512 TR Shocks

Dennis have you tried calling Jeff Leblond at FJB Shocks in Phoenix?

 

I just bought at 1993 512 TR that has service records from 1995 and no mention of any shock replacement or rebuild. I've never driven any other TR, but I strongly believe the shocks are not showing up to the party anymore, the car is very bouncy and nervous so I'm also consider buy vs rebuild. I just talked to Performance Shock at Sonoma Raceway (https://www.performanceshock.com/bilstein-service/) and they quoted $550/each to rebuild which is about half cost what I could find for new ones... bonus you can leave them assembled with springs so no fighting with spring compressors.

Anyone have experience removing front and rear springs / shocks? I haven't found any online instructions but looking at the diagrams it doesn't look too complex. I have a Quickjack so I can lift car up easily without jackstands.

 

I couldn't find much details on how to remove shocks but its not very hard provided you have a Quickjack or lift to get the car up and wheels off.

The rears were surprisingly easy. Just remove the two top nuts holding the coilover to the frame (13mm, you'll need a swivel for your socket for the rears) and bottom nut holding the shock in place. Then use a crowbar to lever the wishbones down an inch to allow top coilbolts to drop free of the frame, falling outward towards you and then slide the bottom off carrier bolt. Note that you'll be levering against the sway bar but its doesn't take much force and I prefer to keep the sway bar connected so I didn't have to secure the axle carrier from falling down.

The fronts were slightly more effort... you need to remove the bolt on the bottom wishbone and bottom of the shock. Take a photo of the bottom of the shock and carefully remove the shims between the front and back of the shock bottom. Label them with tape... I'm pretty sure these control the tow alignment so you want to keep track of which go in the front and back. Then remove the top 3 nuts via the frunk. I had to unbolt the ECU on the right side to gain access to them and also order a special 13mm swivel to access the nut underneath the brake booster since there is very little clearance.

I dropped off my shocks at Performance Shock yesterday to be rebuilt (they had a set of 365 shocks on table ahead of mine). The bushings in wishbones have dried rubber (hard and cracking) and are likely original which is contributing to vibration so I also decided to replace them... its turning into a much bigger project. I ordered this kit which has all the bushings for front and rear. Now I'm trying to figure out how to press out the old bushings... I have a press but its not easy to position the wishbones properly so I ordered a tool ... I'll share details on what tool works to remove them once I figure it out.

 

@stu did you consider the much cheaper superformance bushing sets? anyone know how they compare?

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/best-bushings-in-town-for-today.663159 @MITengineer

 

I didn't realize that Superformance had front and rear kits... that would have definitely saved me a bit. Their sets don't include the shock tops and ball joints though so once you add those on the price difference isn't that much.

Dropped off a pile of wishbones and new bushings at a local machine shop for them press out the old ones and press in the new... I've the brake rotors / hubs balanced on various things while I wait and I'm gonna order some new nyloc nuts for all the bolts. Hopefully I can start putting things back together in a week or so.

 

Thanks for the info @stu and thanks for documenting some of the details.. I'll surely get to this one of these days..

 

I got back my wishbones from the machine shop (Norman Racing Group in Berkeley, CA) with new bushings pressed in... they charged me $500 to press the old ones out and press the new ones in which I thought was very reasonable. I also replaced the brake ducting for rear since it was split and rotten using 4 feet (2 for each side) of this ducting which was a perfect fit. I installed the wishbones while waiting for the shocks to be ready.

I picked up the shocks last week (approx $3800 total for rebuild, which included machining new shafts since the originals were slightly scored) and they told me to install the shocks but don't torque the wishbones or shock bolts until the suspension was loaded aka sitting on the wheels. If I torqued everything while the suspension was drooping, when it was loaded the bushings would be twisted and thus wear out fast... so I had to loosen all the wishbone bolts again and then install the shocks.

I knew installing the wheels would make torquing the wishbones and shock bolts nearly impossible ... then I remembered my friend Ben had just bought a set of hub stands for his racecar to do alignments and suspension work. I was able to borrow those so I could load the suspension and tighten everything.

I went for a short test drive this morning during a brief break in the rain and immediately noticed a significant difference. Much less bouncy feeling over big bumps and vibration over our rough pavement was gone. I also swear that the steering feels more lively than before. Overall I'm very happy with the result and would recommend to others. Can't wait to take it on a long drive!
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F* me, I paid almost $2500 for pressing and installing all new bushings (to be fair my shop told me they had a hell of time removing the old ones). My car is not far from yours!