Das Smaragd RS2+ Coupe

[John B]

May 2009 - 996 rear brakes

Thought I would have a look at how to mount the 996 rear brakes on the S2. First of all I had to do some maintenance on the crusty specimen that is below: -

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Managed to get the caliper nut off without issue

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....and pulled the caliper back

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oh.....those rubber seals don't look great.....there's a hole there ....this could be fun....

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[John B]

May 2009 - 996 rear brakes

Eventually the pins were persuaded to come out......oh how I hate floating calipers Clearly the holes in the rubber seals had let in moisture that had sized the pins and so the calipers no longer did their floaty thing

[ATTACH]41049[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41050[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41051[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41052[/ATTACH]

Then the caliper carriers got the heat and penetrating oil treatment

[ATTACH]41053[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41054[/ATTACH]

.....and this is what we had with and without the splash shield ( the bottom bolt would not succumb to the above treatment and eventually got the shouting, yanking and ripping off treatment )

[ATTACH]41055[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41056[/ATTACH]

[John B]

.....where are the 996 brakes I hear you ask......well here we go with the investigations proper.... I thought I would trial the RS2 front caliper adaptor on the rear with a first generation S8 rear disc (280x22mm) and then mount the caliper. This was a bit of a frig as the mounting holes of an RS2 caliper adaptor are 92mm apart (from centre hole to centre hole) whereas the bolt holes in the rear hub assembly are 90mm apart. So I used some coach bolts of sufficient thinness to get round this.

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[John B]

May 2009 - 996 rear brakes

......at this stage things looked ok: -

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I thought this could be possible....all I had to do was mount a handbrake! Dream on More on this in later months....

[domagoj]

Nice Work, Nice Car But So Much Rust. I Ve Never Seen Suspension With So Much Rust!!! Keep Going!!

[John B]

Nice Work, Nice Car But So Much Rust. I Ve Never Seen Suspension With So Much Rust!!! Keep Going!!

Yeah, living in the wet areas on Yorkshire and Fife took its toll .......and now the car lives in Cumbria....and it isn't called the Lake District for nothing

[domagoj]

Yeah, living in the wet areas on Yorkshire and Fife took its toll .......and now the car lives in Cumbria....and it isn't called the Lake District for nothing

I konw!!!!!

[John B]

September 2009 - More rear brake investigations!

Noticed a humming sound from the front left wheel area but only after about half an a hour's running......hmmm......could this be a wheel bearing...

Anyway got on with having a look at the two types of disc that I bought for the rear. Here is the S8 280x22 disc that I trialled in the earlier post - notice the high hat height...

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....compared to the S4 300x22 disc shown here: -

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Both discs have good swept area.

[John B]

January 2010 - Suspension Upgrade

Well I had actually stuck to my plans.....amazing ....and fixed all the issues in the first list (What I considered safety-related and therefore essential) except the brake warning light needed to be cancelled each time I started the car. At this time is suspected it was the bomb but I still got enough pressure and so left it for later. The coolant issue had not gone away but I had made progress. On the second list (Advisable to replace/repair) I had replaced the exhaust and refurbished the wheels.......so now it was time for upgrades

These would include suspension bushes, springs and shocks, CV boots and wheel bearings.....so here we are......some random shots of this work.......

Those nuts on the top of the struts were ridiculously hard to get off even with the right tool. I managed to get new gaiters but here is an old one
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Crusty wishbones of the pressed type and those bushes are truly sha**ed
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Here is the hub assembly - again those nuts and bolts to the struts were hard to get off. I suspected the bearings were on their last legs.
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Here is the crustacean that was my front strut!
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[John B]

January 2010 - Suspension Upgrade 2

Another pic of the crusty strut
[ATTACH]41095[/ATTACH]

In its life the front left shock had been replaced from the OEM Boge item (yellow one) to the Bilstein item (blue one)
[ATTACH]41096[/ATTACH]

Various other pictures of suspension components coming off
[ATTACH]41097[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41098[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41099[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41100[/ATTACH]

In the first shot you can see the downpipe has lost most of its heat shielding......this car has had some serious weather to put up with!
[ATTACH]41101[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41102[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41103[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41104[/ATTACH]

[John B]

January 2010 - Suspension Upgrade 3

Trying to get the outer wishbone knuckle out - it needed some persuasion
[ATTACH]41105[/ATTACH]

Now for some new stuff! Here are the new urethane bushes pressed in - I went for Superflex
[ATTACH]41106[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]41107[/ATTACH]

This what you get in the Lemforder OEM kit for the above knuckle plus the adjuster plate. BTW the bolt is the pinch bolt for attaching the knuckle to the hub assembly.[ATTACH]41108[/ATTACH]

Another picture of the hub assembly pre-restoration
[ATTACH]41109[/ATTACH]

This is sometimes what happens with rusty bolts put on with high degrees of torque!
[ATTACH]41110[/ATTACH]

[Greg_S]

Try the high impact drivers I had better luck not breaking them

[bilko0795]

John anymore updates

[John B]

Try the high impact drivers I had better luck not breaking them

Yeah......got some now. They do work a treat

John anymore updates

Yes, 3 1/2 years worth

Sorry......suffering with lack of time on writing up. I will start posting again with plenty of pictures this week......promise

P.S. The postman brought some very nice stuff today......RS2 mirrors.....

[John B]

February 2010 - 996 Rears

Well having done some initial measurement, I lashed out and bought these bad boys: -

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AP Racing's finest hand brake calipers used on the R8, Lambo Gallardo, Aston Martins etc. I got the idea from seeing a great picture of a Ford GT40 with these on and got thinking will they fit onto these rusty specimens: -

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