Bootstrap342

Recently purchased Aldan American Coilovers as well as a "stage 1" sway bar package from TPS. Received them in a couple weeks time, not too bad on shipping. I do believe they were drop shipped, as is so common these days with internet retailers not actually having any stock. Packages came from two different carriers.




Steinjager Sways, poly bushings, extreme endlinks



After more research the "stage 1 swaybar package" is Steinjager C5 Swaybars. After a little more research I've found that as compared to the C6 GS swaybars aren't an upgrade. Disappointed in that aspect of this purchase but the endlinks and poly bushings are nice. I could've done more research into the Stage 1 package but rushed into it as it was a good deal. Steinjager doesn't list them as being compatible with C6, but sway bars seem to be the same fitment from C5-C6.


The Aldan American Coilovers are their Phantom series. The fronts are single adjustable for compression and the rears are single adjustable for rebound. The coilovers feel well made, no burs or defects noted. The adjustment ***** were tight at first by hand, but after a revolution with a pair of pliers they're still stiff but adjustable by hand.

Tackled the install in the garage over one night. I've had plenty of suspension install experience, but never anything on a high performance car like the vette with so little room to work. Some of my previous suspension adventures:





My 2004 Sierra, 7-9" McGaughys Lift.





Friend's 370Z Nismo. Installed Air bags in 2016. Later totaled in 2017




Same friend's new car. 2015 I think. Lexus is250. Again, installed some air suspension.

So, some suspension experience, but either on big stuff, or bags. However both bag installs also utilized coilovers.

The Aldan coilovers do not have an independent ride height adjustment like some of the more expensive coilovers on the market, and like the coilovers I'd installed before. More on that later.

Onto the install!




Decided to start with the rear as I imagined it would be easier.



Find some sturdy jacking points!



Started by disconnecting the swaybar and UCA to free up the downtravel on the suspension.



While taking stock shocks out I found a little hidey hole for mice in the top shock tower. The car sat for a while before I bought it.



Mice like Walnuts!, who knew?




Taking the sway bar brackets off the car. The lower mount piggy backs on the LCA bolt.



Remove stock Endlinks.



Stock GS swaybar next to new Steinjager.



Install Heim endlinks. Set to the same OAL as the OEM endlinks.



Put the new poly bushings on the new sway bar with the grease. That grease is nasty! advise gloves.



New endlink and swaybar installed.





Sway bar installed!



Removing the OEM Transverse leafs. 2 bolts and a bracket on each side. These were 13mm bolts iirc.



Once the leaf spring is loose it'll hang up as it's still resting on your LCA's. The spring has no energy after the weight is off the suspension. No cause for concern.



Void left by removing the transverse spring.



Rear spring out of the vehicle. These are fiberglass and surprisingly light.

Bootstrap342

Attach new brackets to the coilovers and drop them in.



re tighten all loose hardware. UCA's, etc.




Sitting pretty low! tons of room to adjust still.



Driver side was a little high. Adjusted to 26&1/2" on both sides.




Moving on to the front install. Homemade ramps make this alot easier for lifting from the subframe.



Again, get some stable points to place stands.




Front wheels off. Going to start by removing Caliper and hanging it.



Caliper hung off of LCA with bungee




Disconnect sway bar end links from the bottom, won't be reusing them anyway so no need to disconnect the tops too.



Remove UCA bolts. These are shimmed, pay attention to number of washers behind each bolt.





Both sides of the car had two washers on the two bolts toward the front of the car.



Once the UCA is out of the way, remove bolts holding Transverse leaf spring in. The front took some coaxing to come out.




Front leaf is out, front suspension taken down as far as necessary for the install.



Remove Front swaybar from it's brackets. Could've done this earlier but it wasn't in my way.




Thread new Coilover through shock tower and tighten loosely. Reinstall UCA with shims in proper order loosely.



Better angle to show shims installed before tightening them all down. I did them fairly evenly, like torquing a wheel down.




UCA reinstalled. Sway bar in it's brackets.



WOAH! That's a problem! Coilovers are taking up more room than stock shocks (obviously) And the new Steinjager front sway bar is boxed on the end instead of rounded. Going to have to create some clearance room.




Off to the grinder with the new Swaybar. *cringe*. Wear safety gear guys! No point in getting hurt.




Cut a curve on the Swaybars for clearance.



Shot the bare metal with some black enamel. Doesn't have to be pretty, but it'll inhibit rust.


Reinstall sway bar and drop the front! This is where I ran into some trouble. These coilovers are advertised as 0.0-2.0 inch drop. The rear went on without a hitch and had plenty of room for adjustment. At 1/2" preload I was sitting WAY low. However, up front I didn't have the same experience. Setting the front coilovers to 1/2" preload gave me 3 fingers of wheel gap between the tire and fender. I backed them off to just a touch of preload, so they weren't loose, still about 2 fingers of wheel gap. So, I decided to expiriment, I dropped the front adjustment ALL THE WAY DOWN. Literally not a thread left going down. These left the springs loose with about 1" of wiggle room before the car sat on them. I don't like them being loose at all. The stance achieved with the fronts all the way down at no preload is pictured below. Front fenders currently sitting at 24&3/4" and 25&1/2". The side to side is reflected in the frame rails as well. But I haven't adjusted them till I figure out what I'm going to do.

After having this problem I emailed Aldan American. Garrett Harmola responded to me. I sent this email at 0715HRs on Sunday morning. I received an email back from him around noon ON A SUNDAY. An email responding to a tech problem on a sunday from the president of the company, that's amazing customer service. I asked Garrett about the lack of adjustment up front as compared to the rear. Garrett had me verify that I had a 9" 500lb spring up front, which I do. I asked Garrett if an 8" spring would help me at all, obviously I'll get more adjustment down, but does that mean I'll be able to retain any preload and get the car lower? I don't know that why I've asked Garrett. Garrett informed me he was going to forward my questions to his lead tech and have an answer for me tomorrow, Monday. So that's where I'm at now. If it comes down to it I may just set the fronts with minimal preload maybe 1/4" and use that as my "lowest setting" then adjust the rears up to match the height. This modification is more cosmetic than practical for me, not a big racer. So differing preloads isn't a big deal to me, I'm not going to have the car corner balanced or track it. I couldn't afford the insurance or heartache if I crashed it into a cone on the track!







Front around 25&1/2 Rear at 26&1/2" but the front looks higher! Can't have that.

Overall the install wasn't terrible I took plenty of time and double checked everything I did. As you can see I did this on the garage floor and I'll tell you my back is not pleased with me today. If you're up for an install on the ground go for it, but if you have bad joints I'd advise against it. I'm just a spry 27 years old so it wasn't too terrible.


Questions? Comments? Advice? Leave it down below.

AORoads

Very detailed and I'm sure many will appreciate that plus the pics. Too bad about the sways not being both "more" (bar) and less need for adjustment. One thought: I hope you were also using a secondary form of support for the car (moved out of the way for pics) besides the jack stands-just a cautionary concern of mine. Otherwise, it looks good; presume you'll also be getting an alignment.

Good luck, will be interested in hearing how it handles/rides after you get the fronts sorted from Aldan!

Bootstrap342

Yes an alignment will be done as soon as I sort it all out! Typically the Jack stays underneath as well, but some stuff like the Leaf springs and sway bars it had to be removed to work on.

Bootstrap342

After speaking with Aldan American some more one of their head technicians has offered to replace the front set of shocks I was shipped with a customized 1.5" shorter set up front. That should alleviate my 4x4 look and instead of adjusting down on a non-preloaded spring, I'll be adjusting them up with a moderate amount of preload. Better deal all around. Now just to wait for Aldan to make them and send them out!

Aldan has offered this swap at no charge aside from shipping fees. Again, pretty fantastic customer service if you ask me. I'll update the thread again when the new front coilovers arrive.

96GS#007

Just to confirm, in the pic above the front has basically no preload but the rear has 1/2” and could be adjusted so the rear could be raised?

In a couple months I’ll be installing these on my GS although I’ll be using the 550/600# springs (but stock sways) since I do time trials with mine. With 550#springs in the front, I’m now concerned about the ride height. My front needs to be pretty much where yours is and the rear will need to be higher to maintain some rake for 150mph speeds.

Did Mike at TPS see this? Any response?

Bootstrap342

Tps hasn't been contacted about it. I went directly to aldan. I thought about contacting tps about the sway bars but I figured I just lost on that one. TPS isn't going to do anything about it.
I have since raised the rear and front to match. However the front is still too high for me.

96GS#007

How much preload is on the front now? I’ll want mine to sit ~1/2” lower.

I switched to my iPad vs phone and can now see in your initial pics you have a bunch of adjustability left in the rear. I’ll need mine to sit probably 0.75” higher than yours.

Dano523

Forget looks,

Start with adjusting the car heights to get you in the ball parks or corner balance, then get it on corner scales to get it adjusted correctly.


Hence if the car is not corner balanced correctly to start with, it going to be a nightmare in the regards to handling instead.

96GS#007

Hi Dano...Don’t disagree with you regarding corner weights. However, I do need to account for getting in/out of my driveway...hence the need to be a bit higher than the OP.

Like all things on a dual use (street/track) car, there will be compromises.

We’re in violent agreement saying the same thing two different ways.

Bootstrap342

Yea I'd have to find a shop with the scales to do any of that. My car was so far off from side to side oem that I'd have no idea where to start. As I stated earlier, it's not a race car, and I can't imagine that it was that far off and "within specs" in the first place. Unless a height difference of 3/4" side to side is acceptable to the GM engineers.
At any rate, I'll get her all leveled out first, and if I feel I have a problem I'll take it to some track car shop. See if they can tame it.
I do appreciate the educational materials though.

Bootstrap342

About negative 1" lol. I'll update when the custom shocks get here.

Bootstrap342

Received the shorter "SS" series shocks from Aldan American today. Installed them this evening and was able to achieve the stance I wanted. Taking it for an alignment soon. Corner Balancing may or may not be done, this car was so off from side to side the springs had to be preloaded quite a bit more on the passengers side to make the car somewhat level from side to side.
This problem could be defeated with a more expensive coilover setup that has independent height/preload adjustments. I just wanted the lowered look and do not plan to track the car so this worked out for me.
If you are considering these coilovers, and would like to lower the car at all in the front I'd recommend asking for the shorter shocks up front.
Only night time pictures for now.

96GS#007

What’s your ride height, and what’s the pre-load?

how’s the ride quality vs stock? Just firmer or is it harsh?

Looks great!

timd38

Hope they worked you deal since you appear to be doing their R&D.

Bootstrap342

Thanks! Front are near 25&1/4 rears are 26&1/2.
The fronts are adjustable for compression and the rears for rebound iirc. Both set at 2/6. So far small imperfections and bumps are felt less, but large bumps are more noticeable.

Bootstrap342

All finished up and aligned today.

BMF_C6

Thank you for a very good post, I am currently installing the exact same set up. Do you happen to have a picture of the final front sway bar / end link install. I have a question currently in the tech section about the end link adjustment length. Did you just adjust the length to match the new bar? Thanks for all you help by taking the time making this thread - I used it as a very good go by!!!!

Tyson Bartek

I just installed the same phantom setup but went with the adjustable eibach stage 2 adjustable bars.

I found that the setup they recomended in the instructions wasn't gonna work. but out of the box fronts were set to 1 inch and the rear's were 2.25 I believe and it worked out perfect.
I ended up with 25.5 up front and just a little shy of 26.75 in the rear. I wanted it a little high due to my drive way. middle setting on the rear sway bar with the adjustable endlinks. 335x30Rx18 hoosier DR2 rear and still have the 275x17 in the front.

I was curious what clicker settings your running? I'm familiar with suspension and adjustment but never with single adjustable and one different front to rear so if you or anyone reading could school me some I would appreciate it. I know its an older post but its the first time search has brought me any info on these coil overs. thanks for your time

Tyson Bartek

also front springs are 550lbs and rear's are 650lbs