Anyone put a coilover suspension in a 70 911?

[Minoclan]

I decided to do a coilover conversion to my 70 911. I ordered all of the parts and sent them to my mechanic. As the parts came out they were sold and shipped. Everything is in and the car just got lowered to the floor to go to the alignment rack. My mechanic just called and told me that my springs don't touch the bottom of the upper perches because the mounts are tapered (they are getting stuck). They are also about 1mm away from the SSI's. My car is now sitting on jackstands. Any suggestions?

[davep]

I'd be a little miffed at the parts supplier for selling something that does not go together properly. What parts were used to do the conversion?

[Minoclan]

To be fair I am going to hold off answering that and give them time (about 1 day) to come up with a solution. It is a very well known company and I went to them based on their reputation with this generation 911. I am quite surprised myself. What I don't want to do is to modify the car to accommodate this coilover kit. If I had known that this was not ironclad, i would have just put in a stiffer sway.

[jpnovak]

I suspect your issues are primarily on the rear. 1971 and early chassis had smaller diameter shock tower access holes as well as a different angle compared with the 1972 and later 915 style chassis. The steel trailing arms had slightly different geometry that is easily identified using later aluminum trailing arms. This is why one must mill the trailing arm shock mount to splay the shock outward a bit. It is also why you must trim and flatten the seam edge on SSIs during the same conversion.

What to do now? I have seen examples where the later shock tower was welded in the car. Otherwise the lower inside section of the shock opening could be cut, expanded and rewelded. Obviously, not really a bolt-in solution.

What diameter springs do you have? What shock system did you mount? Even with the small 2.25" or 2" spring setups you will likely have clearance issues.

I am not aware of any "easy" solutions for coil-overs on these early tubs. This is part of the reason I never converted my ST to coilovers. The rear/inboard edge of my shock covers rub the chassis with the aluminum trailing arms.

[Minoclan]

I was sold 2.5" springs. Are the bilstein rsr's a better solution? I really dont want to cut and weld.

[davep]

Some discussion on the matter that might help:
http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...ad.php?t=29469

[Minoclan]

We made the decision. Keep the new struts with the coilovers in the front and go back to torsion bars in the rear (31mm). With the new sways and mounts it should be great.

It seems like the solution is to buy double eyelet racing shocks for the rear and mount them upside down.

[Flieger]

Have you looked at Rebel Racing Parts? The owner has a 1970 911 that he makes all the developments for. He has cool A-arm bearings, monoballs, and his specialty is coil-overs. He uses inverted dampers in the rear on his car. On the bottom of this page are the "custom" Bilstein dampers for coil-overs. That is the iverted damper he uses. There are non-adjustable ones (the item description says "gas-adjustable") which sound like what would work best for you.

http://www.rebelracingproducts.com/S.../Steering.html

[Flieger]

I found the gas dampers are adjustable, with gas pressure. It mainly adjusts ride-height rather than bump/rebound damping. Not like re-valving.

No new crossmembers are needed for the kit to fit, though you may want to add the RSR gussets to the damper towers. The kit uses 2.25inch springs.