I just went with a full Ground Control coilover setup on my FD. I want to use the stock rear anti-sway bar attachment but the rear fork is too wide for the stock bolt to go all the way through. After about 5 calls to Ground Control they told me to call M2 for the new longer bolts. Of course I can't get a hold of them. Has any body had any experience with this setup? what did you do? It seems that there might be a simple fix for this, then again nothing I've done on this car is as simple as it looks. Still worth it though.

 

What kind of shocks? The GC setup shouldn't be any different than any other setup, since it's just springs and mounts.

 

He might mean GC AdvanceDesign shocks (whole shocks made by GC):
http://www.advance-design.com/

-Max

 

Oops sorry, they are the Advanced Design shocks. The fork in the rear is much wider than any setup I've seen. When I ordered them they asked if I planned on running the stock rear bar mounts, I told them yes. I got the shocks and put them on that's when I realized that the stock bolt assembly didn't work. They quickly shipped out the bolts (they said and I believe them) that were supposed to be included but I never got them. Maybe they were swipped of my door step or lost in shipping but I never got them. If I have to buy another set thats fine I just want to get the bar hooked up. They were helpful every time I called but the last when the guy (one I never talked to before) said to call M2 because they couldn't help.

 

If you do get ahold of M2 please post to let us know what they say. I have a similar fitment issue with the RB rear bar conflicting with the coilovers I have and the width of the stock end links, which is the same part you are having problems with. Here is a picture of a part that M2 sold to somebody that would solve both of our problems but I can't seem to reach M2. Note that you could use any length bolt with this part. My interest is the diameter of the part.

 

I have a set of the Advance Design shocks as sold by M2 a few years ago. Assuming that the design is the same as the sets that you have, here is what I found:

1. You can't reuse the stock swaybar end links for the reasons you've already discovered.

2. If you have a Racing Beat (and/or Eibach?) rear swaybar (like me and dis1), you can't use the fancy double heim joint end link as supplied by M2 (see dis1's picture). The bad news is that even though it looks cool, it won't work because it's too short. The good news is that now you get to buy four new single heim joints to make your own links. Unlike the stock or M2 links, your new end links will be adjustable. Now you will be able to set the rear bar for zero preload when you get the car cornerweighted.

3. I don't know whether the double heim joint will work with the stock swaybar.

4. In order to get the swaybar to clear the shock fork, I had the swaybar ends ground down closer to the adjustment holes in the bar. That gave enough clearance to let the bar move without hitting the shock fork. Remember to paint the newly exposed metal.

5. The stock end-link uses a 12 mm "bolt" to go through the shock fork and suspension arm. However, the fork on the M2/AD shock uses a 7/16" bolt, with (I believe) bronze spacers to fill the gap between the bolt grip and the suspension bushing. Advance Design told me they did this because Brian specified 7/16". Unless they changed the spec to 12 mm for later production, this means that you can either:6. Remember to buy some cone-shaped spacers to space the heim joints away from the shock fork and the swaybar. The heim joints must have room to articulate.

7. I suggest getting very strong and corrosion resistant bolts, nuts, etc., for the shock-to-suspension-arm and swaybar applications. You don't want these to rust or break. I bought high-strength stainless nuts, bolts and washers from ARP. The cone-shaped spacers came with the M2/AD kit.

 

Thanks for the info artowar. I figured that I was going to have to engineer something to make this work. It will be good to have adjustability to take out any preload on the bar.

 

A big thanks autowar!!! I was thinking I would have to buy 4 rod ends, 2 male, 2 female and build the parts myself. I just didn't want to invest in it without knowing it would work. I guess I should learn to trust myself. All I need now are some of the spacers, which I was already seeing as a problem.
dis1

 

You're welcome guys. One more item for the shopping list-- some rod-end seals to help keep out dirt, etc.

 

artowar's desciption is right on. I have the AD's also and removed the rears just last week. I use them with the stock sway bar and had to drill out the bolt hole in the sway bar to fit the standard size bolt supplied by GC or M2 (not sure which one).

Ground Control is a royal pain in the a**. I wore out the top mounting hardware (poor design) on my front shocks and it took 5 weeks total to get the car going again. GC first sent the package to the wrong address then sent the wrong parts twice. So much for supporting your product. Hope mine don't need to be rebuilt anytime soon.

Has anyone with AD's made or adapted pillow mounts with spherical brgs. such as the Tein mounts?

Jack

 

This **** is getting harder than I thought it was going to be. The holes on my AD shock forks are drilled to 12mm. Easy, get 12mm bolts and 12mm heim joints right? Have you tried to get metric bolts or even better 12mm rod ends. I have been searching the internet for metric stuff and the bolts shouldn't be too hard but the heim joints don't exist. I guess I could go 9/16ths rod end and use a spacer. It would have been nice if the Ground Control guys could have let me know about this little problem before I ordered these. Has anybody had any luck with this crap.

 

Jetro, try contact Aurora directly. Metric rod ends do exist but they are much more difficult to find here in the States. You can get them you just have to ask

 

Believe it or not, after an hour on the internet, I just picked up my latest issue of Grassroots Motorsports and found an ad for metric rod ends and spherical bearings. Luckily they are in SoCal. Hopefully they will have something useful.

 

Well don't hold out on us man! The name of the company and web address/phone number is....?
dis1

 

pm Kaifd3s

he has the ground control coils setup

mike

 

ERP suspension engineering. Ph# 562-595-5575 or cary@eisenlohr.com. I didn't get a chance to call today but I will try them tomarrow. Try www.fluro.de