krazyk1371

Hey mates, n00b here from the US of A. This is my first post on this board so please be gentle if your going to flame.

I purchased a set of Sportline II's the last new set that I could find in the US as all of the US vendors have dropped them because of a lack of support coming from AST.

I still felt that AST made a great product regardless of its vendor support so I purchased the set and installed them.

The fronts went on fine but the rear locking collars rubbed the inside of my rear tires. I removed the helper springs and raised the collars above the level of the tires and my vehicle looked like a hummer. This was the only way that I could keep it from rubbing.

I've sense contacted the vendor that I purchased them off of and he is ordering another rear set which should arrive in about a month.

Any thoughts.

Powerstation

sounds like you have too much rear camber, have you mesured it? easy way is to fit a pair of camber bolts, we do this with every set to aid ease of setting up.If you need any more info, dont hesitate to contact me at sales@astsuspension.co.uk
Curtis

krazyk1371

I've not check the vehicle using rear camber bolts. I didn't feel the need to use camber bolts as the rear has enough negative camber stock for my needs. I do not want any more or less camber in the back.

I believe that I may have gotten a set of GC8 rear coilovers by mistake.

Even with camber bolts the way the shaft goes straight up I wouldn't be able to run any other tire besides stock width or less.

I was told 3-4 weeks and I'd have the right set of rear coilovers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I received the wrong set and the right set is on its way.

If the rear set of coilovers is for the MY06 USDM STI than I think the design of the rear coilovers was a mistake.

Only judging from the front coilovers though I do love Sportline II's and the AST products in general.

911

From my experience you have made a good choice.
AST's in anger:
DropShots Day
Graham

krazyk1371

I hope so. I was very excited about these coilovers. I've heard great things about them and I can't wait to get them to the track to see how they do.

Which reminds me does anyone have any advice for the settings I should initially start with before I hit the track?

I run at Willow Springs and the California Speedway(not sure if that helps or not).

911

I think Cal Speedway is an oval?

I ran my one-way AST's with 50/40 springs (a bit soft) on 7/6 clicks from soft
60/50 springs....................10.8 from soft

The car also has all the Whiteline parts and a few more tweeks to complete the package.

Hope this helps.

Not sure where Marco is, but I worked in Santa Rosa north of San Francisc/Napa in the early 80's, lovely part of the world!

Graham

krazyk1371

Cal Speedway is oval when they do their NASCAR thing. I think that they have about 4 different track setups that they can arrange.

San Marcos is in north county San Diego. I used to live in Santa Rosa in the mid 80's also.

911

Small world!
There was a race on Cal Speedwayway on UK televisin last week and the infield looked as though you could configure a 'real' circuit.

A trick that can be played to avoid rubbing is to fit adjustable top mounts to the rear (not usually done) and camber bolt in the hub also. You can then use the bolt to get the tyre clear of the spring and dial-in the negative to suit the alignment.
Graham

ricardo

What wheel size and offset is it, and what tyres ?

Edited: I've just seen the NASIOC thread with much more information... AST Sportline II's rubbing rear tires - NASIOC
Better carry on there...

krazyk1371

I hate to have to order something else on top of the coilovers. If the coilovers where designed to add a ton of negative camber and camber bolts were required to offset this why didn't AST include them with the purchase? This doesn't make any sense to me.

I guess that it wouldn't have bothered me as much if I had prior warning. Such as "Sir, you are about to buy some great coilovers but to use these great coilovers you'll have to buy some camber bolts for the rear; I hope that you understand" this is all it would have taken for me. I still would have bought the coilovers but I would have bought them with camber bolts also. I also would have felt much better about the whole purchase/process instead of having to find out all of this as I went along.

Curtis, I sent you a pm please check your inbox.

911, yes there are I believe about 3 different configurations that can be made on the infield. They even run motorcycle races there. It is rare for any road racing but they do have them. Streets of Willow is a blast but it is a 4 hour drive for me so I don't make it up there too often.

recardo, yes lots of help on NASIOC. Hopefully this doesn't scare anyone away from AST as I do like their products. I just want to get this issue resolved so I can go out and have some fun with them.

911

Curtis has installed 2 sets of AST's on my hillclimb car.

The AST's do not promise more neg in the design, essentially a 'stock' bolt-on.
I needed camber bolts on my one-ways to get the 2 deg I wanted.
The 3 ways with thier adjustable mounts meant the front camber bolts were needed, but were not the rear. This could vary from car to car though.
https://www.scoobynet.com/projects-4...t-chassis.html

Might help, but could bore you too!
Graham

Chelspeed

Why not just get a new set of rear springs with the same in/lb rate but a shorter free length? That would move the platform up without affecting either the ride height or spring rate?

911

Read recently about someone who did exactly that, and it worked.
Might be hard to get the springs in the USA?
Certainly available from Demon Tweeks.
Graham

Fuzz

too short a spring and it will unseat on full droop !!!


Andy

DuncanG

Thats why they have helpers

Fuzz

Depends how much the helpers help... they only have so much free length available.

Just warning that going too short on the main spring would cause the "original" helper to run out of length and a longer helper may be required.

Perhaps too short and sweet in my last post!


Andy

krazyk1371

I think that the riddle may be solved.

From what I've been told the rear coilovers need camber bolts and also need to be run without the helper springs. The fronts are ok as is.

I'm going to order some camber bolts here shortly and we'll see how this all pans out.

krazyk1371

Just a little update.

I got my rear Whiteline Camber Bolts today. Unfortunately I got home too late to start any work on my car. Some time tomorrow (hopefully) I can install them and give an initial impression of the coilovers.

fourdegrees

I had the same problem today with my single adjustable Sportline 1s. I am, however, running 245/45/17 Hankooks, so that may have contributed to the problem. The machine showed that I had -2.0 degrees of camber in the rear. I went ahead and had the shop order me camber bolts and make the adjustment. Good to hear that I'm not the only one.

Powerstation

with standard size wheels on the GD cars ie 235/45/17, with the standard topmounts you can run up to -2.25 deg camber with no problems with tyre clearance, by puting larger tyres on, this can bring the tyre too close to the spring perch, the sportline 2s also uses a 64mm id spring which reduces your clearance slightly (by 2 mm !)

Curtis
AST suspnsion uk

krazyk1371

Here is another update which looks like the second update of many to come.

I've spent a few hours installing the rear coilovers. Raising, lowering, removing the tires, installing the tires, etc, etc.

The rear height is set at 13-1/2" and boy did it take for ever.

With the Whiteline Camber bolts set at half max it looks like I have close to zero camber in the rear. I don't think that I'll be able to go any more negative as the clearance is real close. Hopefully the alignment shop will be able to get me some more negative camber.

I installed the coilovers without the rear helper springs and it did add some needed room to raise the locking collar just barely above the tire. The springs would not seat though until the car was lowered.

When I test drove the car and went over bumps it sounded like the rear springs were bouncing around! I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle this one...suggestions?

I'm pretty sure that I'm stuck with the stock tire size (225) using these coilovers as there just isn't anymore room for some thing wider. Tomorrow in the light I'll post some pictures.

DuncanG

If you are not using the helper springs then you must set the spring perch initially to be snug against the spring (at full droop) and then only adjust the perch upward if required. If that makes the ride-height too high then you need a shorter spring.

krazyk1371

Ok, I've been messing with my car sense my last post and even though I'm not done with putting the back seats back in (I'll wait until after thanksgiving day) I've finished with the coilover install.

Here's how it went.

For those of you who are familiar with coilovers I removed and installed the wheels about a gazillion times to get the ride close to where I wanted them. As I was doing this I also adjusted the camber bolts, etc.

I ended up reinstalling the helper springs and setting the ride height to 13-3/4" in the rear. I was told initially that the top collar which is a little plastic piece which goes between the top spring be it the helper or the main spring had to be facing out board. There is a little notch on the front of it and this is how you set it.

The collar is angled allowing you to angle the springs in a certain direction. With the collar facing out the springs where hitting the body of the coilover so I had to twist this around on both sides to keep this from happening.

While I was down there I rotate my tires as the fronts have the threads showing. I was waiting to get an alignment until my camber bolts came in and as you can see the wait was very long and my wallet is paying the price.

I ended up maxing the negative camber up front using my camber plates but I maxed the positive camber of the stock camber bolts. I'm guessing that I'm between -1.5 and -2.0 up front now. Before I must have been way over -3.0 sense my tires only lasted a week on this setting.

I got so tired working on the car that the final height front and back is 13-3/4". This will have to do for now as I'm tired of dealing with these things.

I'll update you all more when I regain my strength from eating the turkey that I've been smelling all day.

krazyk1371

Well it has been pretty much confirmed that my coilovers were delivered with springs that were too long.

My current springs are 250mm, I will be trying to source some 180mm to test them out.

Below are a few pics of the left rear coilover installed at its present state.

LR Fully compressed Helper Spring, shot between tire and fender.


LR Space between locking collar and tire, shot from above the tire.


LR Space between locking collar and tire, shot from the rear and underneath the car.


LR Fully compressed Helper Spring

Powerstation

you need to remove the rear helper, this is why you cant get the correct camber and the tyre is rubbing, when you remove the helper the collar will move up above the tyre, with the correct ride height the spring will be tight and wont come loose on full droop, if it comes loose your ride height is too low
regards
Curtis
AST suspension uk

krazyk1371

Curtis, thanks for the help. Without the helper springs installed and the main spring seated nice and snug against the collar the car was in the air like a monster truck. This was actually my first course of action. I'll give it another try in a few weeks as I've tired of dealing with this.

fourdegrees

Curtis, I experienced the same issue with the Sportline 1s. I dialed camber out to -1.1 degrees to make it work. Can I assume the same course of action, removing the helpers, is right for me?

krazyk1371

Just to update everyone I gave Curtis's suggestion a try and it worked. I now have plenty of room to adjust the rear camber.

Thanks to everyone at Power Station for their wonderful help.

Cheers

911

Top-draw guys!
Graham.

fourdegrees

I second the results. I removed the helpers and got back my negative camber. They remain a little bit noisy when going over some bumps, but nothing I wouldn't expect.