Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

My 944S2 Cab is currently having new Bilstein B6 front & rear shocks fitted, new OEM front springs, new front ARB bushes and any other worn out bushes that I find along the way. Clearly, it'll need setup correctly when the work is all complete. My question is how far do I take this?

Should I take it to my local tyre place who will do a good job, or take it to a specialist like Centre Gravity or OPC? What are the benefits of a specialist? All I'm looking for is the "correct" setup for road use i.e. not track focused. Am I missing a trick here i.e. are there different levels of "correct"? What would they do differently to the local tyre place and what are they likely to cost?

Cheers,
Bryan

Yes there are different levels of correct. The adjustment on the rear uses a special tool. And it's usually seized. The front end is reasonably straightforward. Personally I would use a specialist, as for cost, I think it cost around £120 at promax for a full setup.

Specialist, or on your own with strings and camber gauges (or a straight edge and an angle finder app on a suitable phone). Don't go near sh1tFit, the machine is as only good as the operator... Also make sure they lock the rack with a centering pin.

Specific 944 advice aside (as I don't really know all that much about them!) get it done properly.

These cars are meant to be driven, everyone talks about the balance and the handling of the 944, why bother with a crap geometry set up?!

Use a placed that has the kit, and knows how to use it. Stick your postcode into http://alignmycar.com/ (Hunter wheel alignment website) and see who is local.
Don't confuse setting tracking with setting geometry.

I'm sure axle stands, string and rulers will get you a decent result (in fact when I replaced all bushes and more on my Elise last year, I used axle stands and string to make it drivable to get it to the geometry place, and the initial reading was actually pretty close to straight - not that you want straight mind..!)

My local non-specialist side street garage, who I've used for all of my cars (944 and Elise included) for my whole driving life has Hunter Hawkeye Elite gear, it's among the best on the market, and I can tell you first hand how impressive it is. It uses clever wheel mountings and cameras to locate the 4 wheels, and allows the mechanic to adjust whilst the reading is being taken, so no guess work.

Chris

Strings when done properly knock laser set ups into the weeds for accuracy! Can't best good old fashioned geometry and a bit of maths but you need a flat area, patience and the knowledge to do it right. You're 100% right though, these cars deserve a proper setup so don't scrimp and/or trust any old numpty to do it.

Oh and buy the tool for the rear toe, someone sells them on eBay.

I went through exactly this quandary when I took the front suspension off my 86 2.5NA during the winter in order to replace the shock inserts, various bushes etc. In the end I went to Neinmeister in Warrington who were offering a 4 wheel laser alignment on any car for £99 last month. I was able to chat with Robin whilst he worked on the car and he talked me through all of the adjustments he was making in order to get each adjustment reading right in the middle of each green sector on the machine. It took about 1 .5 hours and as others have said, involved adjustment with a special eccentric tool on the rear suspension. The range of adjustment on each wheel was enormous. I was very pleasantly surprised by the difference it made to the feel of the car. Once I had the geometry correct I took the opportunity to replace the 30 year old tyres on the car with some new Goodyears. Well worth spending the money.

Maybe I've asked the wrong question here. Let's rule out places that can't actually do the job as they have neither the knowledge, tools nor experience for setting up a 944. I'm asking what I should be aiming for - i.e. factory setup or something proven to be "better" for what I need. Ok, "so how the hell do we know what you need?" I hear you ask. I'm happy to admit that I've never had to have anything more complicated than the tracking adjusted, so have never had to consider the merits of changing the castor & camber settings.

I drive the car pretty hard on the road, but I'm not looking to drift round corners. I do one or two track days a year, but just so I can drive it without worrying about speed cameras, rather than anything competitive (it's a cab, after all). So, should I go factory set-up or would I benefit from a specialist who will take these factors into account?

Cheers,
Bryan

Took my S2 to Chris at Center Gravity. We discussed my driving style, normal roads driven, mileage etc before he suggested best options - in my case a return to factory settings with a slight added tweek. My weight was put onto the drivers seat so the car was set up precisely. Personally I wouldn't go anywhere else as I had paid for "Four wheel laser alignment " elsewhere only to discover at Center Gravity that all the rear adjustors were totally seized and clearly hadn't been touched in 20 years!

Decided to get it done by the experts, so booked into Centre Gravity for full geo setup. Book time 4.5 hours. Lead time is currently 6 weeks(!), so that's 18th May.

Cheers,
Bryan

4.5 hours??

I popped into a place in Eastbourne this morning as I heard they had a Hunter setup. This will charge £85+ VAT and reckon it will be done in appx 1.5hrs. They don't have the tool to adjust the rear but are going to see if they can get one. The chap I spoke to is into classic cars so I'm sure he would take great care to get it spot on. Think I will just ask to have it returned to factory spec.

i have had a cheap and cheerful, wheels all set and showing green from red and I have had a full geometry set up. Night and day in terms of how the car handled plus a set of fronts destroyed in double quick time despite a nice piece of paper showing before and after.

4 1/2 hours sounds about right, it's worth it.

Depends how seized the rear bits are ; alot of them are very seized.

But yes, the setup is only as good as the operator.

Ditto. CG did my car last year, transformed it, you get what you pay for!!!