Nice Barry! Its interesting how you went to calculate your optimal rebound settings, I just went full firm in the rear and full firm minus 3/4 of a turn in the front on my ng900.

One things for sure, all your suspension stuff will transform the car completely.

 

ya i still havent put mine in. im riding on stock shocks in the rear and intrax springs. im waiting till i get my sways so i can just hack apart the reat because it is so frozen up

 

Hey! Nice and shiny parts!

This is a great setup imho and is what I run. You will be able to throw the car around nicely... but still go on long trips.

So - here's what I learned from my setup:
1) I set the rears to 1.5turns from soft. From new this is VERY harsh but after 10k miles it improved a lot. I would not recommend as much as 1.5 though if you are trying to get a nice damping match with the springs. Between 1 and 1.25 would be more than plenty. If, in 6months time, you are not happy, then wind up to 1.5

2) Fronts: About 1 turn seems plenty (again there is a bit of a bed in period). Most of the ride quality is controlled here. If you wind them up too hard, you loose traction too. Too soft and it gets crashy so, given it's a quick turn, you can tinker with these for a while.

3) My Abbott springs took a while to settle out - the rears were good from day 1 but the fronts were a little high. After a month or so they were fine.

4) You can fine tune the big front SAS bar by the amount of compression you apply to the drop link via the nut. Dont' do this too tight at all - it stops the ride getting too nasty and still holds flat in the turns.

5) Go round the whole car and make sure all the subframe and suspension bolts are tight. And obviously replace any other worn bushes with fresh stuff.

Keep us posted!

 

Hey! Nice and shiny parts!

This is a great setup imho and is what I run. You will be able to throw the car around nicely... but still go on long trips.

So - here's what I learned from my setup:
1) I set the rears to 1.5turns from soft. From new this is VERY harsh but after 10k miles it improved a lot. I would not recommend as much as 1.5 though if you are trying to get a nice damping match with the springs. Between 1 and 1.25 would be more than plenty. If, in 6months time, you are not happy, then wind up to 1.5

2) Fronts: About 1 turn seems plenty (again there is a bit of a bed in period). Most of the ride quality is controlled here. If you wind them up too hard, you loose traction too. Too soft and it gets crashy so, given it's a quick turn, you can tinker with these for a while.

3) My Abbott springs took a while to settle out - the rears were good from day 1 but the fronts were a little high. After a month or so they were fine.

4) You can fine tune the big front SAS bar by the amount of compression you apply to the drop link via the nut. Dont' do this too tight at all - it stops the ride getting too nasty and still holds flat in the turns.

5) Go round the whole car and make sure all the subframe and suspension bolts are tight. And obviously replace any other worn bushes with fresh stuff.

Keep us posted!

I'm getting a set of camber bolts for the front. Did you adjust the camber after installing the abbotts? Any idea what what's the most resonable camber setting for cornering performance but not wear the tires out unevenly?

 

I messed around with my rear shocks a bit after I broke them in. I found that 1.5 turns from the softest setting was just a little to stiff for my liking. The car handled quite nicely but bumped around too much for the roads here. I ended up settling for 1 and 3/8 turns from softest. The 1/8th turn back was just enough to smooth the ride out back to acceptable levels. I have the fronts set at either 1 or 1 and 1/8th turn from softest. I've been messing with the fronts more since they're easy to adjust. I'm using Kilen springs, so my numbers might not correlate to yours.
Your findings of the two rears not being even is interesting since I was wondering about the consistency of the shocks. I'll have to check mine next time I feel like playing around with things.

 

Adjustments

I would leave the front sway bar stock and just use the rearbar, but make sure you have the reinforcing parts that go in the mounting area's and even strenghten that area if you can. I also suggest doubling up on the drop links on the rear bar, you will bend them eventually with a 1" bar.
The suggestions on the koni settings are pretty much on target. Don't go full hard on new koni's Keep the back a little to the soft side and you can play the fronts as you wish.

 

I also suggest doubling up on the drop links on the rear bar, you will bend them eventually with a 1" bar.

I was thinking about grinding off the circular channels on the SAS rear bars and installing these:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ENS-9-5161G/?image=large

I haven't seen any rear sway bars where the bushings are captive like that. I think the rear bushings need to have a little lateral give otherwise the drop links will get mangled. I would think the only force that the drop links should experience are downward force. Why then the need for grease on the rear bushings?

 

The axle moves sideways controlled by the panhard rod. This is why the drop links at the rear have to allow sidwards flex.

 

Ah! I've been trying to figure out what lowering springs we got in the junkyard off a 9000, theyre green just like your abbott springs, I guess that solves the mystery. Now I just need a 9000 to install them into :lol:

Paul

 

Now I just need a 9000 to install them into :lol:

Paul

I volunteer.

 

So I've been driving around with this setup for about a 1k miles. I thought the front would be a lot lower looking at the spring height difference between the AERO springs and the Abbotts. But I really don't notice much of a difference in ride height. The rear isn't as harsh as people have "scared" me into thinking. For the rear's I didn't just turn it x number of turns each, but timed the rebound to give both shocks even rebound time and I think it makes a differnce in feel. I'm still hoping the setup will setting into a more plush BMW like ride

My main issue is I hear alot of thumpping while I'm at low speed not accelerating going over bumpy roads. My guess is that I didn't torque the shock nut tight enough? We'll I didn't torque it at all as I used a 2nd nut to keep the lower nut from coming off (like the rear shock nuts). I didn't replace the strut bearings as I didn't see anything obviously wrong with them and I'm not sure how they would get worn out. Am I screwing up my strut bearings by having a loose shock nut?

 

Am I screwing up my strut bearings by having a loose shock nut?

YES..

the unthreaded surface of the rod will smash into the bearing casing and destroy it.. your scaring me to death especially after the comment about removing the strut nuts while still installed! hahaha.. hit that sum'bitch with an impact asap!