[zeroindigo]

To begin:::

GET THESE!:evil:
Jack the car up and place it on jack stands, I did the front end first...

take off the wheel and use a 12m ratchet to take the break line off the mount connected to the body of the strut.

remove the knuckle bolts from the stut and allow the break to drop and free the strut.

Remove two of the three nuts at the top of the strut (located under the hood). While removing the last nut reach under the fender well and hold on to the body of the strut and make sure it does not drop and damage your CV boot.

Do the same on the other side in the front.
Now you have these out(left) and have made room for your new coilovers

be sure before putting your coilovers in that the ride height and spring pre-load colars are locked in place, you may want to use blue threadlocker to secure it in place, FYI, out of the bax the ride height is maybe a three inch drop from stock. I would recommend increasing the ride height (adjusted by threading the knuckle down the body of the strut) about another two inches or so in fron and 2.2 inches in the rear. Preload the spring about 4 or 5 rotations pas the point where you can no longer hand tighten it and lock the colars against eachother.
They should be ready to go in now. ( note I made the mistake for you of putting these in straight out of the box to see where these adjustments needed to be made, adjust and lock them before putting them in.)

Put the 12m nuts at the srtut hat (now a camber plate) on first and use a jack to lift the knuckle into place. bolt the knuckle in and yout done.

ensure that the alan screws up on top of the camber plate are secure before lowering the car back down to do the rears.

The install on the rears is essentially the same excluding the tab for the brake line

Pry this away from the mount with a flathead screwdriver and bend the hard line away from the knuckle bolts so it's out of the way.

getting to the hat nuts is easy, their under the speaker plate under the hatch:

here

careful with the nut that is farthest foreward, it can be tricky to get to and easy to drop into the bowels of the body.

It's a simple swap but can be difficult for novice car guys. let me know if I left anything out.
Final product:

I've raised the ride height since this pic but for all practical purposes...
BTW::: I ordered for $869 from http://www.elementmotorsport.com/

[Edited by zeroindigo on Nov 10, 2005 5:52 PM]

 

[DynastyAccent]

Wow, nice write up! Looking VERY nice. Where on the site did you order from?

 

[zeroindigo]

I made a phone order... their in Tempe AZ... number is 480-966-9044

 

[bh206]

great write up!!

I went out to my garage.. got the car on stands, wheels off.. everything ready to go... and forgot I didn't have the coilovers :surprised:

 

[Ravinaziankid]

Very good write up.

 

[03-Accent-03]

FANTASTIC writeup. STICKY~~!!

 

[ftwvampftw]

YOu'll need an alighment after you do this.

Also, make sure that you measure everything. Like the base height and the spring perches... to have it all match so you dont have one side being stiffer than the other even though it looks the same. Etc...

 

[furochan]

You forgot the brake line mounting thingeys. Also, I'd recommend doing the back at the same time instead of trying to do one side at a time...like I did. x.x Sway bars do NOT like being way higher on one side than another.

Is there any particular reason to make the sway mounts higher or lower than the stock positions?

And do your fronts make odd sounds when you turn the wheels now?

 

[zeroindigo]

Before i set the spring pre-load high enough I would hear the springs making a "ting" noise... but if the pre-load is high enough they dont do it as much and it's a softer noise, feels more secure... and as for the alignment, after the install I went and got an alignment, and realized that my CJ joints are dying, so I ahve another two days of work to do on my car before I can drive it hard on these coilovers.

 

[anthonyfa18]

nice lc2, whow did you do your back light by the way???