Suspension work

["Bain, Bill" <Bill.Bain@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been skimming the posts and this one seems to come up quite a bit,
so here's my $0.02: 

1.  The stock Spider (or any stock Alfa) is a *very* good handling
street car right out of the box.  At this point a relative minority of
US alfisti have driven a *new* Alfa, particularly the 105/115 chassis,
and the cars' age  will certainly have affected the stock suspension
even if the car has been well-maintained otherwise.  While I have a W&D
street suspension with Koni red's in my spider, it is a bit stiffer than
I would like solely for street use, but since the car sees track time .
. . .  For a street car, I really do think the original Alfa
springs/swaybar are the right setup as a balance of ride comfort and
handling.  I would use (and have used in my car) SuperFlex and SuperPro
poly bushings -- towards the end of the Spider's life, even Alfa started
to use poly -- the OEM rear swaybar mounts that I got from Spruell in
the red Alfa bag are a poly/rubber blend (poly shell around a rubber
core).  I'm sure you'll  get some differing opinions on this one, but
the best way to do this on a budget is to see if you can drive other
Spiders that have differing suspension setups and see which ones you
like.  Alfa Club membership is a wonderful thing!  :-)

2.  If you go aftermarket, you need to understand that since the
suspension is a system, it's unlikely that you will achieve the desired
results without installing all of the recommended parts of the system.
To illustrate from personal experience:  On my first pass, I installed
KYB gas shocks and stock rear springs as a replacement for sagging stock
rear springs.  The DPO had put W&D front springs in before I bought the
car.  Sounds good, right?  Nope.  Two problems:  new stock springs
*raised* the rear of the car over what it was before, and of course, the
W&D front springs *lowered* the front end, wich wasn't really noticable
with the sag in the rear.  The KYB gas shocks, unlike the oil shocks
that were in the car, resist compression as well as expansion,
effectively increasing the force required to compress the spring.  The
combination of these two interfered with the weight transfer during
acceleration and braking, and the car was excessively loose, and a real
handful to drive since there's not a lot of weight over the rear wheels
on a Spider to begin with.  Also the KYBs are not spec'ed for Spiders
and they do not permit the same degree of suspension travel as the OEM
shocks, or Konis, which exacerbated the problem further.  I then
installed W&D rear springs  and Konis, which is was recommended by Alan
Ward for my setup, even then I had less than optimal handling because
there were problems with the rear sway bar end link bushings, and it
wasn't until I got that issue resolved and the entire system in that it
feels the way it should.  If Centerline or IAP or Alan Ward or Dave Rugh
recommend a particular brand of shock with their springs, use that one.
I think a lot of folks are very pleased with Bilsteins.

2. Most, if not all, aftermarket suspension setups will involve
stiffening the suspension, and particularly on older Spiders (pre-1982)
that is not necessarily a good thing.  Stiffening up the suspension on
those cars puts more "twist" into the admittedly flexible chassis.  In
1982 or so, the chassis was stiffened, but it's still pretty flexible by
today's standards.  The problem with a flexible chassis is that the
degree of suspension response is not nearly as predicable if the chassis
is flexing, but there are plenty of 1974 Spiders that go pretty fast so
this might be a somewhat theoretical issue.  At any rate, it's not
surprising that most folks find the chassis stiffener to be an
improvement.



My $0.02, YMMV 

Bill Bain 
AROC Atlanta 
'83 Spider 
'87 Milano 
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