I took the BLUE Pill. Engine bay painted

[quattro v1.0]

So today was just some small projects and mocking up the coil overs. The coil over nuts I ordered were the ones with 8 holes for tight clearance applications but they don't have a locking feature. They sell the teflon tipped locking screws separately so I bought some with hopes of drilling and tapping the coil nuts.

The coil over nut with nice tapered holes.


The teflon tipped allen screws, 1/4-20 thread.


Tapping the coil over nuts.


Locking screw installed, showing both sides. I cleaned up the inner threads and they work great.



Mockup of the front strut assembly.


Mockup of the rear assembly. I will break them down again since I have a couple of inches of bare metal that needs paint. I didn't have the clearance to paint first and then slide the threaded collar down over it.


If only the sharper eyes noticed, I decided to move the CompBrake top mounts to the rear since they make the process of R&R so much easier than with the conventional top mounts. I may want to play around with 10" springs or tweak the rear spring rates a bit at some point. I ordered another set of CompBrake top mounts for the front which will get swapped when I get motivated - or else when it's time to change front spring rates.

I have another day or so to decide on my front rates, my rears are 400's. My car has the stock UrQ bar in the front and the thicker bar of the FWD 4000 on the rear. My initial combo will likely be 375F / 400R. The next adjustment would be removing the front sway bar and noting any differences / improvements. After that I may drop down to the 350F / 400R combo and see how that feels - maybe reinstalling the front bar to tweak it in a bit.

In the mean time, Im open for thoughts on my combination of rates and also suggestions of how I should dial in the Koni Yellow's for these types of spring rates.

[Hank]

Looks good. I can go to bed now

[cuatrokoop]

Sean, I think mine were started at half-way. The rears got left alone since they are internally adjusted. The fronts, going from memory, were backed off (softened).

[quattro87]

Looks great Sean. I now really feel behind the eight-ball. They came out nice.

[quattro v1.0]

Well once again I made progress on your behalf, if you didn't have that set of threaded sleeves destined for your own car I'd be sitting here tapping my foot waiting on my replacements to arrive. Im feeling pretty comfortable with my timeline on the suspension, but there were a couple other projects I kinda want to complete before the event.

Remember you'll have some help over there if you want it this weekend.

[Hybrid_Hatch]

what is the ketchup for

[quattro v1.0]

Thats my trusty bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil. I like to use it when tapping things lol

[quattro v1.0]

Im probably spending too much time on the details of this coil-over conversion but I got this idea when I was breaking down my Lancia struts for that coil-over project. The stock Lancia suspension rode on teflon spring pads. I figured since coil-overs are normally kinda creaky I would consider this an attempt to quiet them.

I can't be the first to try this, but I haven't heard any discussion about it before. I ordered a couple square feet of 1/16" teflon sheet, then cut out the shape and hole to match the spring base.



Im hoping to get some interest / thoughts / opinions before I cut out another 8 to 16 of these by hand. I looked into getting some punches but wasn't ready to invest that much $$ yet.



Here it is with the spring in place.



If this does turn out to be a success I will probably get the die / punch made and offer up a run of them if there is enough interest...

[quattro87]

I don't know about the teflon rings, but the coilovers look great. I didn't realize that the springs were in blue to go with the Helios Urq. I guess when you get to a certain level color coordinating is important. :wink: I saw that the package was gone from off the bumper of the truck. I hope it was you!!

[quattro v1.0]

Yup, I stopped over last night - thanks for putting them out. I didn't pop in the house as I was on the phone with Sean the whole ride over there and back. His car is pretty close to running and I think he will turn the key this Thursday when he gets back in town. He is SO nervous about it. I told him its just a car, its not going to fall out of the sky like the stuff he works on every day lol

I got the strut nuts and will media blast them tonight and do the final assemby of the struts tonight. Sean mentioned that he found them new from somewhere, either the dealer or autohausaz. He has a couple spares if we ever need them as well.

Depending on the rates I decide on tonight I could have a real hodge podge of colors. I may go with the 350's in the front instead of the 375's after all.

[cuatrokoop]

Sean, I was contemplating a sealed radial/thrust bearing to help keep the springs quiet. Mine are really bad on the CQ, clang and boing in parking lots something awful. I had found some, I think from a T44, as well as some hopefuls on Motion Industries website (they have a drill-down parametric search).

[quattro v1.0]

Im just hoping that the bottom is where the creaking comes from. The fronts on the Red Pill are very quiet, however the rears are pretty janky. I think once I tear them down I can see wear pattern and then adapt something from there. In the mean time I will take a look at Motion Ind.

[Mcstiff]

Thrust sheets provide a variety of benefits to coilover systems. As a spring becomes compressed the coils attempt to distribute the energy by unwinding. This is called twisted force. The unwinding makes the spring rate irregular. By allowing the spring to smoothly rotate around the perch during compression, the spring rate will return to normal. Thrust sheets also help dampening and rebound of struts too. Thrust sheet’s bearing action allowing the rotation of a spring allow the load on the spring to be more evenly Distributed which reduces lateral shock shaft load. Increased lateral load on shock shafts cause a reduction in the struts ability to rely on valves for dampening force.

Thrust sheets works with all brand of coilover system & springs as long as inside diameter matches. Each kit comes with 4 composite rings and 4 stainless steel sheets that will cover 2 coilover springs.

http://www.swiftsprings.com/products-ot ... ducts.html

[quattro v1.0]

Well there ya go. Even if I was dreaming this up - someone else dreamed it up too. I'll see how it goes with my single 'resin' sheet and if it needs some help later I will revisit it.

As for tonight, no pics - sorry.

I got the strut assemblies completed, and if only for a matter of record, I used:

2Bennett 350's in the front / Konis 1.25 turns out
400's in the rear / Koni's 1 turn out

One thing I noticed about the 2Bennett springs is that they are 2.5" ID at the base but they get a little chubbier in the middle. In the process of putting the rear set together I noticed that there was / could be some contact between the spring and the nut that holds the strut insert in place. Very tight clearance once I got some preload on the springs. This in itself could be a source of the creaking as opposed to the bottom rings. I could see myself switching to 2Bennett springs all the way around if that were the case.

I got the front suspension hung and complete except for going around torquing everything. I wanted to do final torque on the control arms with wheels on and the car sitting on the ramps.

Next quality garage time will probably entail cleaning the rear diff and getting the old mount out and the delrin mount installed. I have a bunch of cleaning to the rear CV's and brake components. I think at some point a CV boot let loose and even though it was fixed - they didn't take 10 minutes to clean up the mess it made. After the cleaning it done, in goes the seam welded subframe with all new bushings and mounts. Im considering lifting the whole assembly - struts and all into the car at once. Anyone BTDT? Would u do it again?

On a side note, there has been some speak about getting some sway bar-to-control arm bushings (early style no-links) and I decided to measure my sway bars. I was told that I had the stock early UrQ bar in the front. On the rear I had the early FWD 4000 front bar. I saw the stock rear bar off 2 of the other local UrQ's and noticed how tiny they were, I know mine is upgraded.

The front bar measured 24mm and the rear was 21mm - does this sound right compared to what I mentioned above?

Martin if you read this- I suspect you would know?

[quattro87]

Good progress Sean. Sounds like you about have it whipped!! I'd be right there with you, except for that work thing.

[dbldmnd]

Those sway bar sizes sound right, 25mm front and 16mm rear were stock urq, early fwd was 21mm. It doesn't surprise me that your car has a larger bar installed in the rear.

The link you gave for the powerflex bushings shows a 21 mm ID which would work for your rear bar. Now you just need to find the replacement for the front bar.

[quattro v1.0]

Maybe I'll take that 25mm bar off the front and put it on the back and go have some REAL fun ;o)

My bushings are definitely useable, but I think it's time I start considering the options. They probably don't have too much time left on them

[speeding-g60]

too many pills, i getting confused LOL

[a_CQ]

Sean, try and put those front struts in well ahead of your drive out to the GTG. I am fairly certian that 400#, 10" length, A1 racing top perch and QRS mounts will provide a rancho ride...just make sure.

I ran 8" long 400 springs on my Coupe(albeit not UrQ but surely similar) and I was basically out of adjustment on the bottom...

I also used a 1/16 thick urethane sheet on my coilovers, top and bottom between the springs and perches, it helped keep them quite. Beauty of that was the material would never deform...that was one good suggestion from Mance E. I picked over the years.

[quattro v1.0]

Sounds good Peter, I think everything the first time around will get some sort of adjustments or swapping made. The 10" springs would be for the back (if I wanted to try that route) and in the case I went to 10's I would probably drop down to 375's - maybe lower.

I have both cars, but I havent compared the differences in the strut housings yet. If my memory serves me the rears on the UrQ have alot more useable room for adjustment. I placed my threaded collars very near the bottom of the strut tube for this reason. Again Im just speculating...

Hank and I chatted a bit about this a few nights ago as well. The one thing that kills me about coil-overs is that you limit your suspension to SO little travel. Im in a pickle, I don't like the sway of progressive rates, nor do I like that transitional time while the car sets into the higher rate portion of the spring.

Im looking forward to some fun sorting it all out though.

[quattro v1.0]

too many pills, i getting confused LOL

How do you think I feel, torn between staying in wonderland or seeing just how deep the rabbit hole goes lol

[speeding-g60]

hahaha....

FWIW, on mine (CQ) in the rear i used the full length of the sleeve...... i had to chop the fronts though.

[quattro v1.0]

OK, I need to take a breather. :frustrated:

This @#$%ing delrin rear diff mount... I know guys have had trouble with these in the past, and a few have gone so far as to turn them down on a lathe...

I tried two methods so far and this b*stard is not even thinking about going in. I froze and greased up the halves, used a threaded rod and large washers and couldn't get the halves to walk in without getting cocked. Then I went to the press, and pretty much the same thing. Im not looking to bust the hoop on my rear diff one week from the event.

Seriously, why is the tolerance SO tight on these things...

[speeding-g60]

and make sure you are putting it in correctly.

seems i remember someone asking which side the thicker flange went on. i checked mine and accidentally got it in the right way....

BFH time? have heard of the aluminum mount breaking from force, too.

which pill am i in now? are the rear mounts the same for Ur and CQ? LOL

[Wheeljack]

Don't force it. There are quite a few cases of breaking the aluminum mount.

I turned mine down so they were a couple thou over. I recall it being ten or twenty thou over as manufactured. Way too much interference for something that hard.