removal of sway bar endlinks are not necessary. after you remove the upper arm and unbolt the old strut you should be able to wiggle it out while prying down on the hub or pushing down on it enough to clear. For some ppl the sway bar endlinks may be impossible to remove. That was my case. I eventually changed them out at a later time and they were rusted up and stuck. My mechanic had to blow torch them off i guess it wont be as bad for the guys who live in warmer areas and have less wear on thier cars. the whole job can be done in 2 hours if you have airtools and there is no complications. the rears take a mere 20-30 minutes. and the fronts about 30-40 minutes a peice.

 

Did anyone save those pictures? Is there any way the mods can insert the pictures back into the thread via CL pic hosting? the links are dead and this thread is EXACTLY what I need for my summer upgrades!

 

Sorry about the links Guys. I rebuilt my webserver forever ago and forgot this was up here. I fixed the links.

 

bump for a nice write up

 

if it comes with the pillow ball mount like the megans..u dont need a spring compressor anymore do u?

 

it depends if the coilover comes assembled or not.

If assembled, no spring compressor is needed. If unassembled, $30 and a trip to Auto Zone is in the works for some spring compressors.

 

I have a newbish question. My friend that has a is300 said that after he reinstalled the LCA on his car, he used a jack and pushed the LCA up then let it come back down. He said he did this because the balljoints wouldn't break. Is this necessary or can i just reinstall the LCA, put the wheel back on and go?

 

awesome thread mike!! i bookmarked this one for future reference! - Philip -

 

im trying to install my coilovers right now, and im stuck at the very beginning still..where you have to use the allen wrench and the 14mm open wrench to remove the bolt off the endlink sway bar..is it supposed to be THIS hard? it seems to be stuck and wont want to remove at all..ive tried removing the top or the bottom..the top is like super stuck on there..and the bottom..i can spin it around, but not remove it..any help? hints?

 

i think i might have just stripped the allen bolt..if i did..would i need to replace the whole endlink sway bar? or just a bolt? this sucks! im stuck and i cant get my coils on!

 

I removed mine with a air impact on the nut and just applied a side load to the link to keep it from spinning. No allen wrench. It was stubborn but they came loose.

 

did you remove the top one or the bottom one? i think i might try that..but ill have to go to a buds place since i dont have one

 

I actually removed the top first then the bottom. I didnt really follow this procedure. I didnt remove my upper A arms. I acually unbolted the lower shock bolt and used a 2x4 to push the a-arms down. Then pushed the shock inward to remove the outer bolt on the U-bracket the the shock bolts to. Then I move the shock out to remove the inner bolt that holds the u-bracket. From that point the bracket comes out and the shock can be fished out. All you have to take off is the sway bar link, the u-bracket and the upper and lower shock bolts.

Takes me a half hour a side but I have done it 3 times.

 

do you even have to remove the sway bar end link? or is there a way to install the coils without touching those? because i have the lexus repair manual and when i saw how to remove the front shocks..it didnt say anything about touching the sway links..because since i might have stripped mine, i was wondering if i can install them without messing with those and save up to buy the end links later..the main things to remove were the washer tank, fender liner, disconnect the abs sensor and wire harness, disconnect the upper suspension arm, then the bolts, then the shocks..so this should work then right? may take a bit longer, but i can ditch the end links parts so i can lower it already

 

All I removed was the sway links and the U-shaped shock mount. You can do all that other stuff but I have done it three times by just removing those two parts.