Suspension Job Progress.... Pics added

[theskuh]

Car is in my family's uber shop up on stands. I have pics but will post later.

One frozen outer tie rod end that won't come off. Have to hit it with the torch.

One pinch bolt was pretty frozen so I pulled the whole assembly off the car and drilled it out a bit since hitting it was just mushrooming out the head. So I drilled a little pocket for a punch and was able to drive it out.

I buggered up a new wheel bearing in the press but picked up a new one and figured out a better support for the bottom of the bearing than what I tried first.

Still have to do the passenger side but I am taking it slow.

SINCE

I don't have any springs. I ordered them Monday from shine racing. I told them I needed them for this weekend. "no problem will send them out today" Wednesday came no springs.

Tried to have them Ups them to get here today since we are in a one day zone. If they shipped thursday when I called looking for the missing springs they would be here today.

But today No springs. So that puts me back at least a day here as I had an alignment scheduled for early monday morning and was hoping to head back to VT after that. So I am hoping the springs will actually ship. if not I guess I am putting my car back together with stock springs and heading home. That will be a bummer.


Morale of the story. Order your springs a bit in advance from shine.

EDIT: talked to Jim at shine he sent them out priority mail Thursday night so I should have had them on Saturday. They didn't come saturday so I hope I will have them today (monday).

[theskuh]

So I am working on the rear now. The rear sway links aren't coming off the sway bar.


Solution one: Remove the entire rear sway and links and leave them off till my neuspeed gets here in a few days. While driving on it. Should be okay for normal driving right?

Solution two: the torch. then reconnect the stock rear sway with then new links and then swap the rear when the new one gets here.

What do you think?

[djwimbo]

Leave the sway bar off for now.
Under normal driving conditions you won't notice the difference. Spirited driving is another story.

[ILoveT]

I can't remember who but someone took their front sway off and liked it better. More body roll but he said he liked it.

[Squarrl]

I can't remember who but someone took their front sway off and liked it better. More body roll but he said he liked it.

and some people like the rides in Caddies

[theskuh]

Shine does a lot of their setups without fronts for autocross. at least that is what I remember from back when I had a mk2 and they were doing a lot of stuff with rabbits and golfs.


Bar is off for now. Car is all apart ready for reassembly. All wheel bearings are replaced. Old Springs are off. Everything is just waiting on the springs. Hopefully they will be here monday and I will be able to get out early tuesday.

The tierod end that was frozen took the torch to get it off. The torch unfortunately caught some of the inner tierod boot so that was melted a bit. I am going to have to find something that will work to fix that. i am not sure if I can get an generic boot to go over it and zip tie and clamp it on. Or if I have to just get a new boot and go at it. I tried to clamp it but it split more.

[djwimbo]

The suspension onemoremile has on his Avant is tuned for stock front sway bar and the upgraded H-Sport rear bar. I don't know why anybody would take off the front bar, BUT then again my buddy took the link off his MK4 Golf 2.0 during AutoX and he said it would actually oversteer that way.

He had some other structural stuff done as well, especially in the rear.

[theskuh]

The suspension onemoremile has on his Avant is tuned for stock front sway bar and the upgraded H-Sport rear bar.

yeah,

When I first talked to shine they recommended the neuspeed and said the Hsport would be fine too. I picked up a neuspeed from the classified. They just want you to have a large rear bar to get some oversteer. I hope to find out if I ever get the springs.

[djwimbo]

Worked out for him b/c I just installed my H-Sports Fr and Rr so, I gave him my stock front bar in exchange for a surge protector.
Unfortunately though I moved from OH back to MI between and I couldn't find the bushings or brackets once I was back here.

[onemoremile]

That reminds me, I still need to find stock sport sway bar brackets...

[djwimbo]

Call up these guys, they hook us up with random stuff all the time.

Auto Sports Unlimited
200 N. Franklin, Suite 100
Zeeland, MI 49464

800.624.3876
616.748.5710

EDIT: Plus it'll give you another reason to come down n' over to do some business w/ the owner of my work.

[theskuh]

Hey what socket is the fuel pump relay? I have one coming tomorrow and need to swap it out. I have a Haynes mani and it doesn't show relay location.

[ILoveT]

28 - Should be a 15 AMP fuse

[theskuh]

28 is the relay location or the fuse location?

[ILoveT]

The fuse.

[theskuh]

Alright. Well for those of you who want to know. the fuel pump relay is #372 right next to the longer redish relay in the panel. I believe the red one is 382 or 9 or something.

And the fuel pump relay wasn't my problem. It was a blown fuse for the engine control. So 10 codes bye bye with just a new fuse.

Here are some pics.

Before:

Stock springs. the parts were in the back but it still rode about that high in the front.



After: I jacked around with the contrast as my exposure-foo was weak. This is the bilistein hd's and Shine racing Springs.



The springs finally showed up monday afternoon by priority mail. It took me a few hours with the help of a couple others to get it back together.

My parents' shop



Everything minus springs and rear sway (sway hopefully to have this week.)



Up on the stands.




Damn Pinch Bolts! entire thing taken to the drill press to get the pinch bolt out.



Success and new bearing pressed in



The support piece that we used to back the wheel bearing to press the hub in. It was key.




all tore down



Bilisteins waiting on springs



Frozen sway bar link end

[Nebone]

Nice progress. There are different relays that can cause shorts of that sort. Fuel Pump Relay causes shorts but it was different in your case.

[theskuh]

yeah totally it was weird. The fuel pump relay does cause those codes. I took it out and vag-ed it and it was close but the fuel pump out always rang up an injector short to ground. But all better now. and for a $30 relay its not a bad hit to take.

[Nebone]

Might as well toss the new one in.

[onemoremile]

I can't remember who but someone took their front sway off and liked it better. More body roll but he said he liked it.

and some people like the rides in Caddies

He may have been talking about me. The bar that is off is the H-Sport front. I just need the brackets and bushings to install a stock sport in it's place. The front H-Sport is too burly to use with real springs and since the Shine setup is at a height that manages roll through geometry it just doesn't need a massive bar to compensate for fashionable ride height. Lowering with race springs increases roll couple and then you absolutely need a bar big enough to compete. That of course diminishes ride quality quite a bit.

I'll leave it off and meet you at a road course if you'd like to compare. If I can get out to a track again this season I'll be running a session with it intact and with one end link removed. I'd like to try all four configurations which is rear hard/soft and front active/inactive. My car currently has less roll than when it was low with coilovers and both bars. It now rides very well, handling is superb and natural, and if I told you it had a big front bar you would believe me. If you can't tell the difference from the driver's seat then what is the point?