Official: Stance Coilover Thread

Figure 2-3 hours labor to install, and additional time to get height adjusted accordingly, plus an alignment.

Also, to answer Robot's question from the 14th... I've been in contact with an SPC dealer to get the correct components to build the upper arms (minus a ball joint and bushings) and have sent a pair of stock arms out to them.

I am currently working on sorting out what ball joint to use, and where to get the Delrin bushings milled.

The adjustable upper arms should give you several degrees of adjustment to both caster and camber.
 
Figure 2-3 hours labor to install, and additional time to get height adjusted accordingly, plus an alignment.

Also, to answer Robot's question from the 14th... I've been in contact with an SPC dealer to get the correct components to build the upper arms (minus a ball joint and bushings) and have sent a pair of stock arms out to them.

I am currently working on sorting out what ball joint to use, and where to get the Delrin bushings milled.

The adjustable upper arms should give you several degrees of adjustment to both caster and camber.

Look at the following for Urethane bushings:

PolyBush
Powerflex (USA) they don't list them, but can get them

Or you want to get close to stock bushings: look up Silent Blocks

If you find a place that can make and sell them for less money, let me know.
They are pretty pricey in my opinion from the UK companies.

I am interest in what you may find out for upper front and upper rear ball
joint.

I have a complete set of upper and lower rear control arms with the bushings removed, waiting for me to purchase new ones. I haven't researched the upper ball joints.

I am interested in what SPC comes up with. I have been thinking about building up upper control arms using their parts. Mainly due to not finding any available ball joints for the Upper Control Arms.
 
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I'm not down playing my mechanic but if I got these, I was thinking about getting them installed at an actual suspension shop.

If you are looking for suspensions shops to setup coil-overs then here are some things to ask or listen for:
1) Can they do a full alignment or do they have a shop they will get it done at
2) Can they do a 4-corner balance or at least know what it is
3) Can they check and set the ride height (not wheel-fender gap!)

If the answer isn't yes to all of the above then move on. Suspension is a tricky beast if it's done wrong and I'd like to have confidence in the place.

For the record you don't need a 4-corner balance but a reputable suspension shop SHOULD be able to do it. Basically what they are trying to do is balance the weight on all 4 tires, with you sitting in the passenger seat, so that the tires are equally balanced. You should not have to explain this to them. It should be a more or less yes or no answer.

Ride Height is also checked by measuring the distance from the point where the sprung and un-sprung weight meet to the ground. This is typically the outermost bolt on the lower control arms. You can also cheat and use some other reference point like frame rails, etc. I don't care for using fender lips as they can be off compared to the actual chassis frame.

The place I found near me quoted be $750 to do the full setup. This included installation, setting ride-height, alignment, and 4-corner balance. I could also install them myself and then just have them do the rest. About half the cost was installation and setting ride-height.

If you want to install them yourself you can get somewhat close by just measuring the over all length of the shocks and setting them the same. You also want to set the spring pre-load to the same on all shocks to start. To set the spring pre-load you would back the lock nut off till the spring is free, then tighten it down so it is just barely snug. You can add pre-load, which is the force applied to the spring outside of the cars weight, by turning the collar and tightening the spring. You will want to count the turns you put on each shock as they should be the same from left to right. You will want to start with 0 pre-load which means the locking collar is just tight enough to hold the spring in place without it being loose or wobbling. You will want to set the pre-load on the spring so that about 1/3 of the shocks travel (about 1.25") is pushed in when the car is sitting idle on a level surface. You do this by adding turns to the spring collar making it compress the spring. You should never remove turns from the collar as that would allow the spring to float during extreme suspension maneuvers. If you need to subtract turns then you need lighter-weight springs.

You'd start with the shocks the same length, then adjust the pre-load so that the shock is compressed 1/3 of their travel, then you would go back and adjust the lower half of the shock to set ride-height, then double check the pre-load again (or do the 4-corner balance if you have scales). After that it's off for an alignment. You should also add a slight rake from front to back. The back shocks would want to be one-turn longer (the lower half, not the spring) then the front. This is because the wind pressure going over the windshield and cabin area will push down on the car and flatten it out behind the front wheel (like a fulcrum). If the car is flat to begin with then you can end up with the back riding lower at speed then the front which creates an air pocket under the car, lifting it, and reducing down force and traction. By having the back slightly higher then the front you can increase the down force some while making sure that when the car flattens out you aren't catching and unnecessary air under it and losing traction. Your front shocks should also be set stiffer then the rears.

Here is one hell of a read if you REALLY want to know all about setting up a car: http://www.racelinecentral.com/RacingSetupGuide.html

Granted they are talking about nascar chassis and rules, but its all the same working theory.
 
Figure 2-3 hours labor to install, and additional time to get height adjusted accordingly, plus an alignment.

Also, to answer Robot's question from the 14th... I've been in contact with an SPC dealer to get the correct components to build the upper arms (minus a ball joint and bushings) and have sent a pair of stock arms out to them.

I am currently working on sorting out what ball joint to use, and where to get the Delrin bushings milled.

The adjustable upper arms should give you several degrees of adjustment to both caster and camber.

That is awesome!! And works out well. I have decided to go with air ride on my S-type because mine is the 2003.5. From my reasurch the only thing that change on the STR is the lower control arm in the front. So your front upper should workfor me. I am currently working on designing a lower rear control arm that is adjustable. From the looks of things it should fit the LS.
 
hello everyone newbie here, been having the same issue as others concerning camber. Pretty much read this entire thread and just thought i'd throw this site out, hoping maybe if a nuff of us contact we can finally resolve the long quest for a solution.http://michiganmetalworks.com/
 
Just to follow up with my own Stance upgrade, they are great. Didn't drop it down to where I really wanted it but have about 5mm drop once we got the car squared up. I am guessing there might be another 1mm of settling since they were new. Probably have them lowered another 15-20mm to end up where I want (3/4-1" drop). They really do give the car a nice tight feel on the road without being extremely harsh, was quite surprised about that. All extra body roll is pretty much eliminated as well as the rocking-chair and floating effect. Haven't really cranked the dampening way up as it feels really good on the lowest setting for street use. Whenever I head out to an auto-cross I will try playing with it. See just how different it is going to react under extreme loads.

On a side note, you will definitely feel a difference in the tires with these things. 35-PSI vs 45-PSI makes the car really feel different. I will probably end up running around 42 front and 40 rear like with the stock shocks. That way I get a little insulation from the road but still a good feel. Always add more PSI at the track :)

Also, cut a small hole in the rear carpet covers so that you can adjust the rears without pulling them out. Otherwise it's a PITA to get to. I didn't have front shock tower covers but it looks like the adjustment knob would be at the same level as the plastic on the cover. Probably best to leave the knob off and just use a socket or hex driver to adjust them. All little finish things that make life easier :)
 
hello everyone newbie here, been having the same issue as others concerning camber. Pretty much read this entire thread and just thought i'd throw this site out, hoping maybe if a nuff of us contact we can finally resolve the long quest for a solution.http://michiganmetalworks.com/

Just ask for a quote for 5 sets. If I have time, I'll get some quotes here. Wedding is 2 months away and after then, the car gets 100% of my attention.
 
Well received info on making adjustable upper arms, Taylor said would run anywhere between $500-$600 per pair. Now need to see how the upper factory arm looks. I'll give him a call and do a round about check on how long it would take.
 
I probably won't be getting into the uppers since I am not dropping that much. I shouldn't have too much of an issue holding alignment at 1" of drop or less. Still interested to see where they end up. If they are reasonable then I might get a set just for the bragging rights.
 
I've purchased parts from Specialty Products company for my S-type to put together my own upper rear and/or front fully adjustable control arms. Parts cost for a pair is under $300. Don't know why anyone needs to have custom ones fabricated when you can use existing off the shelf parts. I'll eventually post images when I assembly them.
 
I've purchased parts from Specialty Products company for my S-type to put together my own upper rear and/or front fully adjustable control arms. Parts cost for a pair is under $300. Don't know why anyone needs to have custom ones fabricated when you can use existing off the shelf parts. I'll eventually post images when I assembly them.

Very interested in more details on this.

I sent out some OEM upper arms to Savitske Classic and Custom as their owner Mark used to work for SPC and has enough pull to order the modular SPC parts to make upper arms without needing to buy in major quantities (What SPC told me. They wanted a min of 100 orders per arm). This was all fine and dandy until he said we would have to source a ball joint, which is where the process snagged. We haven't been able to find a manufacturer who can source it by itself. Where did you find yours from?
 
Very interested in this as well. I don't have the coilovers yet, but planning on getting them.
 
Very interested in more details on this.

I sent out some OEM upper arms to Savitske Classic and Custom as their owner Mark used to work for SPC and has enough pull to order the modular SPC parts to make upper arms without needing to buy in major quantities (What SPC told me. They wanted a min of 100 orders per arm). This was all fine and dandy until he said we would have to source a ball joint, which is where the process snagged. We haven't been able to find a manufacturer who can source it by itself. Where did you find yours from?

I was planning on using the Chrysler style threaded ball joint mounts, with a Chrysler threaded upper mono ball mount. Then you select a ball stud that fits into the monoball mount. Normally you have to pick the right taper. The LS upper control arm uses a funky straight thread with a shallow countersink on the top. I found a metric Asian car version I though would work, but never followed through since I changed my design approach. My back-up plan was to use a ball joint taper reamer and open up the knuckle to fit a standard ball stud. Second back-up was I found a company that makes custom ball studs. (Either of these approaches isn't good for selling an upgrade kit to the masses. It has been several months since I figured this out, so I'll have to take a look at my notes and see if I can post the company's name for the custom ball rod. If those horrible press in ball joints were available, you could have an outer control arm mount machined that would let one press in the stock ball joint.

Note: For Reference, you can look at all the adjustable ball studs listed in the Allstar web site.
 
I figure I should explain a bit more about my suspension changes, but don't want to post to far off topic "Stance Coil-overs".
I gave up on modifying the stock suspension and am redesigning the suspension to use Corvette C6 spindles. Therefore a lot of what I am doing to my rear suspension isn't applicable to this thread. When It all comes together, I'll post what I have done in a new thread in case others want to follow suit. (Probably 6 months at the rate I am putting parts onto a rear sub-frame)
 
SHOOOOOT! I was trying to be the next to buy in case they weren't making anymore
 
Well, my next shocks will not be oem but adjustable coilovers. It's either the 1k stances or the 3k KW's, stance group buy anyone?
 
Guys, to ruin any sort of surprise. I purchased their last set and they'll be here next week.

Group buy is the only way they will build anymore. These are cheaper than OEM shocks and Eibachs, more functional, and longevity is endless with maintenance (rebuilds).
 
How is ~$1100 for the Stance cheaper than ~$550 for the stock shocks and Eibachs?

- Good luck finding the rears. If you do, they run almost ~$200/ea
- Around ~$150/ea for the fronts
- Additional ~$300 for Eibachs
 
OEM sport shocks are a rarity and as M4rk pointed out the rears are priced accordingly. I mentioned it on here before that collectively, the price of each component of the OEM coilover assy is more than the entire assy offered from Stance.

A little misleading but yes, straight Eibach and shock replacement may be a little less, but not by much. Now if you went KYB shocks, then you're considerably less and then that might be the option for ya. I know it's different person to person, but I'll put a price on ease of install, not adjustment, just install.
 

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