Front Strut Re-assembly
1. Install the lower spring perches
Pull the front coilovers from the box. The fronts have the D ring on the bottom, a metal upper perch (instead of rubber), and shorter springs. The two metal spacers in the ziplock bag also belong with the front.
Slide the D-rings onto the struts. They should sit right on the welds above the steering arm, providing a flat space for the tubes to rest on.
Set the perch heights. Unlike the rear, the highest position in front is definitely lower than stock, so I'm probably only going to drop to the midway point. Remember not to overtighten, and maybe add some anti-seize.
Wrap the shocks with electrical tape. The idea is to make the red tubes stay in place so that you can adjust the gold collars without the whole thing rotating.. Sorry I don't have any pictures of this. Just don't cover the area that the stock dust cover goes over. I think I only made 3-5 wrappings, then you can hammer the tubes/perches down onto the strut. Chris at GC said he might start including o-rings in the kits, which will eat up the play between the tubes and the struts, but he actually did the tape instead of the o-rings for me.
After the perches are installed, you can hammer the dust covers back onto the struts (they fit between the struts and the coilover tubes)
2. Shorten the bump stops
You'll need to cut the bump stops in half, more or less. There's a line on the second nub of the bump stop - I used a hacksaw to cut above the line and discarted everything below my cut. We'll have to see if that's enough travel or not. I figure you want to hit the bump stop before you scrape the fender liner, and this will change depending on how low you set the perches.
Forgot to take a picture of the bumpstops by themselves. Here's the best I have:
3. Re-assemble the parts
a) Slide the bump stop onto the shock piston.
b) Set the spring onto the lower perch.
c1) Cut the zip tie off the new upper spring perch. Don't lose any parts!
c2) Grease both sides of the needle bearing with multi-purpose grease. Don't get any dirt in there.
c3) Set the spring perch and the needle bearing (which should be sandwiched between two washers) onto the top of the spring.
d) Take a spacer from the ziploc bag and put it on top of the shock piston.
e) Take the large washer (#15 from earlier) and put that over the spacer.
f) Put the top hat (#16) on.
g) Put the top nut washer (#17) on. Face it up like a bowl for softer (stock) bushing movement, or flip it over so it cups the rubber bushing to make it stiffer (more vibrations/etc).
h) Reinstall the top nut. Use your 17mm wrench and torx bit. Torque: 33 ft lbs.
The reason we keep the top nut washer (#17) is that we want a little bit of pre-tension on the rubber bushing.
Front Strut Installation
1. Mount the strut to the chassis
Follow the same precautions as earlier with the lines and axles. When you get the top lined up, thread the 3 upper nuts (14mm) into place.
Torque: 40 ft lbs.
2. Bolt the strut to the hub
It seemed easier to install the bolts pointing forwards, with the nuts at the front of the car. However, it's probably better to do it the opposite way to make it easier to tighten down the nuts instead of turning the bolts. I don't remember the stock orientation. 19mm.
Torque: 72 ft lbs.
3. Connect the strut to the steering tie rod
Slide the tie rod end back into the strut arm, and tighten the nut back down. 14mm.
Torque: 32 ft lbs. Don't forget to install new cotter pins!
4. Hook up the sway bar end link
Install the end link back onto the strut. 12mm? [b][color=blue]Torque: 22 ft lbs.
5. Install the brake line and ABS wire brackets
Reattach the brake hose bracket, 12mm, 15 ft lbs. Reattach the ABS wire bracket, 10mm,
7.2 ft lbs.
excellent!
