What are folks using for shocks on pavement-based 99's/900's?

I was working on Frank yesterday and wanted to pull off the Sachs shocks that are on there.
Long story short, an upper nut stuck in spite of everything I did to prevent it and it will need to be cut off.

So, as long as I need to buy new rear shocks, what are you guys using?

I have Konis on the front, but am leaning towards doing the custom Bilsteins.

I suppose I could pull the Konis off the SPG and try those for a while, but what a pain!

Opinions?

Bilstein HD's are a good shock for a road-use 900. They are a bit hard riding and in my opinion don't really improve handling over the standard sachs-boge - fairly recently I put 4 brand new OE shocks in my 93 900-t automatic. Ride is nice, not as firm as the Bilsteins, but I think it handles just as well on the road and if you tromp over a sea of pot holes with them or expansion joints on the highway you don't have that "my back hurts and I need new fillings" feeling you tend to get with the HD's

User preference, Either one will probably last longer than the car if they don't rust off before the mounts do. Shocks to avoid IMO are the KYB "gas-a-just" and other cheap-o brands. They do not maintain the character of the car.

What springs are you running?

I was running B&Gs all the way around. The rears are both too stiff and too tall for the 99 (I still like them for 900 HBs), so cutting them down was out. I just cut down some "green stripe" turbo springs but I really have not had time to give them a good work out. According to my homebuilt spring tester, the B&Gs are about 320-340 lbs/in. The cut down turbo springs are closer to 280 lbs/in.

99Super wrote:I was running B&Gs all the way around. The rears are both too stiff and too tall for the 99 (I still like them for 900 HBs), so cutting them down was out. I just cut down some "green stripe" turbo springs but I really have not had time to give them a good work out. According to my homebuilt spring tester, the B&Gs are about 320-340 lbs/in. The cut down turbo springs are closer to 280 lbs/in.

You can get 3.5" ID coil over springs in 10" length in a variety of rates and you could always cut the ends off if need...if you plan on cutting them just choose the rate appropriately so your cuts springs fall in where you want them. Bilstein HD's with a stiff spring like that will work well. The Konis will also work nicely for road use. Are you running a 900 rear axle?

Yup. Early 900 rear axle and stock swaybar.

In the past, I kept the rear as firm as I could to help corner turn-in and reduce understeer.
The byproduct is a car that can and will swap ends. The LSD has largely eliminated the understeer, but the unpredictable looseness remains. This is why I decided to try softer springs I already had laying around; to try to get a ballpark on where I want to be before I order new ones.

This seems like a good time to go through and do it right. Looks like I need to borrow the club's scales and start with the corner weight calculations.

I think I bought 14" long 3" ID springs which fit in the rear pretty well. The height was too much so I cut the ends off and I suspect the spring rate is now too high. Coleman has them as short as 12" but you could buy them a little soft and cut them down to the height you need...probably around 10".

http://www.colemanracing.com/Spring-SSS ... P4701.aspx

more options
http://www.cvproducts.com/Products/Chas ... 20Springs/

Wow! The Colemans are half the price of Hypercoils! The Dracos look good as well.
Interesting that the Dracos skip 275lb.
I'll put my Konis back there and go thrash the car at the next AutoX, May 16.

I want/need to have this all worked out before June 26. Freezeout Hillclimb is that weekend.
At that hill, I'm only 3 secs behind the Hondas. It's a handling hill.

Thanks for the hints so far!

The 14" springs I put in the rally car but I will be replacing them with 12" springs and maybe 10" springs. If they are too short it is easy enough to add a spacer. When they are too tall there isnt much to do but cut them and gamble on the spring rate.

My thoughts, exactly. You can use the thin spacers set corner weights as well.
I'm trying to get our SCCA scales for the weekend...

OK, I swapped in the Konis and some green turbo springs I trimmed down to the correct ride height.

I went out for a quick test drive up Bogus Basin Rd. and I'm really happy w/ the results.
The rear end stays firmly planted with no noticeable increase in body roll. There is a tiny bit of corner entry understeer,
but that just means I need to get on the throttle sooner :)

I don't know if this will gain me the 3 seconds I need at Freezeout, but it should get me close.

Now, to rebuild my rack w/ my eEuroparts kit and maybe box in my upper control arms...