New suspension installed PSS10, GT3 LCA and H&R sway bars

I spent the 3 nights under my car (minus kids soccer activities and a couple of drinking sessions) putting in the PSS10's, GT3 lower control arms on the front and front and rear H&R sway bars. Last night after thinking all was done, I took the car for a ride and was spotted by a fellow rennlister on the freeway. Loose washer on the front right suspension meant a quick uninstall and re-install. It's amazing how quickly you can do that once you know what needs to be done. Car went for an alignment and corner balance this morning and I can say it's one sweet ride to drive now, firm and true. All ready for the track this weekend. Big thanks and shout out to the guys that sold me the parts, all good sales, parts as expected and even some better than expected with extra bits in the packages. Thanks for the response to emails over the weekend also. Parts : H&R Sway bars - Cheers Darren GT3 lower control Arms - Thanks Adam (atr911) PSS10's - Thanks Kurt(X51) Support: Mglobe : tools especially the ball joint separator. JP: spring compressors See you guys this weekend for the return of the tools. Most important of all, my (83) 911 SC convertible for picking up the daily drive duties with no issues. Sean

are the gt3 lower control arms required ? or they are for additional tweaking ? did you do the work yourself alone ? some say it is hard to remove the old suspension without help. what is the use for the ball joint separator ? luxury or necessity I am looking to do this mod but I have not foudn a good DIY that make me confident doing it so far. phil.

Glad you got it all working Sean. You're going to love the new setup on the track. ...and then you will decide to build a race car. Phil, while having an extra set of hands helps for a few things, putting in coilovers, sway bars, control arms,... is a very doable one man job.

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The GT3 LCA's were to get added camber on the fronts. I did all the work alone but had a couple of friends on emergency dial if needed. The ball joint separator is for 2 ball joints on the front, one being the LCA currently in the car to the wheel assembly and the other being the toe arm. I was going to do a DIY but thought there was enough of them out there but I must say it was a learning experience. But once you have tools and the knowledge of how easy it is then it's all good. The first couple of times its a learning experience. So to give you an idea the front suspension right side, I hadn't tightened the shock enough before I put it in , so a washer was loose. I got pissed off and took the whole thing to bits again and rebuilt it. I would say 30 mins now I got it down a treat. Front Suspension removal Jack Car, Put on Stands (should be able to put the entire front on stands after jacking up one side) Remove wheel Open Hood (i'm scottish can't call it a trunk yet) Put the jack under the lower control arm and just support the weight Loosen the nuts at the top holding in the shock strut (just the 3 15mm nuts) Don't take them completely off yet. Let the Jack down slightly so there's a gap you can see between the strut housing and the nuts. Now tie a piece of rope to the inside spare wheel bolt, and thread the other one through the large hole where the large nut is showing at the top of the strut. Thread this rope down to the caliper, thread it through the caliper and rotor at the top and then out the inside middle of the caliper and tie it back to the main part of the rope at the top of the caliper. Give this a tiny bit of slack but not much. Put the jack back under the LCA and take up the wieight Take the 19m socket and wrench ( i used an air gun) and remove the top of the drop link attached to the back of the strut, this is attached downwards to the sway bar. Remove the bolt and nut completely this is what locks the strut to the wheel assembly. Take the 19m socket and ( i used an air gun) take of the nut on the Toe Arm With the ball joint separator take off the TOE Arm, the one that joins the chasis to the front of the wheel assembly. The threaded part of the Toe arm can now be pushed out and down. The wheel assembly and shock will rotate at this point. Take the three nuts completely off the top of the strut. With the jack lower the LCA while holding the top of the strut and push down also. Once the strut bolts are clear, stick a cloth over the top just incase you lose your grip or something strange happens. Continue to lower the LCA on the jack and you can pull the strut to the front of the car and out from the arch. Once clear lock the jack in position. You should now be able to wiggle the shock out of it's housing, there's a rubber tube attached to it just where the bolt you removed, push that out of it's housing. Put the new coilover in after reusing some of the original parts as described with whichever coilovers you get. So at this point you can put the new strut in and re-assemble. First thing push the strut back into the arch and then swing it into place, use the jack to lift enough for the three bolts to penetrate their housings, they only go in one way so you have to twist until you got it right. Attach nuts at the top. Don't tighten completley just enough to hold in place. Remove the rope from the caliper and thread it back into the front compartment. You'll need it again for the other side. At this point you've replaced the shock. The shock can still rotate, if you want to swap the LCA with GT3 LCA, this is the time. I think it's a 19mm bolt again, undo it where it joins the bottom of the strut ot the LCA, again you'll need the bolt separator to remove it. Get ready for a very loud bang. You'll might need a breaker bar to get the nuts off where the LCA joins the chassis , I did. It's a bit tight in there but the bolt threads out completely. Install the new GT3 LCA at the chasis and then attach to the wheel assembly again. This time you'll need a torque bit (you know these special screws porsche likes to use). You'll see the part where it goes at the top of the Ball joint screw. Put the nut on the bolt and thread it as much as you can. Push the bottom of the GT3 LCA ball joint into it's housing, I gave it a tap with a hammer just to give it a little friendly push. Put the bolt back on the screw and 19mm wrench, put the torque bit in the top and use something to hold it tight. use the 19mm screw to tighten the bolt completely . Swing the wheel assembly forward and do the same thing for re-attaching the TOE arm ball joint screw into the housing and you're done. Re-attach the bolt from the drop link. 2 wrenches and tighten it as hard as you can. You might have to use the jack to raise the assembly up again for the drop link to fit through the hole properly. Put the wheel back on, and go do the other side, once you have done that and put the wheel back on ;-), then lower the car slowly let the struts settle and then tighten the 3 nuts on top holding them in. Done. First time I did this was trial and error and took me about 1hr to 1.5 hrs per side. Then when I found that washer issue i did it while the wife was cooking dinner. The rear is easier , though I had an issue with one bolt that about killed me. But he other side poped out in seconds and all was good in the world again. No ball joints to worry about there. Sway bars are probably the easiest you'll do, the front however requires the front aero under the car removed, thats the only real pain in the *** on it. Bunch of bolts, some retaining straps held on with more bolts, remove the drop links as done previously and drop out and re-assemble. If you or anyone needs a full DIY, I'd gladly do one up and post it. This was the first time in 11 years that I've actually worked on a car since leaving Scotland, left all my tools there and had lease cars or took the car to the indie's for repairs. I'm kind of happy that I saved myself some $$ but more importantly I've started to work on the car again. Invest in an air gun, I got a Air impact wrench and a standard air wrench from Sears for under $70 as a kit. Also bought a new track jack (lightweight aluminum) from harbour freight ($89) and two sets of wrenchs (spanners for the brits out there) (20 pieces in each set, small to 25mm) both metric and imperial $19 bucks each, god love America for those prices. Extra pair of axle stands ($15) . Cheers Sean

pretty cool DIY summary Sean, thanks. Can you explain the need for the GT3 Lower Control Arms ? required or better adjustment for the track ?

Yeah no worries, the camber you can get with stock arms is -.5. The stock arm is a solid piece. The GT3 arm is two piece kit, one side the bushing and the other the part that attaches to the wheel housing. In between them you put the shims to push out the camber, which allows more of the tire to be in contact with the track while cornering and under load. Most importantly it means the tires should have a more even temperature across the width of the tire and the tire should wear more even. Here's a link to the Tarett GT3 LCA http://www.tarett.com/items/996-997-...kit-detail.htm

Sean, I didn't see the following steps that are obviously missing from your DIY install... - curse at the Friggin stuck pin that won't release the shock - retrieve cold beverage from fridge while formulating plan... - return to garage for larger hammer to bang the crap out of it - jack car up slightly- bang crap out of it - lower car slightly- bang crap out of it - return to fridge... - stop to text frustrations to fellow enthusiasts - curse more.. - return to fridge... - retire for the night to return next day with larger hammer/prybar Sounds like it went so smoothly... Oh, sorry, I see you were talking about the front, not the rear! Where's the pics of the new lower stance? I have to settle for a driveby on the highway?

And we need to get the "classics" out for a run... haven't seen your '83 cab, and it gives me an excuse to get my 928 finished up!

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Well after I did all that I took the dogs for a walk at midnight , beer in hand, and was stopped by the local constables who snuck up on me with their lights out in stealth mode.