Cascade Crew

Alphius · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 5:12 pm Post subject: Suspension Upgrade

I got all my suspension parts today, I'm ready for a major upgrade next weekend! I also have a Spohn crossmember/torque arm on the way too, it should arrive next week.

Here's what I have so far:

blue89 · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:51 pm Post subject:

Nice. Not working on it this weekend?

Alphius · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:08 pm Post subject:

Nah, I have a couple friends coming up and we're gonna have some fun this weekend Cheers

, then I'm going down to Aaron's and swapping in a new T5 and all my suspension goodies next weekend.

jchaussee · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 1318 Location: renton

Sweet. So old stuff should be ready for me?

Alphius · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:27 am Post subject:

Yep, I'll have it all swapped out if things go well next weekend.

Schultzy89GTA · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:47 pm Post subject:

Veddy niiice!

That girl is getting there... Got the go, got the whoa, clean interior, clean exterior and now handling upgrades.

Nicely played sir!

-Schultzy

Alphius · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:31 pm Post subject:

Thanks Schultzy! I think I have a good thing going on here.

Anyway, my weekend with Aaron went very well in most respects.

First we jacked the car up and pulled the old transmission and crossmember/tq arm out. The input bearing in my T5 is slowly eating itself up, the ATF was only a few months old and came out pretty much black and very shiny. Sad

Spohn sent me the wrong crossmember and I panicked about it fitting. I did not order a driveshaft loop, and they sent me one with a driveshaft loop which I thought would interfere with my dual exhaust. Luckily the fit was excellent and I have a small amount of clearance, and woohoo free driveshaft loop! Very Happy

NVH went up a lot since I apparently had a V6 crossmember with noise isolating rubber-majiggers and such. The Spohn crossmember/torque arm is a pretty beefy unit, and fits very well. I dialed in my pinion angle, tapped and used the additional two crossmember bolts, and we were done under the car.

At that point, we started working on the Konis and got all 4 installed with a minimum of fuss. I included a set of Founders Performance caster/camber plates to tighten up the front end. As I mumbled incoherently about alignment settings and got everything squared up, Aaron began tearing into my steering column to tighten up my tilt mechanism since it's been getting a little loose as time goes by. He's a fricken' genius with Saginaw columns and I watched in awe as he predicted which small parts would fall out only moments before they actually did. Nothing went too wrong there, and before long the tilt was tight, the threadlocker was liberally applied and the wheel went back on. It's nice and tight now, I owe him a favor on that one. Wink

On the test drive, the T5 I put in showed its true colors. 1st gear, whine. 2nd gear, more whine. 3rd gear, whining with a little howl thrown on top for good measure. 4th gear, blessed silence. 5th, growl and howl. It looks like I need to take my other two transmissions and actually build a good one instead of throwing in junk. Whatever, this one will hold for a while until I can get something else thrown together. I'm betting the input endplay is messed up on this trans. It whines everywhere except direct drive and only on acceleration, no whine on decel in any gear. I hit it hard on the street through the first three a few times and it's still truckin', so it'll stay in until after dyno at least. Burnout

On Sunday, I helped Aaron move but purely for selfish reasons. I am still a favor or two ahead of him so he'll be fixing my crap for a while yet to come. Laughing

I'm thinking another T5 and maybe a clutch swap in a month or two. Very Happy

I know some of you will say "why not just find a T56 instead of screwing around with the glass transmissions?" I've been avoiding the T56 mostly for weight and drivetrain loss reasons but I might not be able to hold out much longer if I keep killing T5s. The 30:1 price difference between T5 and T56 might keep me rolling with the T5 for a while longer however. Both of my spare T5s cost me $50 each and an LS1 T56 is like $1500 nowadays due to silly people and their LS1 swaps. Not to mention every T56 I've driven shifts like a box of rocks and the T5 is smooth like butter through the gears when all is working well. There's positives and negatives to each approach I feel.

aaron_sK · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:28 pm Post subject:

It was another great Cornman & Mountain Man weekend adventure. I cut Gabe's laptop with a Japanese saw and he sat next to me on a too-small couch.

We also learned that the seal of Lewis county is not two guys flat-towing a Camaro behind a Ford truck, but it probably should be. Cool

83Z28BlackBetty · Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:56 am Post subject:

nice work dude! That thing sounds awesome! Can't wait to see it in only a month!