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| Suspension Upgrade; Best Spring Choice | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 24 2016, 11:27 AM (586 Views) | |
| 3 Pot | Apr 24 2016, 11:27 AM Post #1 |
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3 Pot
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Hello all, I want to do the suspension on my 93 3/5 Base 2 door and want to lower it some to improve handling but I don't want a harsh ride, I've seen several previous posts about cutting springs or replacing with Vogtlands or H&R's and would value your input on what you did and if you like the results and or would have done something different. I plan on keeping this car for a long time. It is rust free, has a fairly nice interior and exterior. (I know pictures, pictures we want the pictures} It has about 280K on it now and is my daily driver. My plan is to do a full rebuild on engine, trans, suspension, brakes, interior refresh with insulation and a few creature comfort upgrades but mostly keeping with the simplicity and originality of the car as designed. I need to do some of the suspension now as it is creaking and squeaking on the left front strut,the control arm is shot and the handling has recently noticeably deteriorated. I plan on ordering 4 KYB's and new front suspension parts and do the front now and rear later this year. So.. Any thoughts on what has worked for you?? Spring choices but also who makes a good Control Arm and steering linkage. One more thing. Does anyone know if the 1989 Swift GTI or the Firefly Turbo used different springs? Thanks in advance for your help. 3 Pot |
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| t3ragtop | Apr 24 2016, 11:56 AM Post #2 |
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Turbo3 and Twincam Tweaker
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while the gt springs are different from the firefly turbo, you can interchange them. i have been tuning the suspensions on these cars for 10+ years and my absolute favorite combination is the h&r sport springs with the kyb gr2 springs. first of all, you need to start replacing everything on these cars, as old as they are the rubber is either bad or not far from it. nothing tightens them up like replacing every bushing on the suspension with new polyurethane bushings. i prefer whiteline as a supplier but you can find replacement bushings from energy suspension as well as a few others. don't replace just the front struts alone. replace them all as a set, in one shot. don't forget to replace the upper strut mounts, too. replacing the control arm bushings is a bit of work and i just buy new control arms and replace the oem replacement bushings with the whiteline poly bushings ahead of time. on the rear suspension one of the 3 bushing sets is located in an ear on the rear knuckle which will have to be pressed out and the new bushing pressed in. be aware that the rear toe bar control links on these cars are woefully insufficient. they will not control rear toe in corners and the rear alignment wanders more the harder you corner. that creates a serious issue with steering and makes the car handle imprecisely. most geo owners won't and don't make the effort to really do much to enhance handling but i can tell you from experience that you can make a geo handle like an italian sports car. when you do that you'll find that it makes driving them a thrilling experience.
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7:30 PM Jul 10