I finally got some time this weekend to install my evo suspension on my gallant.
First impressions.
I installed the suspension as it cam, evo struts and springs, the coil count on the rear springs is 5, on my gallant it was 8 so I Was worried that the car would be much lower, for the fronts same things, coils went from 5 with the gallant to 3.5 with the evo.
The evo springs are so damn stiff that the car did not lower at all, in fact the front was about an inch higher than before.
Once I got the alignment all set up I went out for a spin, the car was so stiff I could make it 3 wheel with no effort at all; it was all twitchy and more or less uncontrollable.
So next setup, I took my factory gallant springs and put them on the front and back.
Rears: I had to cut one coil off, I then heated one end up a little to make the bottom coil diameter 1/4 inch smaller so it would not fall off the smaller spring perch. I installed them and the car dropped about an inch but was much less stiff.
For the front I just put in the gallant springs as they came,
I set up the alignment once again and took the car for a spin; this time the car was much better, light years better than the 180K mile blown shocks but not so stiff that it would not drive.
Next I put on my new white line rear 26mm sway bar, I found a old set of Chevy Monte carlo shackles that were pretty close so I used them, after fighting with the rear suspension for about an hour I had the bar in , and I installed the upper rear arm camber bushings, I Was able to get the car back to about 3 degrees of neg, this weekend I am going to take the bushings out and reverse them so I can get more camber back and get the car set up to 1.5 neg on the back.
Strangely the front dropped about an inch with the gallant springs but is still about 3-4 degrees of positive camber, I do not want to cut any coils as the car would lower even more so I slotted the holes and got some back, I am going to put on camber plates and it that does not work I am going to cut my front lower arms and make them adjustable.
I will be putting on the new front sway bar later this weekend as well, hopefully that will make the car more neutral again,
So overall, I love the evo struts, the piston shafts are so much larger than my old stuff, all my struts actually had blue spots on the shafts, they were rely bad, the new ones are about 1.25 inches on the front and .75 on the back, the stock gallant ones are .45 on the back and .75 on the front. So these KYB's should be able to take allot more heat without failing,
The car will overseer easily now and it slides around corners very nice and predictable.
I am very happy with the evo stuff and would recommend it to anyone considering it,
I measured the front struts as compared to the gallant ones and the spring perch to the top of the strut body is about 1/2 inch lower on the evo ones as compared to the gallant ones, what this does is allow you to use all your shock/spring travel, and still lower the car,
A side effect of this was the tie rod ends were much closer to being parallel to the ground, this changes the steering effort needed to move the car, the turn in is much more responsive with less steering wheel movement now, and being almost parallel the bump steer should be closer to being the same up and down, I think I am going to shim the rack down about 1/8 of an inch to get them truly parallel to the ground.
Pics are coming soon.
Good luck guys, this took me about 12 hours over 2 days to get done, and you have to know how to weld. A die grinder and a big air compressor is a must /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Matt Junker
First impressions.
I installed the suspension as it cam, evo struts and springs, the coil count on the rear springs is 5, on my gallant it was 8 so I Was worried that the car would be much lower, for the fronts same things, coils went from 5 with the gallant to 3.5 with the evo.
The evo springs are so damn stiff that the car did not lower at all, in fact the front was about an inch higher than before.
Once I got the alignment all set up I went out for a spin, the car was so stiff I could make it 3 wheel with no effort at all; it was all twitchy and more or less uncontrollable.
So next setup, I took my factory gallant springs and put them on the front and back.
Rears: I had to cut one coil off, I then heated one end up a little to make the bottom coil diameter 1/4 inch smaller so it would not fall off the smaller spring perch. I installed them and the car dropped about an inch but was much less stiff.
For the front I just put in the gallant springs as they came,
I set up the alignment once again and took the car for a spin; this time the car was much better, light years better than the 180K mile blown shocks but not so stiff that it would not drive.
Next I put on my new white line rear 26mm sway bar, I found a old set of Chevy Monte carlo shackles that were pretty close so I used them, after fighting with the rear suspension for about an hour I had the bar in , and I installed the upper rear arm camber bushings, I Was able to get the car back to about 3 degrees of neg, this weekend I am going to take the bushings out and reverse them so I can get more camber back and get the car set up to 1.5 neg on the back.
Strangely the front dropped about an inch with the gallant springs but is still about 3-4 degrees of positive camber, I do not want to cut any coils as the car would lower even more so I slotted the holes and got some back, I am going to put on camber plates and it that does not work I am going to cut my front lower arms and make them adjustable.
I will be putting on the new front sway bar later this weekend as well, hopefully that will make the car more neutral again,
So overall, I love the evo struts, the piston shafts are so much larger than my old stuff, all my struts actually had blue spots on the shafts, they were rely bad, the new ones are about 1.25 inches on the front and .75 on the back, the stock gallant ones are .45 on the back and .75 on the front. So these KYB's should be able to take allot more heat without failing,
The car will overseer easily now and it slides around corners very nice and predictable.
I am very happy with the evo stuff and would recommend it to anyone considering it,
I measured the front struts as compared to the gallant ones and the spring perch to the top of the strut body is about 1/2 inch lower on the evo ones as compared to the gallant ones, what this does is allow you to use all your shock/spring travel, and still lower the car,
A side effect of this was the tie rod ends were much closer to being parallel to the ground, this changes the steering effort needed to move the car, the turn in is much more responsive with less steering wheel movement now, and being almost parallel the bump steer should be closer to being the same up and down, I think I am going to shim the rack down about 1/8 of an inch to get them truly parallel to the ground.
Pics are coming soon.
Good luck guys, this took me about 12 hours over 2 days to get done, and you have to know how to weld. A die grinder and a big air compressor is a must /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Matt Junker
