hardest part is removing the stock uncut coil springs in your car. i have the correct puller so you wont kill your self.
Its a lever. 1" difference at the shock mount location should equate to more than an inch out at the wheel. I use a spacer under my bracket which also doubles as my shock tower brace plate.
$1100 may sound expensive, but compared to the cost of all new front-end parts plus springs and shocks, it's really not that much more. I *almost* wish I had gone that route, but after these parts are all worn out, I can justify doing it.
Here we go, we set today aside to do all the work. The car was already at the shop since I was working on the alternator. Put the car on the hoist and started removing the shock tower braces, just loosened the ones closer to the windshield and undid the ones holding the top of the shock in place. Here is the shock just slightly lifted out of the way. This is the passenger side. Used a jack to the to the bolts that attach the shock to the spring perches. Hard to see but that's one of the bolts there that attaches the shock to the spring perch. Here you can see the back bolt, by raising the suspension, it's so much easier getting at it. thanks Bryant for the tip. Just lifted the shock tower brace up and shifted it a little out of the way. This is the spring removal tool that bryant had, there are other ones but he said this is a pretty safe one. Dropped it down from the top to hook it onto the bottom of the spring. Here you can see it hooking onto the top of the springs. Tadaa. I'm impressed it was so easy to pull out. I was expecting a battle and some bloody knuckles. This is what I'm left with. Later I'll take this cover off. It's there to keep the shock tower solid and well braced. Passenger side. Here are the 2 springs, nice and neat. Funny story, I left them out, the shop kid that tidies things up stood them up under the hoist and the hoist was slowly coming down when we went to lunch and I guess it compressed the spring on the ground and shot it across the shop. Here are the goodies. I was very pleased with the instructions. They were well done, very simple, colored pictures. Every box had it's own instruction papers. They asked for the threads to be chased with a tap. Considering how large these bolts threads are I didn't like this step. I doubt a lot of people would have a thread chaser/tap. I would have preferred for $1,100-1,300 that this would have been done. This was the frustrating part here. So they require you to use a mircometer tool to measure how much thread is sticking out. On both sets the bolts were too high and had to be ground down. And thennnnn, I still had to chase the threads with this other thread tap. Thank god for this kit Bryant had. The poly bushings needed to get pushed in by hand, not hard. Grease was included in the kit. Here is another tough part. Definitely need a press for this next part (maybe a vice would have worked but instructions asked for a press). Trust me, this part wasn't easy. The instructions have all sorts of measurements that you have to do to make sure that the 2 ends line up correctly. Then they want you to tighten it until you feel a "definite" tight spot which I didn't feel on one of the setups. Then you have to set it in a vice and "turn less than half a turn until tight"....ok, define tight. Fred tight? Mo tight? Bryant tight? Left the shock assembly aside for now. Time to tackle the shock towers. The spot weld drill bit was included which sucked. I don't have another bit to compare it to but the amount of force and effort needed to me made that useless. Here is the underside of the shock tower. There are 3 spot welds that need to be cut. I tried doing it with the spot weld cutter only and nothing was happening. So I drilled a small hole and then went back over it with the spot weld bit.
Here is the rest of the spot welds cut, after that Bryant had the idea of using an air hammer and removing the outside shock tower brace. Here the spring seat is removed. These 2 pieces have gone on the wall of shame and will be properly taken care of when the time is right. Blood was shed... Here is the shock tower adapter that was supposed to be the 2" drop one I asked for. I called them and asked why they sent me the 1" one. He said I don't need the 2" one and the 1" will be plenty. Now, tell me how this guy knew how much I wanted to drop my car. Very disappointed that the guy on the phone was so dismissive but that's their service, take it or leave it right? Removed the spring perches. It gets worse. In order to get the top seat to fit the springs have to be compressed. Can't use a regular compressor, need one that fits on the outside. So we figured out our own method. That's it, it's done!
It drives amazing, the suspension is very firm. It's double adjustable for recoil and rebound 16 positions each way. I set it to 50/50. The spring is a 450 spring rate. Going on the freeway over wavy road it handles amazing. There is no more wobbling and it feels solid in the front. Problem, the car sits 1" higher than before. Yea, it'll probably drop 1-2" at the most, that's still not where I wanted it to be. There was grinding, tapping, micrometer measuring and pressing that I think could have been done at the factory.
good writeup! i agree with you on the work you had to do yourself - with a price tag that high, it should have been taken care for at the manufacturer!
Great pics and write-up! I laughed at the blood shed... I was also surprised at the amount of assembly, especially the grinding. You guys did a great job though, I am seriously interested in this setup for my front end. Enjoy it!
