jonathancl

I wondered if it would be possible to remove the shock with the suspension arm still attached.

The shop manual says to detach it. But then the shop manual said to remove the ABS speed sensor and brake caliper, which I didn't do.

jonathancl

I haven't had the car aligned yet, thought I would give it some miles to settle, since I understand they do sometimes.

Ride comfort: stiffer, no float, no bounce. Lousy roads are less pleasant, but decent roads feel fabulous. Hiways feel especially solid.

Steering: less play, more responsive. This surprised and delighted me.

Cornering: less roll. I haven't really pushed it yet, but I like what I've felt so far.

Appearance: fabulous. I love it.



One caveat: my dad's shop jack no longer fits under the front. You need to lift the front bumper 1cm to allow the jack to slide under, which I do with one hand, very manly-like

flossn

ok that was my bad, I was confused on my suspension parts and though the ball joint was being pressed out in the pic. I ran this thread by him and he says it should be fairly easy. He also suggested that I might not even need the pitman arm puller, just a pry bar and a hammer

He still suggests taking the springs to a shop and having them change them rather then messing with that type of spring compressor shown in the pics.

TLW

wow great writeup

i agree with everything you wrote

congrats man

but for those who will disconnect not remove the upper ball joint

a couple of good wacks with a mini slegde hammer will free it also if you are in a bind


just make sure you hit it on the metal

it will break free ..Trust me LOL

jonathancl

I must say, those spring compressors worked very well; you can insert a 1/2" drive right into the top of the them and crank with a ratchet.

But the fronts were difficult; those springs are under serious pressure even at full extension.

The rears, however, are easy; you don't have to compress them much at all.

flossn

That's good to know. I suppose it's all in getting them parallel to each other and compressing each side a little at a time right? I called a guy I know who runs a shop and he quoted me $500 to do this No thanks. I hope to tackle this on Sunday and will definetly be using this guide for the install. Thanks!!

Tony

Cannonbear

I did that install a few weeks ago. Pain in the ***. took 8 hours. another 6 hours to take them off. if you can, take the springs/shocks to a shop and have them use airtools on the spring compressors. so much easier and faster, trust me on it.

DetMich1

Jonathan, if you like how the car handles now, after the L-tuned install, wait til you take some hard corners at speed after putting on the Daizen anti-sway bars , front and rear. OMG! You are gonna love it!

flossn

So i finally got around to starting this project. This thread is printed out and on my workbench as we speak.

I was able to get the front shock/spring assembly's off without unbolting the steering knuckle. Simply turning the steering wheel will give you enough clearance to get the shock past the brake assembly. It also keeps you from having to worry about putting pressure on the abs lines.

No problems with the spring compressors shown in the pictures either. I don't know what all the fuss is over them. FWIW, i'm about 2 hours into the project so far and i have both fronts out and am in the middle of assembling the L-Tuned pieces. Everything has been going smooth except for i managed to crack my craftsman socket trying to break one of the lower strut bolts loose. Luckily I had a extra so I added a pipe to the breaker bar and it worked like a charm!

So far so good, and to think my mechanic wanted to charge me $500

Cannonbear

you're lucky then, my springs broke the compressors and were a PAIN to install. I also damaged the knuckle as well (it spins instead of stayin put) gotta fix that.

jonathancl

That's so awesome. You've made my day.

cal_alum98

That's a great write-up. Unfortunately, I don't trust myself to do this work after my transmission pan debacle. I'm currently at Exact Motorsports as I type this, so hopefully my car won't run into any installation issues. *knock on wood*

flossn

Suspension is installed!! My car travels straight down the road, but i will probably get a alignment anyways.

Here are some added pointers for anyone doing this themselves:

1. mark the the upper strut plate and the end of the lower part of the spring perch so you can re-align them how they need to be. DO THIS ON THE FACTORY SETUP BEFORE TAKING IT APART SO YOU KNOW WHERE TO MARK THE NEW ONES. Don't worry about marking the spring, it won't match up with the L-Tuned anyways. I never took the other front apart yet and it should go 10x faster this way.

2. The ltuned symbol faces forward and when putting on the compressors. put the compressors on either side of the sybol so it's centered between the two compressors. that way you can test fit them on the car before you decompress them. on the driver side the L-Tuned symbol will face towards the car so you can't see it, but the placement of the compressors holds true.

3. I would almost say air tools are necessary with this type of compressor. maybe im just weak, but it would take some serious strength to compress the last little bit needed when putting them together. Ditto for the rear lower suspension bolts. I added a pipe to the end of the breaker bar to get them loose.

4. i used wood boards when lowering the car off the jack, even with my 20's, the jack wanted to catch on the plastic undercover.

That's about it. I spent about 9 hours total, including breaks and raising/lowering the car and going slow since I haven't done this before. I wasted a good amount of time getting the first front assembly aligned because I never marked the perch and strut cap before disassembling them, so you should be able to get this done in a lot less time.

I'll get some pics up sometime next week, 'cause my car is going in for a detail on monday

Tony

NoS

Holy crap! I thought my dad and me would be able to put these on in a couple hours.... Guess I should start looking for a shop to do this... I dont trust myself nor my dad lol.... and I pray to god nothing goes wrong or I wont hear the end of it from the mom lol.

sockfocks

iTrader: (1)

hmm....is this similar to a 1999 GS300?....it looks the same...my springs are coming in a few days and i want to do the install myself...