504 suspension settings

73 504

New member
Tadpole
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
6
Location
Gold Coast
Trying to dial in a nice suspension setup. Has anyone got any dimensioned technical drawings? This would help me to calculate roll centres and so on.
 
Raising the front of the rear trailing arm mounts made a dramatic improvement to traction on a gravel rally car recently.
 
Thanks Graham. That's the sort of info I'm looking for, although I won't be rallying it. Looking for comfort over not-so-good roads, but not wanting it to flop all over said road.
 
The only rear shockers that are worthwhile are the original 35 year old 505 STi/GTi ones! Everything else is too soft, so maybe custom made is the way to go? I have recently bought a 505 with Pedders Comfort Gas, needless to say they are terrible. Record front shocks work well, should be able to get these from EAI.
 
Fit negative camber struts from 84 onwards 505 with 1983 504 wagon arms. Series 2 505 (Dec 1985 onward) also have a better offset spring seat. Some people use the longer early 505 or 604 arms on standard 504/early505 struts to give increased track and negative camber, although you don't gain the same negative camber as the wheel turns. I haven't tried both to compare their plus's and minus's in practice.

Use front (87lbs/in) springs and rear (250lbs/in) springs from a late 505 STI or early GTI (84 and 85 models).

You can use a 604 rear swaybar (19mm) and a 505 STI front swaybar or KMAC swaybar( both 27mm) to tune the handling to your preference.

You can also use 505 rear hub carriers to widen the track or alternatively use 505 trailing arms for more negative camber and increased track. Unless you stick with really skinny tyres, you can't fit both the 505 arms plus the hub carriers.
 
I have heard that this is "the go".
If you use 505 rear hub carriers, I guess you need to upgrade to 505 drive shafts ? If so, probably better anyway....secondhand 504 one are getting pretty thin on the ground, but still plenty of 505 ones around.
 
Fit negative camber struts from 84 onwards 505 with 1983 504 wagon arms. Series 2 505 (Dec 1985 onward) also have a better offset spring seat. Some people use the longer early 505 or 604 arms on standard 504/early505 struts to give increased track and negative camber, although you don't gain the same negative camber as the wheel turns. I haven't tried both to compare their plus's and minus's in practice.

Do all series 2 which have the offset spring seat have negative camber by default ?

1621881268248.png
 
Do not use 505 struts with the off set spring seats on a 504. On full bump the spring seat will fowl on the outboard reinforcement on the 504
 
Do not use 505 struts with the off set spring seats on a 504. On full bump the spring seat will fowl on the outboard reinforcement on the 504
Would that be a problem in a daily driver ? or only when used in racing/rallying ?
 
That would depend on the size of and the speed you hit speed humps.
There is nothing to be gained by fitting off set spring seat type strut as this was done to align the spring thrust towards the contact point of the tyre to prevent “ stickstion “. of the front struts
 
There is nothing to be gained by fitting off set spring seat type strut as this was done to align the spring thrust towards the contact point of the tyre to prevent “ stickstion “. of the front struts

Negative camber ?
 
Here's my 504 with 505 lower arms... to my inexperenced eyes, she looks just like a stock 504, but i can feel improvement in handling.
Thanks Ian for supplying the parts, and thanks to ThanosK for the ideas
20210529_164241.jpg
 
The earlier 505 struts without the offset springs will do the same thing.
A bit lost here, please pardon my ignorance.
I think we can agree that the picture shows some negative camber (0.4 deg. confirmed during suspension geometry check).

1- Will the earlier 505 struts offer the same ?
2- If the car is always driven on silky smooth roads and very rarely loaded, will what Rally said still be considered a problem ?

Main problem for me is that I cannot tell the difference between what you guys call "negative camber struts" & the regular struts (haven't seen them side by side to visually compare). When I saw these offset spring struts (which are supposedly late model 505 but don't know which trim level) I thought they're the ones to go for.
But I was happy to get that negative camber when I installed them after having endured positive camber since 1982 :ROFLMAO:
 
Negative camber struts came out on the later STis (1984) here in Australia. Then the series 2 GTis had the same camber but the offset springs as well. Early 505 struts were the same as late 504. If you use LCAs from a late 504 (these have the screw on balljoint) you can fit the negative camber struts to a 504, if you use the 505 arms then you will then have too much negative camber. Other wise fit early 505 arms (with the rebuildable ball joint) to a 504 with 504 struts, this will give you about the same about of negative camber as the late struts with 504 arms.
 
Top