rear coil-overs
 

Now that I may need to eliminate my torsion bars for my 915 install, I may be in the market for rear coilovers. Who makes 'em? Preferrably in North America. I checked out KAW....... just too far to ship ($$$$). I'm looking for ride height adjustability and a stiffer spring. I'll consider using Porsche parts too. Maybe there's a swap from a 944 or something. I'm going to research custom builds too. Any help is greatly appreciated. THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

Ask Oliver in his forum.

He should be able to get them for you from Remmele.
Do not forget that you save 16%. All German prices included taxes you do not have to pay and shipping is not that bad.

Alex

Cool! Thanks Alex!!

Summit, Jegs and Speedway all sell coil overs here in the U.S. Speedway has the best selection, including racing valving and adjustability or just the simple coil overs used on streetrods.

I like the idea of supporting the businesses that support and frequent our forums but I also believe in looking at all options.

ken

you have to make sure that the spring rates will match with the car. With a bug that is kind of hard. Can not use 944 stuff since it does not have that much weight in the front.

You are right to look at all the options but make sure it will work before you buy.

Alex

http://www.eagleperformance.com/NewF...l-overKit.html
if going coilover rear you might need these
kit

Oh well that didn't work
try this link
http://www.eagleperformance.com/NewF...l-overKit.html
kit

Using Coil Overs On The Rear End.
 

right i am considering using coil over units which are hieght and dampening adjustable. i will remove the torsion bars and as i am using 944 spring plate and torsion bar end caps which are wider than vw units i think there will be enough support for the spring plate/ trailing arm. the question is how long do the coil overs need to be on full length and what spring pound rate should i use, the car is running a t4, type1 gearbox, no interior apart from front seats. any help would be good then i can order the units.

Gutters
 

I was told in a n e-mail by a company I'm researching to measure between the mounts. AVO is the company. I noticed Ricola is using these on his speedster. They have some really cool products. Spring rates I'm still researching also. I'm not sure if you just match the rate with the torsion bar rate or what. I'll keep you posted.

wow i didn't even know ther was a conversion kit for this. thanks guy. i know you cant use the torsion bar spring rates because the leverage ratios would be way differnt from the coil over where it is set further up on the trailing arm where as the torsion bar is at the pivot of the trailing arm. thanks again guys.

I don't understand why you would need the conversion kit. Why can't you just remove the torsion bars? It seems to me that the spring plates (without the torsion bars installed) are sufficently supported and with aftermarket bushings the setup would be as good are better than the convsersion kit. Am I missing something here?

Also, you'd think that there would be someone out there that has converted to coil-overs who could give us a report on how well they worked and what spring rates worked best. I'm converting the front of my Speedster replica to coil-over and may do the same to the rear.

http://www.ricola.co.uk/left_susp_complete2.JPG
Here's mine!
I used AVOs which are 10" compressed, 15" extended length, from memory. Springs are 300lb, mainly due to the extra weight and power of the Impreza turbo engine. With softer springs the rear squatted way too much!
There is a site somewhere on the web which has a table with a direct corrolation between torsion bar diameter and spring rate at the coil-over...

Hope this helps!

Rich

Thanks Rich!! What diameter spring are you using? If I remember correctly, you went with the DA-2000 20+ point adjustables right? Nice shock. These are one of my candidates. What did you use for the spring plate/ torsion bar cap? Thanks again!!

Though I wasn't looking for them, both the Koni and Bilstein sites had coil over shocks. Look under the hot rod headings. They had different length shocks and different springs so you could get together a combination you could use. The stock car sites have lots of infor on springs and spring rates as most of them sell the parts.
I hope you are going to save the trailing arms and flex plates it would make things easier. A buggy with a mid engine uses custom arms which might be affordable.

Forgot about the spring diameter! You have to used the 1.9" springs, the 2.25" won't fit. You will have to space the top mount out slightly and use spacers at the lower bush to centraliswe the damper in the trailing arm bracket.
I'm sure Koni/Bilstein would have what you want but at a price! The big advantage with the AVOs is that almost all of the damper body is threaded for spring seat adjustment (I have 6" of adjustment!) so when you are startign from an unknown you will be able to get to where you want with less experimentation with spring lengths/rates...

Rich
PS The only problem with the rear suspension I have is that I have an early pan converted to IRS so the shock towers are thicker and on really bad bumps the trailing arm can hit the tower. The plan is to pocket the trailing arms, I don't want to clearance the shock towers as I have heard of these braking if you do!