A bunch of questions

[Paul]

Hmm...well, after reading Paul's thesis, I guess either my shocks are more harsh in my current car or else my butt has gotten more sensitive . !So you guys are saying to just hack off half of the bump stops (with the OGTS lowering spring)?

Todd, you MAY be getting soft in your old age..... On both my GTs with the OGTS sport Spring, I cut the stops shorter and at an angle to give a "progressive" rate increase. Seems to work very well. One has Koni's and the other GR-2s

I've lowered the ride height of my Manta with new springs and shocks, but I haven't cut the bump stops on that car yet either. !

Todd, from other discussions, I believe you springs don't have as much drop as the ones I'm using on my lowered Manta, but I HAD to cut the stops by75% and I drilled holes in them to allow them to have some "give" to them

MonkeyNutZ, I'd still go with the 14" wheels and 195/60/14 tires with more sidewall, as you have suggested.

I'm running 195/60-14s, and with the right tire, handline is very good and ride quality doesn't suffer

[markandson]

I have Poly bump stops in my GT that are very low profile, they are mentioned somewhere here on the site but I don't remember where. If anyone wants I can look up where I got them. I believe I had to open up the holes just a tad in order to get the studs through since they are not metric thread .

[SpringGT]

Based on some rough calculations I did, a 195/60/14 will be about the same size as a 195/50/15 (about half an inch larger total) but will have .75" more sidewall height and I'm thinking that that extra 10% in thickness will make quite a difference in ride quality.

Here is what 195/60/14 Pirellis look like on 14" wheels. Overall diameter is about 23.2 inches.

[markandson]

Mis-information disseminated by me....oops....my tires are 195/50 R15 they are not 195/45's as I posted yesterday.

[MonkeyNutZ]

Here is what 195/60/14 Pirellis look like on 14" wheels. Overall diameter is about 23.2 inches.

Is that GT lowered? I'm a little worried about clearance.

EDIT: It seems that there are very few 14" wheels that have the 4x100 pattern. So I'm thinking of switching to 13" any thoughts?

Wheels from BMW 2002s are quite easy to find and would work with 195/60/13s. That'd be the same section width and sidewall height so I doubt the handling would be affected.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/set-o...Q5fAccessories

EDIT2: I'd like to find some '73 GT wheels but I haven't seen any turn up recently, if anyone has a set they'd like to part with shoot me a PM.

[SpringGT]

No, the GT has not been lowered, front or rear. I have never had any clearance problems with this tire/wheel combination.

I got the wheels from Riken back in the early 1990's and am not sure that they are still in business any more.

The height of this combo is 23.2 " and the height of the stock 165/78/13 setup is 23.1, so they are nearly identical.

[MonkeyNutZ]

Due to the difficulty of finding 14" wheels with the right lug pattern I was thinking of picking up some Unique Aftermarket Steel wheels (#83) and adding beauty rings (or painting the outer edge) and Opel center caps.

My question is would the 35mm offset work, especially with the 1" lowering sport spring?

EDIT: The 72mm center bore would work I assume.

[MonkeyNutZ]

I finally removed the leaf from the suspension cross member, but as you know the lower control arm mount is "trapped" into the control arm by the inner metal sleeves. Well, it seems I may have done a bad thing, an overzealous family member hammered out the outer metal sleeve in an effort to remove the mount from the LCA and it seems that OGTS doesn't sell a replacement outer sleeve.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I did eventually get the mount out of the LCA by carefully using an oxyacetylene torch to cut a line down the side of the inner sleeve and pulling it off with pliers. I still haven't done the other, non-damaged control arm. Is there an easier way?

EDIT2: I will probably have to replace the whole control arm anyway because the damage to the spring eye area (pictures on last page) may also relate to structural or alignment problems. I'll go measure the arm to see if it's been bent tomorrow. If it isn't I'll need to find a replacement outer sleeve, if it is I'll need to find a replacement LCA with the outer sleeve intact.

Any thoughts? (Especially those on dissembling the lower control arms from their mounts.)

[trlmr]

Regarding an earlier post of mine; I got a chance this weekend to look at the clearance of the bump stops. They appear to have about 1 inch of clearance at the A-arm. They also appear to have never touched the A-arm. The car has stock bump stops with the intermediate spring from OGTS.

I also had to get a replacement outer sleeve. I know this isn't the most cost effective way, but I ordered a complete new rubber bushing from OGTS and then removed the rubber with heat to get the sleeve to use with the poly bushing.

If you can't find a replacement lower arm, you should be able to repair the lower control arm by welding in a hardened washer where the spring eye would be. If you don't have the tools it would be a simple job for any shop

Hope this was of help. Tom

[MonkeyNutZ]

Hope this was of help. Tom

It was indeed, pity about the $20 price tag though.

Another question, how can I figure out what year my extra intake manifold is? There is a "72" stamped in a circle but the intake off of my 73 Gt also says "72"

Also, how much should I ask for the manifold?

[MonkeyNutZ]

A bump for the intake manifold questions and a new question.

I got my heater box out and the whole setup is baffling. I can see that the cowel feeds the fan and the dash vents. What's got me is what exactly do the dash vents do? They can't blow air can they?

[RallyBob]

Another question, how can I figure out what year my extra intake manifold is? There is a "72" stamped in a circle but the intake off of my 73 Gt also says "72"

Then both are '72 intakes. If a '73 GT built in January used an intake made in Dec. '72, it's still a '73 GT!

[Redskinsjbs]

The two outer dash vents simply bring in fresh air into the passenger compartment. It is a part of the passive airflow through the car.

[markandson]

I have Poly bump stops in my GT that are very low profile, they are mentioned somewhere here on the site but I don't remember where. If anyone wants I can look up where I got them. I believe I had to open up the holes just a tad in order to get the studs through since they are not metric thread .

I was cleaning up last night and found the box to the bump stops that I used in my car. They are Energy Suspension #99121 and available here

[opelnut_1]

Rather the open up the holes for the non-metric why would you not run a die over the threads to make the threads on the bumpstop metric (More Euro)

Just a thought and curious

[markandson]

Rather the open up the holes for the non-metric why would you not run a die over the threads to make the threads on the bumpstop metric (More Euro)

Just a thought and curious

Opening up the holes does no damage and you could still use the original stops if you wanted to because the amount you have to increase the hole size is minimal. IMO re-threading is not a good option. You would actually have to decrease the size of the stud to get it to fit through the hole and running a die down it would not accomplish that, it would only add another set of crossing threads onto the existing stud. In addition you would have to hold the new bump stop in a vise via the rubber end and the torque of re-threading might rip the stud loose from the poly.

[myopels]

Mokeynutz, I have 17' on my manta and my GT and they run great. They fill the wheel wells real nice, and I have some low profile 215-40-17 tires. Was pretty leery about going so big, but they only rub on the sway bar on the manta on park maneuvers, and no front or rear fender clearance problems. I changed them from 13 inchers because there are very few HP tires for them any more, and tons for the big boys. Also, now I have all the clearance for the monster brakes that I want to install. Another small detail is that your tire to pavement contact patch increases with bigger diameters, so you have better handling traction all around. Besides 13 inch wheels look like baby coach wheels now.

[MonkeyNutZ]

I'm in the process of removing the wiring harness when I notice that the drivers side rotator has four wires to the micro switches (two each) while the passengers side has three wires for the one switch. The drivers side switches have the extra connectors but no wires.

?