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DET17's "Project cheap thrills" - '92 944T

Finally the new aluminum lower control arms and the NOS 396mm stay "radius rods" are installed. While the OE Engineers got it right.... it's "tight" to say the least! With this longer radius rod, you can just barely get both bushings to align and bolt together. Each side assembled, now ready for the strut assemblies next:




And I mean, it is TIGHT. I had to pull this lever out of my bag of tricks to get the radius rod bushing to make up at the chassis steel receiver:



Last, I read the IPD stay poly kit instructions to make sure I wasn't overlooking something. Even though they don't specify it, I cleaned the faces of each poly bushing half, as well as the steel "washer" that registers against it, and lubricated this junction with teflon grease. You can easily see when the LCA articulates up & down, this poly bushing joint must also rotate around the stay radius rod. The teflon grease will just ease this motion. The centre bolt in the stay radius rod will be blue Loctited (242) when the sedan is back sitting on these new suspenders. Here you can see the steel concave washers on either side of the bushed poly joint:



Next - its time for the strut assemblies to rejoin the system, sans QSRCs. ;-)
 
What's the weight savings with the aluminum control arms? I've thought about getting a set.

You can do the math:



From my distant engineering memory, aluminium is around 1/3 the mass of steel.

One drawback to the new aluminum style LCAs, is the sway bar end link is the "thru stud" design, so when the LCA articulates the only way for the end link to follow is to bend/deform the poly bushings which I just installed. Perhaps with OEM Volvo rubber bushes, this isn't detectable, but with high density end link bushes, it almost certainly will be. Less lost motion for sure when new, but ultimately these bushes must "creep" and the lost motion will increase. I installed a set of ENERGY SUSPENSION red poly end link bushes, and it is quite stiff material.

Reminder - insert here the tensile strength of the M10 mild steel Volvo end links..... I know lots of enthusiasts install M12 or 7/16" (old school) thread end links, which should have a stupid high tensile strength. The Engineers in the audience know we are talking about the "plastic limit" of the connection..... once it goes plastic, you won't be able to disassemble without threaded joint destruction..... ultimate strength is higher, but irrelevant. Remember those old "stress/strain" graphs.... I sure do ;-)

What came off the original cast steel LCAs was a set of old school MVP spherical heim joint connections. ..... obviously articulation doesn't impact that side of the link. If I can't use those in my retirement 242 build, then they will end up in the Underground Swedish Garage Sale.
 
Front suspension reassembly - the final act

SO, yesterday I had a pretty good day for an old man.

Since the QSRCs are now moot, they have been removed and original ball joint to bottom of strut tube connection has been restored. I had to cut up the original dust shields to get the correctors to clear. Now back to OEM, I removed these cutdown shields and installed good old NOS Sweden shields. Some sweet looking pie plates, don't you think?



Since I'm an anal Engineer, the three fixing screws had to be red Loctited 271, so they never vibrate out while in service. Also of note, the tiny plated steel ABS speed sensor cable mount (on the back side of the shield) is not included with the new replacement shields, and you must drill out the aluminum rivet and re-attach to your new shields. I used a 5/32 diameter rivet with a 0.188~0.250 clamping range. From the hole in the shield/cable mount, it seems that even a larger diameter rivet body would fit..... but that was the largest one I had in the shop. It pulled up just fine, and the ABS speed "pulse tooth sensor" will be secured.

More to come......
 
Ground Hog Day progress

Looks like 6 more weeks of winter, per Punxsutawney Phil.... I guess they had to drag him out into the snow to confirm it.

Tonight was "torque it all to specs at ride height" night.

So the stay "radius" rod (it does swing a radius, true to the name) requires the rear bushing torqued to 88 +/- 22 lb.ft. ( I went with 100 even). Front conical stay bushing joining the stay radius rod to the new-to-me aluminium LCAs, torqued to 70 lb.ft (blue Loctite 242), and the inboard bushing on the LCA to front subframe, specs say 64 lb.ft., but I'll be damned if you can get a torque wrench on the locknuts due to rack & pinion proximity. I never torque the screw itself; frictional losses and you'll come up short on torque, so I utilized the box wrench x 2 using the DIN standard of "Gutentight".

Both sides, properly torqued and ready for service:




Special thanks to Roy who provided these nice OE sway end links, that I fitted with Energy Suspension red poly bushes. I normally torque these each end, until the "swell" matches the OD of the retention washer. Hopefully they are up to the task:



In a couple days, the old sedan comes out of the SUG and the 2nd road test will be made. Hopefully the strange noises coming from the top of the front coilovers is gone..... I hit those 24mm KONI nuts with the impact at the #2 setting, so hopefully they silence the metallic sounds I heard on the maiden voyage.
 
For reference sake,

At your current ride height, where are the rear spring perch adjusters in their adjustment range.
 
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At your current ride height, where are the rear spring perch adjusters in their adjustment range.

100% down, possible height. Surely the next step length spring would work.....

The top perch is adjusted solid against the chassis. The 9 even needs a slight sheet metal bend to get the perch fully UP against the body.
 
100% down, possible height. Surely the next step length spring would work.....

The top perch is adjusted solid against the chassis. The 9 even needs a slight sheet metal bend to get the perch fully UP against the body.

100% down means they are raising the car the maximum amount ? or does it mean they are not raising the car at all?
 
Man, so much work in the last few months, good luck with the sell! Have you considered walking away for a bit from the car? My yearly 3 month winter break with the car in storage does wonders for the motivation, especially this year with the lack of distractions due to lockdown
 
I also had a somewhat forced leave from my project and after a good 6 months I was able to slowly get back to it. At the beginning all the small and annoying things had me spending more time searching for the right bolt than I was able to bolt parts on, but a year later things are quickly picking up speed.

Just saying I needed almost a year before I could stop seeing the project as a task and again became my hobby.

At any rate, GLWS
 
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