Howard,

How many miles on the roadster so far?

Thanks,

 

John, didn't you get Koni's for yours? what model did you get? What is the ruling on a sport model? Looking to replace but don't have the change jingling for adjustables.

 

74,000 On my Roadster John The ball joints , on my car are fine but since its going to be down I thought might as well do them too ,

Cost for the rebuild including upper control arms installed when springs where cut 1400.00 life in the fast lane is dang high

Koni Sports
Kmac Bushings
upper control arms
lower ball joints
steering stabilizer/damper

 

Progress so far ,



waiting on rear shocks , then it's on to the front bushings..

 

I have the K-Mac on the rear and all four collision bolts on the front with Voughtland springs and koni shocks. a couple of things I found. Getting the old bushings out was almost impossible. The took the K-Mac comes with could not remove them. I ended up using a press to remove the inner steel bushing and the rubber. I then had to notch the out steel sleeve with a saws all to get them out. I hope you don't have this problem on the front. another issue I had was that I didn't have my stock shocks to reuse the dust covers. I called Koni and they said there was no need for them. Installing them without sleeves revealed that on the front, I was almost on the bump stop, I cut about 60% off the fron bump stops and about the same on the rear. An yes I had the Koni's for a lowered car. My car rides great, and handles even better. the alignment shop was able to dial in the rear perfect and the front was right on the money as well. Since doing the work, I have replaced my tires. All four tires wore out pefectly even. I now an running BFG KD's in 235 40 18 front and 275 40 18 rear. I was running 265 40 18 in the rear up until a couple of days ago.

 

Lantana
thanks for the heads up ....the front shocks where easy , i didn't cut the bumps on the front i have never noticed it hitting even since lowering the car .however the rear hits hard sometimes and will have to be cut ,i have everything apart waiting for rear shocks and they will be here Monday, after that the car goes to my alignment guy and he will do the install on the kmacs ,, i have delt with bushings before and ,i just dont have a press , or the right tools for the job,, i had wondered about the bushing removal sleeves k-mac supplied with the kit . maybe they will work and maybe not. the shop i use does bushings all the time and has installed adjustable's also . he is familiar with my car ,he did the spring work and lowering for me..
i am however trying to decide what tire size to go with as my tires are wore out..
i have 275-35-19 rear and 225-40-18 front .

 

When the parts come in and you get them installed please keep this thread updated. I've debated getting the K'Mac's for the front for years. I need to know everything!

Les

 

I have all the parts now ,shocks are installed , and it goes to my alignment guy 1st week of jan. to install the k-macks , i'll have him take some pictures if possible , and a copy of the alignment sheet .

 

I have the K-MAC on the rear and really like them. One advantage is replacing the rubber bushings with polyurathane. They have a very good adjustment range and lock down very securely and won't go our of adjustment when tightened. The only down side is getting the stock bushings out. don't count on the M-MAC tool that comes with the kit to have any effect on getting the stock bushings out.

 

FWIW, I plan on running 245/35/18 up front and 285/30/19 in the rear on my SRT... within .2" both front and rear of factory OD...

The 225's, on the 8.5" wide Mandrus wheels, look too stretched to me. When I swap out the SRT wheels for the Wilhelms from my last car, I'll need some wider rubber.

The only thing to be careful of is tire load ratings... in order to fit wider tires, you must decrease the aspect ratio or you'll run into interference with the upper control arm bolt.

By going to a 35 series front on an 18" wheel, most of those tires are SL load rated, and our factory tires are XL.

The only (affordable) tires I've found that are available in the 245/35 size with XL rating are the Hankook Ventus V12... These are also available in 285/30/19

I will likely keep the SRT wheels and run the R-compound Hankooks on those for track days... still on the fence about that, b/c if I install the bigger brakes I have stashed away, the OEM SRT won't fit w/o spacers.

 

Update ...The K-macs and lower,ball joints and steering stabilizer , will be installed tomorrow and car aligned ( I will post the sheets before and after numbers ) I also purchased new rubber front and rear ,,Kumho's SPT'S , 275/35/19 rear and 225/40/18 front they get pretty good reviews so I thought I would try a set and see how it goes (The Hancooks are slicker than snot on a door ****).... ,,Tires get installed on Saturday morning . and if the weather permits I'm going over on the Snake(US 421 Bristol to Mountian City Tn.) and see how good the car handles after this major cost upgrade. ,. I'm really looking forward to our spring trip to the big D. and a Saluda trip in Feb with Jim (bigkid) ...... ZOOM ZOOM

 

Howard, I have been running the Kumho's for a couple of years and like them a lot... when they are warm they grab great.... not so great when cold... I just dont push them in the winter cold... I used them at the drags when I first started and they worked very good... 1.7 second 60'.... but will spin like crazy if not heated up....

 

Thanks Mike glad to know someone on the forum has experenced these tires Korean Tire makers are coming to the front here lately with some great products...

 

Watching closely. My front is -2.5 even with the collision repair bolts installed and my tires are wearing unevenly...

 

John I dont think that there are a lot of cars out there that have been lowered and the bolts actually did any good they may get a little closer but not where they should actually be ... When I first dropped mine and did the bolts my front end guy told me straight up that without a good 2.5 or 3.0 degree I would not get in spec and I dropped 2 inches for sure and after settling a little more i'm around 2 1/4 down.,and it has taken its toll on my front tires . ,I showed him the K-macs and he said that will get the result we need ,and no more tire wear from camber ,, so i'm excited to finally get this completed .. the cost is excessive IMO .But so are tires at 150.00 to 200.00 a pop..

 

I agree 100% Howard, but being right around the same height as you, what is really irking me is that one side is wearing perfectly and camber is right around spec (-1.6 I believe) and the other is totally out of spec, and they have the same bolts in them, supposedly doing the same thing. After redoing those bolts 3-4 times and trying everything we could think of, I am beginning to think I will have to go the KMac route too, just hope your experience is pain free

Thanks for the info, keep us posted...

 

I just subscribed to this thread. keep up the inflo...

Max

 

You better subscribe, you will be needing these too (probably LOL).

Lowering the car is EASY, it is all the other crap you have to buy to bring it back into spec that REALLY hurts...

 

+1 on the hurts $$$

 

i have tyhe konis on my 32 the b&g springs and adj camber bars in a box and i just snagged a brand new set of kmacs for the front for 250$ guess i should install all this stuff!!