suspension picture show extravaganza
 

I just got my suspension, konis and eibachs. I thought I'd share the process of installing them, because I went through alot of threads with a couple of technical pictures and alot of people saying its easy. Hopefully this helps :D .

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

rear suspension is done tonight.. finishing the rest tommorow morning.

The first thing I did was loosen the top nut on the shock while the car was still on the ground. I used a vice grip to hold keep the shock from spinning and a 17mm wrench on the nut. then I cracked the lug bolts and jacked up the car from the back, put it on stands and took of the wheels.

with the car on stands, the plastic shield around the control arm came off with two 10 mm bolts. the shield unclips with some convincing.

the lower bolt on the shock (the one on the left) can be removed, and a jack can be positioned under the lower control arm.

the other two bolts come out pretty easily, I left the sway bar for last. You may need to adjust the jack a couple times to get the weight off the bolts.

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

Let the jack down slowly, and the spring will just dangle in the control arm. It is safe to push the lower control arm down to remove the shock and spring at this point. I recommend removing the spring pad as well and putting it on the eibach springs, locked into the correct position.

the black plastic shield needs to be removed from the stock shock. I put the metal part of the dust shield in a vice and pulled and the shield popped right off. The original bump stop must be removed, trimmed 20mm (2cm) and reinstalled onto the konis all of the original shock bushings are reused. With the konis, a plastic washer, new sleeve, new nut, lockwasher and washer are included. The metal part of the dust shield needs to be drilled to 12mm in order to accpet the koni's larger shaft. :D

reassemble, rinse (brooklyner weissbeir was my choice) and repeat.

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

fantastic, thank you for all the pictures

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Have you had a chance to drive it yet. Wondering about the ride quality.

Bought a used SRT and thinking about Koni's to improve day to day ride quality and yet be able to adjust for weekend cruise/track

JB

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

Thank you for the springs and shocks :cool: .

I took it around the block, the back feels great! Just reversing out of my driveway felt better than it used to. I have a feeling the fronts will make more of a difference. I guess I'm about to find out for sure..

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

On to the fronts..

The top shock nut needs to be removed while the car is still on the ground, those are the black caps under the hood. Crack the lug bolts loose on the ground.

Jack the car up, and remove the plastic belly pan and front wheels.

position a jack under the lower control arm (in a spot where it won't slip!) and compress the spring a little. Remove the two 22mm bolts (with the torx bit on the othe side.. you don't need a torx bit though) and let the jack out slowly. You may need to use a pry bar to guide the Lower control arm out of its mounts. *NOTE: I would not recommend removing the sway bar from its mount. I did on the passenger side, and nothing lined up. It ended up taking over 4 hours to get everything back in line. The driver's side took 30-45 minutes total. *


With the control arm unbolted and the stress off of the spring, the shock can be easily removed. The front shocks must go through the same procedure as the rear, minus trimming the bump stops. The control arm can be pulled down and the spring can be guided out.

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

And now the fun part... Reassembly!!

The new springs go in easily enough. Again, I recommend removing the spring pad from its pocket and lining it up on the spring before the spring goes in. With the spring in place, the new shock can be put in place, and the lower bolt can go back in.

Jack the control arm up on the mount closest to the front of the car first. It may take some convincing to get everything to line up.
The large bolts can only go in one way, as the have an oval shaped seat on the torx side. The bolts slide right in when the control arm is in the right position, having an extra set of hands really helps with this step!

NOTE: It would have made things easier if I would have drawn a line across the bolt indicating where the oval seat was. (I wish I would have taken a picture of what I mean, but you will understand when you see the bolts).

oops the last picture doesn't belong here, but it shows how much easier it was to keep the sway bar in.. Notice how straight the mounts for the control arm are.

Tighten everything up, put the wheels back on and let 'er down. Tighten up the top shock mount and take her for a ride!

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

While the car was in the air, I changed the oil and the steering damper. The damper took about 3 minutes to change.

The new shocks and springs feel great! With the shocks near full soft, the ride feels stock, but doesn't bounce around turns. With the stiffness cranked up, body roll is virtually eliminated. When cornering over bumps, the bumps no longer jerk the wheel around (probably the steering damper). The springs reduce body motion, most notably during braking and hard accel.

In short, my car feels better than it ever did in every way!

If anyone has any questions, or if I skipped something important let me know!:cool:

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finished product.. went from nice weather to haze while I was taking these. kind of weird.

Another added bonus is I can see stoplights with the stinkbug look gone. It really looks great with the back level with the front.

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Downwardspiral,
Thanks for all this great info. I'm just getting ready to do mine. Appreciate it!!!

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thank you man this will really help when i am ready to swap out the suspension amazing write up with excellent detail and pics. really appreciate the effort you put into it this is what the community is all about.

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

That's just about what I did, except that I used a four-point lift. I was going to take pictures, but i got so caught up in the work, that I forgot.

Excellent thread!

Hey, just curious, did your rear springs have clear rubber wraps around the coils on one end? Mine did.

Also, ever since the install, I've had an annoying, little, muffled thumpety thump in the rear when going over small bumps at speed. I've had the car up on the lift 3 times to check torques and to re-do the tightening process. I have no idea what it is, but it sounds like it is coming from both sides. Anything going on in the back of your car now?

Thanks!

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

No problem.. I got so much info from this forum it's time I contribute something :o .

It is tough to remember to stop and grab the camera when you get into the process of things haha. Yeah, mine had the clear wrap on the rears, I just left it on. Since I got the car I heard a little thump from the rear over bumps, not sure if its the same one you hear but I just ignore it. Does it do it on every bump?

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

[quote=downwardspiral]No problem.. I got so much info from this forum it's time I contribute something :o .quote]

Great write up, congratulations on a job well done.

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Good job, great info and looks great.

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thanks :D .

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Did you ever figure this out, mine is doing it too. The thing is I didn't have time to put the rears in, I started but was having problems getting the bolt for the control arm loose. So I put it back together and I'm getting a thunk, like something is loose, sound really bad. The only thing I didn't do is put the plastic covers back on.

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

Well I got the problem fixed. I unbolted the inner bolt for the control arm, the one that connects to the frame. I'm guessing I tightened it too much before I got it on the ground and preloaded the spring or I over torqued the bolt finishing up. I loosened the bolt with it on a jack then put it back on the ground and torqued it to 40 pounds, no more clunking.

Re: suspension picture show extravaganza
 

Awsome pics! I was wondering when your old stock shocks wore out did the front bumper scrape the road when driving thorough dips in the road?? Has any one had this problem before?