Installing Struts - my experience
06-07-05, 01:10 PM
#1
Installing Struts - my experience
INSTALLING NEW STRUT ASSEMBLIES IN YOUR 1990 RX-7
Let me start this with some caveats; first I’ve never changed struts in a car before – shocks but not struts – second: I did thoroughly research doing this using the Haynes manual, Mazda Shop Manual, the RX7club.com website and some friends of mine who own FC’s – every single one of these sources left some details out, third: I do not have a garage stocked with every tool under the sun – the only power tool I used was a disc grinder, more on that in a bit – I did all the work outside sitting in my gravel drive way.
What I had to work with:
Several 3/8 socket drivers, full set off metric sockets
and a full set of metric box wrenches
2 jack stands and floor jack
Set of heavy duty spring compressors (Sears is 2 blocks away from my house, they made a lot of money off me last month)
Set of screw drivers
PB’s penetrating oil and some silicone lube spray
Some scrap wood and time
What I installed:
Racing Beat springs from their suspension package (still need to do the sways)
Tokico Illumina struts from shox.com (very nice price)
HERE IS HOW I DID IT
It may not be the right way but it did work
1.Loosen the mounting block nut at the top of the assembly – the Haynes manual and the Mazda manual tell you not to, ignore them, this may be your only opportunity to loosen the damn thing up so you can get it off later. Now I said loosen not remove, I recommend spraying all the bolt’s and nut with penetrating oil everyday for a week. The only trouble I had in removing any nuts or bolts were the rear top main strut nuts – that’s where the disc grinder came in.
2.Jack the car up and place your jackstands – I only did one side at a time so as to keep the car more stable, remember I was doing this in a gravel driveway with a slight incline as well (just to make it interesting). Also I did break the lugnuts loose before I got the wheel off the ground.
3.Remove the wheel – put the lugnuts in a container and put it somewhere that your not going to knock it over, lugnuts look surprisingly similar to bluestone gravel (trust me on this)
4.remove brakeline w/clip from old strut – spray the clip with a little bit of WD-40 or silicone (it will slide of easier) then take small flathead screwdriver and insert in the slot in the clip, then pop the clip out using the screw driver, wiggle the brakeline out of the strut bracket and tie back out of the way with a small bungi cord – I tied it back using the lower control arm as the anchor point
5.time for the spring compressors to go on – I gave them a few turns with the wrench once I got them on finger tight.
6.Remove the bottom bolts:
FRONT – there are 2 bolts that have to be removed from the bottom flange of the strut where it attaches to the steering knuckle, when you remove the top bolt of the 2 bottom bolts the steering will snap towards you so keep your fingers out of the way, the remove the second bolt. You’ll probably have to push the strut off the steering assembly – I used a 2x4 – it will pop down an additional 3 or 4 inches so again watch your fingers
REAR – just one big bolt holds this on, once the bolt is remove it is still attached so slide it in towards the car once it clears the mount it will pop down 3 or 4 inches so watch your fingers – I used my foot to kick it off the mount.
7.Remove the top mounting plate assembly nuts – there are four on the front and two on the rear struts – steady the bottom of the assembly with the floor jack, give it a couple of pumps and the strut will hold still and the nuts will come off quite easily. You will have to unfortunately have to take off your rear speaker covers and take the speakers out to get at these nuts – you will need a Philips head screwdriver for that. Again place the nuts in a container you won’t lose or knock over or throw in anger – nuts have a surprising ability to hide in gravel and tall grass. DO NOT REMOVE THE TOP MOUNTING BLOCK NUT – that’s the last thing to be removed. Now lower the strut with the floor jack, remove the floor jack. Mark the orientation of the mounting plate with a dot of white out – this will come in very handy later. Remove the strut from the car – this may take a bit of twisting and turning.
8.Remove the top mounting block nut: sounds simple doesn’t it, just unscrew it and take everything apart NO,NO, NO !!! OK it’s story time – I have a friend who is VERY knowledgeable about RX-7’s and has done tons of stuff; rebuilt several rotary motors done several thousand dollars worth of mods to his FC and according to him the spring would be uncompressed when taken out of the car and the shock was at its full travel. So against my better instincts I start removing the nut – now bare in mind I still have the spring compressors on but not tightened down much. Well once the nut cleared that last thread the spring shot up at least 4 inches past the top of the shock in an instant launching the top mounting assembly about 30 feet in the air which cam back down on the car leaving 3 really nice dents and gouging the paint down to the metal. I was quite lucky to get my hand out of the way and not to get hit by the raining pieces of metal. - SO when you have the strut assembly out of the car tighten the spring compressors till the top mounting plate is loss and NEVER have the spring pointed directly at you or anyone else. Now you may remove that nut, the spring may still pop a little but nothing dramatic. Remove the strut mounting pieces and take not of the order in which they are supposed to be in because you’ll need them for the new strut.
9.Can’t get the rear top mounting block nut off ? this was one of many problems I ran into. I would turn the nut and the shock shaft would turn with it and this is after spray it down for week with penetrating oil – I was beginning to suspect I was removing the original struts because the sure looked old as hell. So first I tried the method described in the manuals, putting the assembly in a vice and crimped a crescent wrench very tightly to the shaft to hold it. The only reason I could put in a vice was because I was at parents place that weekend anyway the wrench chewed that shaft up like nobodies business and the nut didn’t budge. The vice was clamped tight enough to dent the old shock so when I put it back on I got to hear would blown seals sound like for the first time. So I drove 80 mile back home the next day with a blown strut. At this point I’d had enough, I used a disc grinder to cut the nut off and it worked great. REMEMBER wear eye protection and leather gloves – I did and was very glad I did several times. Take your time and be careful, make sure the spring compressor is tightened down, and also remember that metal is gonna be hot after you cut it so keep the gloves on.
10.THE BIG LIE: Install strut assembly in reverse order of removal. Uhmmm no, this was the biggest untrue statement I kept running into in any manual or write up on the subject. OK so get those old mounting assembly pieces (and the rubber boot) and your new spring onto your new strut. Put on the spring compressors and tighten just a little bit. If you can’t get the center retaining nut on the top the strut on at this point tighten the spring compressors some more. Don’t tighten the nut all the way down just get it on, now tighten the spring compressors some more till the mounting assembly is a little loose. Make sure the mounting plate is facing the correct orientation – remember that white mark back in step #7 I told you to do? Now here’s what I did once got the strut in the wheel well – I lifted it with one arm and held in position while I put the top mounting nuts on (4 up front, 2 in the back) this whole process would actually be much easier with 2 people doing it but I didn’t have that luxury.
11.Mounting the bottom connection point: It’s a this point you’ll notice the bottom of your strut doesn’t line up with where it needs to mount to. For me the strut bottoms were well below their connection points. The rear connection was easy to deal with – just put the floor jack under the strut and pump it up into position. The front is another story (and a 2 week odyssey of frustration for me, but I digress), your front steering knuckle will be sitting to high up to get the bottom mounting flange of the strut on. You CANNOT get it on with a floor jack –just trust me on this. Put the floor jack under the lower control arm to support and disconnect your sway bar endlink – you will not see this step written anywhere. You can now lower the control arm and thus the steering knuckle into the right position for attaching the strut. Raise the lower control arm to get the endlink back on and leave it raised.
12.Put the brakeline back on: wiggle the brakeline back onto the bracket for it on the backside of the strut and the re-insert the retaining clip. I would spray the bracket and clip with some kind of lubricant. I tapped the clip back into position with a large wrench.
13.Remove the spring compressors: Leaving the control arm in it’s raised position with the floor jack will make it a bit easier to take them off. Once they are off slowly lower the floor jack and get ready to use it for the next step.
14.Put the wheel back on: since I was working in gravel the jackstands would sink in a bit so I needed to jack the car up a bit to get the wheel back on. I would imagine if you have a blacktop driveway your gonna leave some marks behind too.
15.Tighten the top center strut assembly nut to the specified torque setting : The front nuts went on beautifully, the rear nuts not so much. What I had to do for the rear strut was crimp a crescent wrench to the very top of the strut above the nut and then turn the nut with a box wrench. This was sooooo much fun to do inside the speaker tower, oh and did I mention I also have a rear strut tower brace in there as well?
16.Go get an alignment done: After all this, I assure you, you have trashed your alignment. I purchased a lifetime alignment at Firestone when I purchased a set of Yokohamas last year because I do autocross the car frequently and I knew I’d be doing suspension work. (Also it’s a 5 minute walk back to my house from there.)
17.Enjoy your new stiffer suspension: bet you didn’t know those little bumps were in the road didja.
More to follow when time allows, such as bolt/nut sizes, more things to avoid, and what I had to do to the spring compressors.
Let me start this with some caveats; first I’ve never changed struts in a car before – shocks but not struts – second: I did thoroughly research doing this using the Haynes manual, Mazda Shop Manual, the RX7club.com website and some friends of mine who own FC’s – every single one of these sources left some details out, third: I do not have a garage stocked with every tool under the sun – the only power tool I used was a disc grinder, more on that in a bit – I did all the work outside sitting in my gravel drive way.
What I had to work with:
Several 3/8 socket drivers, full set off metric sockets
and a full set of metric box wrenches
2 jack stands and floor jack
Set of heavy duty spring compressors (Sears is 2 blocks away from my house, they made a lot of money off me last month)
Set of screw drivers
PB’s penetrating oil and some silicone lube spray
Some scrap wood and time
What I installed:
Racing Beat springs from their suspension package (still need to do the sways)
Tokico Illumina struts from shox.com (very nice price)
HERE IS HOW I DID IT
It may not be the right way but it did work
1.Loosen the mounting block nut at the top of the assembly – the Haynes manual and the Mazda manual tell you not to, ignore them, this may be your only opportunity to loosen the damn thing up so you can get it off later. Now I said loosen not remove, I recommend spraying all the bolt’s and nut with penetrating oil everyday for a week. The only trouble I had in removing any nuts or bolts were the rear top main strut nuts – that’s where the disc grinder came in.
2.Jack the car up and place your jackstands – I only did one side at a time so as to keep the car more stable, remember I was doing this in a gravel driveway with a slight incline as well (just to make it interesting). Also I did break the lugnuts loose before I got the wheel off the ground.
3.Remove the wheel – put the lugnuts in a container and put it somewhere that your not going to knock it over, lugnuts look surprisingly similar to bluestone gravel (trust me on this)
4.remove brakeline w/clip from old strut – spray the clip with a little bit of WD-40 or silicone (it will slide of easier) then take small flathead screwdriver and insert in the slot in the clip, then pop the clip out using the screw driver, wiggle the brakeline out of the strut bracket and tie back out of the way with a small bungi cord – I tied it back using the lower control arm as the anchor point
5.time for the spring compressors to go on – I gave them a few turns with the wrench once I got them on finger tight.
6.Remove the bottom bolts:
FRONT – there are 2 bolts that have to be removed from the bottom flange of the strut where it attaches to the steering knuckle, when you remove the top bolt of the 2 bottom bolts the steering will snap towards you so keep your fingers out of the way, the remove the second bolt. You’ll probably have to push the strut off the steering assembly – I used a 2x4 – it will pop down an additional 3 or 4 inches so again watch your fingers
REAR – just one big bolt holds this on, once the bolt is remove it is still attached so slide it in towards the car once it clears the mount it will pop down 3 or 4 inches so watch your fingers – I used my foot to kick it off the mount.
7.Remove the top mounting plate assembly nuts – there are four on the front and two on the rear struts – steady the bottom of the assembly with the floor jack, give it a couple of pumps and the strut will hold still and the nuts will come off quite easily. You will have to unfortunately have to take off your rear speaker covers and take the speakers out to get at these nuts – you will need a Philips head screwdriver for that. Again place the nuts in a container you won’t lose or knock over or throw in anger – nuts have a surprising ability to hide in gravel and tall grass. DO NOT REMOVE THE TOP MOUNTING BLOCK NUT – that’s the last thing to be removed. Now lower the strut with the floor jack, remove the floor jack. Mark the orientation of the mounting plate with a dot of white out – this will come in very handy later. Remove the strut from the car – this may take a bit of twisting and turning.
8.Remove the top mounting block nut: sounds simple doesn’t it, just unscrew it and take everything apart NO,NO, NO !!! OK it’s story time – I have a friend who is VERY knowledgeable about RX-7’s and has done tons of stuff; rebuilt several rotary motors done several thousand dollars worth of mods to his FC and according to him the spring would be uncompressed when taken out of the car and the shock was at its full travel. So against my better instincts I start removing the nut – now bare in mind I still have the spring compressors on but not tightened down much. Well once the nut cleared that last thread the spring shot up at least 4 inches past the top of the shock in an instant launching the top mounting assembly about 30 feet in the air which cam back down on the car leaving 3 really nice dents and gouging the paint down to the metal. I was quite lucky to get my hand out of the way and not to get hit by the raining pieces of metal. - SO when you have the strut assembly out of the car tighten the spring compressors till the top mounting plate is loss and NEVER have the spring pointed directly at you or anyone else. Now you may remove that nut, the spring may still pop a little but nothing dramatic. Remove the strut mounting pieces and take not of the order in which they are supposed to be in because you’ll need them for the new strut.
9.Can’t get the rear top mounting block nut off ? this was one of many problems I ran into. I would turn the nut and the shock shaft would turn with it and this is after spray it down for week with penetrating oil – I was beginning to suspect I was removing the original struts because the sure looked old as hell. So first I tried the method described in the manuals, putting the assembly in a vice and crimped a crescent wrench very tightly to the shaft to hold it. The only reason I could put in a vice was because I was at parents place that weekend anyway the wrench chewed that shaft up like nobodies business and the nut didn’t budge. The vice was clamped tight enough to dent the old shock so when I put it back on I got to hear would blown seals sound like for the first time. So I drove 80 mile back home the next day with a blown strut. At this point I’d had enough, I used a disc grinder to cut the nut off and it worked great. REMEMBER wear eye protection and leather gloves – I did and was very glad I did several times. Take your time and be careful, make sure the spring compressor is tightened down, and also remember that metal is gonna be hot after you cut it so keep the gloves on.
10.THE BIG LIE: Install strut assembly in reverse order of removal. Uhmmm no, this was the biggest untrue statement I kept running into in any manual or write up on the subject. OK so get those old mounting assembly pieces (and the rubber boot) and your new spring onto your new strut. Put on the spring compressors and tighten just a little bit. If you can’t get the center retaining nut on the top the strut on at this point tighten the spring compressors some more. Don’t tighten the nut all the way down just get it on, now tighten the spring compressors some more till the mounting assembly is a little loose. Make sure the mounting plate is facing the correct orientation – remember that white mark back in step #7 I told you to do? Now here’s what I did once got the strut in the wheel well – I lifted it with one arm and held in position while I put the top mounting nuts on (4 up front, 2 in the back) this whole process would actually be much easier with 2 people doing it but I didn’t have that luxury.
11.Mounting the bottom connection point: It’s a this point you’ll notice the bottom of your strut doesn’t line up with where it needs to mount to. For me the strut bottoms were well below their connection points. The rear connection was easy to deal with – just put the floor jack under the strut and pump it up into position. The front is another story (and a 2 week odyssey of frustration for me, but I digress), your front steering knuckle will be sitting to high up to get the bottom mounting flange of the strut on. You CANNOT get it on with a floor jack –just trust me on this. Put the floor jack under the lower control arm to support and disconnect your sway bar endlink – you will not see this step written anywhere. You can now lower the control arm and thus the steering knuckle into the right position for attaching the strut. Raise the lower control arm to get the endlink back on and leave it raised.
12.Put the brakeline back on: wiggle the brakeline back onto the bracket for it on the backside of the strut and the re-insert the retaining clip. I would spray the bracket and clip with some kind of lubricant. I tapped the clip back into position with a large wrench.
13.Remove the spring compressors: Leaving the control arm in it’s raised position with the floor jack will make it a bit easier to take them off. Once they are off slowly lower the floor jack and get ready to use it for the next step.
14.Put the wheel back on: since I was working in gravel the jackstands would sink in a bit so I needed to jack the car up a bit to get the wheel back on. I would imagine if you have a blacktop driveway your gonna leave some marks behind too.
15.Tighten the top center strut assembly nut to the specified torque setting : The front nuts went on beautifully, the rear nuts not so much. What I had to do for the rear strut was crimp a crescent wrench to the very top of the strut above the nut and then turn the nut with a box wrench. This was sooooo much fun to do inside the speaker tower, oh and did I mention I also have a rear strut tower brace in there as well?
16.Go get an alignment done: After all this, I assure you, you have trashed your alignment. I purchased a lifetime alignment at Firestone when I purchased a set of Yokohamas last year because I do autocross the car frequently and I knew I’d be doing suspension work. (Also it’s a 5 minute walk back to my house from there.)
17.Enjoy your new stiffer suspension: bet you didn’t know those little bumps were in the road didja.
More to follow when time allows, such as bolt/nut sizes, more things to avoid, and what I had to do to the spring compressors.
Last edited by niburu; 06-07-05 at 01:16 PM.
06-07-05, 01:15 PM
#2
Haven't we ALL heard this
Nice write up!
Also, you can rent spring compressors from Autozone....
Here is my write up on my Koni struts.....
Some of the pictures might help illistrate what you did...
http://pws.gamewood.net/~mb800/struts/struts.html
James
Also, you can rent spring compressors from Autozone....
Here is my write up on my Koni struts.....
Some of the pictures might help illistrate what you did...
http://pws.gamewood.net/~mb800/struts/struts.html
James
Last edited by Wankel7; 06-07-05 at 01:19 PM.
06-07-05, 01:18 PM
#3
I bought mine figuring this won't be the last time or car I do this to, the GF has a Jackson Racing supercharged Miata that desperately needs something better than the stock suspension. I'll post some pics when I get a chance in addition to the follow up I'm planning and the sways are going in next month.
Last edited by niburu; 06-07-05 at 01:33 PM.
06-07-05, 01:23 PM
#6
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I went to shox.com they did have some damn good prices for adjustable shocks...I really need some. I think that'll come after new rotors...mine are all gone 
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06-08-05, 07:33 AM
#8
SPRING COMPRESSORS
The problem I ran into was not spring compressors fault but the nature of the Racing Beat front springs. By design they spiral at more of an angle than the stock springs this results in the spring compressors beings cocked at more of an angle than they would normally. This angle resulted in one of the rods crossing into the lower 2 bolt mounting, not a lot but enough to interfere in mounting.
Solution: remember that disc grinder? The compressor rod is actually what I used it on first, I took about 3 inches off and I was golden.
The other problem I ran into was that compressors were of the heavy duty variety and did not fit up inside the strut tower wells, I just mounted them lower on the spring to compensate – lot of trial and error.
The problem I ran into was not spring compressors fault but the nature of the Racing Beat front springs. By design they spiral at more of an angle than the stock springs this results in the spring compressors beings cocked at more of an angle than they would normally. This angle resulted in one of the rods crossing into the lower 2 bolt mounting, not a lot but enough to interfere in mounting.
Solution: remember that disc grinder? The compressor rod is actually what I used it on first, I took about 3 inches off and I was golden.
The other problem I ran into was that compressors were of the heavy duty variety and did not fit up inside the strut tower wells, I just mounted them lower on the spring to compensate – lot of trial and error.
06-08-05, 08:19 PM
#9
Haven't we ALL heard this
Originally Posted by niburu
SPRING COMPRESSORS
The problem I ran into was not spring compressors fault but the nature of the Racing Beat front springs. By design they spiral at more of an angle than the stock springs this results in the spring compressors beings cocked at more of an angle than they would normally. This angle resulted in one of the rods crossing into the lower 2 bolt mounting, not a lot but enough to interfere in mounting.
Solution: remember that disc grinder? The compressor rod is actually what I used it on first, I took about 3 inches off and I was golden.
The other problem I ran into was that compressors were of the heavy duty variety and did not fit up inside the strut tower wells, I just mounted them lower on the spring to compensate – lot of trial and error.
The problem I ran into was not spring compressors fault but the nature of the Racing Beat front springs. By design they spiral at more of an angle than the stock springs this results in the spring compressors beings cocked at more of an angle than they would normally. This angle resulted in one of the rods crossing into the lower 2 bolt mounting, not a lot but enough to interfere in mounting.
Solution: remember that disc grinder? The compressor rod is actually what I used it on first, I took about 3 inches off and I was golden.
The other problem I ran into was that compressors were of the heavy duty variety and did not fit up inside the strut tower wells, I just mounted them lower on the spring to compensate – lot of trial and error.
James
06-08-05, 10:49 PM
#10
XBL** Ownicus
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Originally Posted by Wankel7
You dont have to put the spring/strut combo in the wheel well....with the spring compressor in .....you should be able to do it as an asym.
James
James
06-09-05, 07:52 AM
#14
Originally Posted by Wankel7
You dont have to put the spring/strut combo in the wheel well....with the spring compressor in .....you should be able to do it as an asym.
James
James
Anyway it's what I did and like I said may not have been the totally right way but it worked. The thing that still irks me is that "install in reverse order of disassembly" crap. Well I learned alot, got some new shoulder muscles, got a neat new scar on my hand, and actually had a bit of fun with it.
I guess this weekend I'll have to get all those nut sizes, there were at least 4 differnet sizes to contend with.
Last edited by niburu; 06-09-05 at 08:02 AM.
06-05-06, 10:55 PM
#15
Caramelldansen
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Trouble with rear strut top nut:
Before cutting off be sure to try a 17MM deep socket + impact gun on it. I was just about to take the dremel to it when I went out and bought said socket and hit it with the gun, came right off.
Edit: I know this is a real old thread but I thought it was a good write-up that included some nice steps not mentioned elsewhere (like dropping the control arm to get assembled front strut in) so I replied and also think it would be worthy of an archive.
Before cutting off be sure to try a 17MM deep socket + impact gun on it. I was just about to take the dremel to it when I went out and bought said socket and hit it with the gun, came right off.
Edit: I know this is a real old thread but I thought it was a good write-up that included some nice steps not mentioned elsewhere (like dropping the control arm to get assembled front strut in) so I replied and also think it would be worthy of an archive.
Last edited by Dinnercoat; 06-05-06 at 11:02 PM.
06-06-06, 12:14 AM
#17
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I will share my experience with the rears. I left the whole assembly in the rear, then I stuck a long shaft phillips screw driver into one of the two holes in the rear bushing. I was able to get it stuck in there and was able to get the nut off. What a bitch that was. Other than that it went relatively smoothly and I love every bump now. Your right about the not feeling bumps thing, I took my original shocks and springs off and the difference to now is amazing.
06-06-06, 06:21 AM
#18
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hmm, maybe its just me, but the Haynes manual explained it just fine... (i just read through the directions) I never looked at the manual the first time i did struts. I just looked at it, and took it apart, and put it together in reverse order.
As far as getting the top nut off, an impact gun is DEFANITLY recomended.. but not required. You just have to use 1, or 2 sets of vise grips. Pull the bump-stop cover down, and grab it up there, that high up prolly will never make it to the bottom of the strut, so you dont have to worry about ******* it up too much.
defanitly easier with 2 people if you have no air tools.
But good writeup none the less, archive it, and tell everybody to search for it, when they ask this sort of question.
As far as getting the top nut off, an impact gun is DEFANITLY recomended.. but not required. You just have to use 1, or 2 sets of vise grips. Pull the bump-stop cover down, and grab it up there, that high up prolly will never make it to the bottom of the strut, so you dont have to worry about ******* it up too much.
defanitly easier with 2 people if you have no air tools.
But good writeup none the less, archive it, and tell everybody to search for it, when they ask this sort of question.
06-06-06, 09:11 AM
#19
Originally Posted by reatrdedspleen
hmm, maybe its just me, but the Haynes manual explained it just fine... (i just read through the directions) I never looked at the manual the first time i did struts. I just looked at it, and took it apart, and put it together in reverse order.
As far as getting the top nut off, an impact gun is DEFANITLY recomended.. but not required. You just have to use 1, or 2 sets of vise grips. Pull the bump-stop cover down, and grab it up there, that high up prolly will never make it to the bottom of the strut, so you dont have to worry about ******* it up too much.
defanitly easier with 2 people if you have no air tools.
But good writeup none the less, archive it, and tell everybody to search for it, when they ask this sort of question.
As far as getting the top nut off, an impact gun is DEFANITLY recomended.. but not required. You just have to use 1, or 2 sets of vise grips. Pull the bump-stop cover down, and grab it up there, that high up prolly will never make it to the bottom of the strut, so you dont have to worry about ******* it up too much.
defanitly easier with 2 people if you have no air tools.
But good writeup none the less, archive it, and tell everybody to search for it, when they ask this sort of question.
These were the original 16 year old oem shox and springs that were removed.
The top net for the front shox actuall cam off nicely enough it was the rear shox nut I had to cut off with the grinder.
Again let me warn everyone the OEM springs have ALOT more expansion height than the RB springs they almost 6 inches taller.
The most important in doing this is to disconnect the sway bar linkage on the side you are working on (the one thing that is not written anywhere to be found) for the front suspension. Support the suspension with a jack under the lower control arm and raise and lower it till it's in the position you need.
I will also add this warning for you S5 owners: REPLACE YOUR ENDLINKAGE MOUNTING BRACKETS ON THE LOWER CONTROL ARM. I bought a set of adjustable endlinks from Racing Beat soon after this install and about a year later I shredded and I mean shredded) one of the brackets and the other was starting to crack - they are $18 a peice from Mazda and they do have them in stock.
Granted I have autocrossed the hell out of the car and tracked it twice at VIR.
Last edited by niburu; 06-06-06 at 09:32 AM.
03-31-07, 12:43 AM
#21
ya man, not having hella tools sucks. im lucky in the fact that between my father and i, theres about 5G represented. hand tools, power tools, saws, drills, etc. and doing suspension is always a bitch, cause by no means is the reverse order applicable!
peace
peace
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