next to last sentence answered your own question.

 

A good stiff suspention basically won't move when you press on it. I can basically jump on mine and the only real movement is from the tires. My guess is that its installation related. I would take the car to a shop and get a full alignment done. Describe how its unstable and we might could help you more.

 

Werd, after you replace suspension components you should get an alignment.

 

That's exactly whats happening... And as i understand understeering appears when the front end is too stiff, right?

 

What do you mean what did i do? They're stock i've just powder-coated all suspension... And sway bars has nothing to do with ride's height.

 

Probably i've explained myself bad... It's not harsh it's awfull! Every bump on the road i drive over feels so bad like the car is going to fall apart.
no the car doesn't vibrate... It's just the feeling of instability - you're catching the road with the steering wheel - the car tends to steer a bit from the straight line after each bump or pit in the ground... I know sounds like it is miss-aligned, but i did alignment at the shop on front and rears, so no it's not it... I'd connect it to improper ride height and unnormal stiffness of the front suspension somehow...

 

It was a friend of mine - a mechanic who did assembled the struts and spings together - so i should ask him if he did 'opened' the struts... but i doubt that that's the problem...

 

Oh, guys! Forgot to say thanks for all of your answers and suggestions!

 

A sway bar can mess up the ride height. Have you ever taken off a sway bar and looked at the car while its sitting on the ground? It deff sounds like a sway bar problem to me. I would suggest taking everything apart having someone else with a FC come over and using his car as a guide to reinstalling everything.

 

How a sway bar can effect ride's height? Just explain me?

 

bump

 

want broken? When I installed my suspension, I forgot the bolt that holds the spring to the a-arm. Guess what happened after about 5 miles and a decent sized pothole. That sucked. But I know how to swap suspension on the side of a road at 2am now.

 

I'm sorry, where is that bolt is located?

I've disassembled the front today and found nothing wrong... Everything seems to be assembled ok.

I've been thinking maybe i have a wrong springs or shocks...

Front springs have 5513.101 imprinted on them (on the box it says 5520.140)
and front left shock marked with 235013

The weird thing was after i installed the assembly back, car was going lower and lower very slowly until it stopped at some point i would consider normal, but after driving it back and forth for 3 meters it droped to was pictured before and became too low (

And when it sits like that i can see that 3 or 4 upper coils of the spring are touching each other so tight that you can't even insert a blade between them... I believe that is completely unnormal.

 

Correct size and spring rate? Those sound waaaay to soft or the wrong size if you're able to compress them that easily. Theres not THAT much weight on each wheel to compress a correct spring that much. I don't know that 4 rx-7s on top of eachother would even bottom out a spring like that...

 

Wow, somethings definately wrong there. I personally can't think of what would do that in the way you described other than either the wrong springs or faulty springs.

 

I would double check the part number of those springs....

As far as the overall harshness goes, thats mostly the poly bushing biting you in the *** there......trust me even if you get the car ride smoother, having the poly bushings installed transaltes every corner of a piece of ant **** on the road into a slap on your lower back.

 

I'd also check the part number of the shocks.

Assuming the springs have an even spaced coil - a lot don't (especially eibachs) - and that they are not supposed to be that tight, then it seems that they may have been compressed way too much in order to get them onto the struts. If 'in essence' the struts are wrong (ie too short), or the springs are wrong (too long), then whoever put them, on had to compress them a huge amount just to get them onto the strut. Ask the installer if he had to use a lot of compression to get them to fit.

But after all this, the ride will be harsh with that setup.

 

FWIW, my eibachs are evenly spaced.

 

Well, part numbers on shocks seems to be the right ones, but as for springs... On the box everything looks like it should - 5520.140, but on the front spring it is written 5513.101, and i just can't find this partnumber nowhere... Any clues?