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Coilover installation pictorial

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8.4K views 24 replies 15 participants last post by  danderusha  
J
#1 ·
Here's how the StreetRaceTech coilovers are installed on the rear of an LX. The entire process takes about 45 minutes per side.
First, raise car, place jackstand into pocket in front of rear tire, and remove tire.
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The first thing you'll do is remove the nut that holds the bottom mount for the rear shock. It's an 18mm nut.
Image

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Then, completely remove the two top shock mounting bolts. They are 16MM.
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Now you want to remove the nut holding the inner end of the lower control arm - the large stamped metal arm that holds the spring and shock.
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After that nut has been removed, place your floorjack under the control arm, and lift it up just enough to remove the pressure being caused by the spring. Don't actually raise the car with the jack at this point - merely counterract the pressure frmo the spring.
Remove the bolt securing the lower control arm. It's 15mm.
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Now you can release the floor jack, and the entire lower control arm will pivot down.
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The arm will drop low enough that you can simply pull out the spring and the rubber top and lower mounts that held the spring in place.
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Now that the pressure from the spring is gone, you can remove the bolt that held the lower end of the shock in place. There is now enough clearance to completely remove the shock as well.
Now that the stock spring and shock are gone, simply raise the control arm back up by hand and reinstall the bolt on the inner end of the lower control arm. (18mm nut, 15mm bolt).
Image
 
J
#2 ·
Now to assemble and install the coilover itself.
The first box holds the shock and the spring perches.
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The first thing you'll want to do is spray some white lithium grease (available at any auto parts store) on the threads inside the upper spring perch. By doing this ahead of time, you'll be able to adjust ride height later by hand - no tools required. After spraying the threads, thread that piece all the way to the top of the shock.
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Next, you'll find a bag filled with the required mounting hardware.
THe kit includes a black top mount, a blue anodized riser, a pair of offset bushings, a short 1/2" bolt with thin lock nut, and a longer 1/2" bolt with lockwasher and locknut.
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The black metal piece wil fit very snugly over the bearing at the top of the shock. It is then held in place with the shorter 1/2" bolt and the thin lock nut.
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Next, you'll assembly the lower spring perch, which consists of the cone-shped perch from the shock box, and the anodized aluminum riser from the parts kit.
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When mated together, they look like this:
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Slide the spring onto the shock body, then install the lower mount as shown:
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The two offset bushings go into the bearing on the lower end of the shock:
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Ultimately, you'll be useing the longer 1/2" bolt, lockwasher and locknut as shown.
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Now that the coilover is assembled, you slide the lower end of the coilover into the pocket that previously held the bottom of the factory shock.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The reason the bearings are offset, is to shift the shock slightly backwards and out of the way of the halfshaft. make certain the longer bearing points toward the front of the car, and the shorter bearing goes toward the rear. That ensures additional clearance to avoid the halfshaft.
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Use the new, long 1/2" bolt, lock washer and locknut to firmly secure the bottom of the coilover.
Now, reuse the two factory 16mm bolts to mount the top of the coilover.
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When the top and bottom mounts are tightened securely, thread the top spring perch down until it makes contact with the spring. You will then keep twisting by hand, until you've gotten your desired ride height.
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There is a grove running down the length of the thread shock body, and there's an allen headed set screw to ensure the spring perch doesn't travel up or down the threads over time.
 
J
#3 ·
Again - total install time for the above was 45 minutes (per side) and that included opening the boxes and assembling the coilovers. With a little preparation in the house ahead of time, your installation may be even quicker.
Tools list:
15mm wrench (both factory bolts in lower control arm)
18mm wrench (both factory nuts in lower control arm)
16mm wrench (both factory bolts at top shock mount)
2 - 1/2" wrenches (both coilover bolts included with kit)
Hammer (may help to tap loosened bolt out of factory shock)
Jack stand
Floor jack
White lithium grease - to make adjustment by hand possible
 
J
#6 ·
pe0n said:
Yup! great job on that! I can't wait to get mine!!! So why are these better than KW's Matt?
Click to expand...
Tons of reasons these are better. Biggest reason: For the dragstrip you want the rear suspension as soft as possible so you can maximize weight transfer from front to back. The KW springs are even stiffer than stock, making them even worse for the track the the original factory suspension.

Next, you can't control damping at all with V1, and V2 only let's you adjust compression damping. The coilovers are double, independent adjusting damping. Both rebound and compression damping. In addition, the sheer range of adjustment is phenomenal.

Ride height can be adjusted in just moments, instead of hours. On today's install, we guessed the starting point, dropped the car down, made some measurements and decided to lower one side 1/4". Dropped the car down again, and decided to raise the other side 1/8th inch. Dropped car - perfection. Total process - about 10 minutes.

Multiple spinrg choices: Run a medium or firm spring on the street - then change springs to ultra soft for the drag strip. Takes as little as 10 minutes to change a spring.

Tunability - add a spring rubber to increase ride stiffness about 10%. No tools - just a minute or two.

Damping changes? 10 seconds for each change.

That's enough reasons for now. LOL.
 
#10 ·
wow you don't need a spring compression tool or nothing to prevent the spring from exploding on you
 
#19 ·
MyMopar said:
How can you change the spring from firm to soft for the drags in 10 minutes? Wouldn't you have to do the whole procedure again to change the spring ~35 min per side?
Click to expand...
I wondered the same thing but instead of asking I just assumed that all you would have to do is take the two top mounting bolts out, swing the unit out (again, assuming there is enough room) and then remove the spring and install the new one. If that`s the case then 10 minutes sounds about right. Even less time with air tools.
 
J
#21 ·
MyMopar said:
How can you change the spring from firm to soft for the drags in 10 minutes? Wouldn't you have to do the whole procedure again to change the spring ~35 min per side?
Click to expand...
wrenchjeff said:
I wondered the same thing but instead of asking I just assumed that all you would have to do is take the two top mounting bolts out, swing the unit out (again, assuming there is enough room) and then remove the spring and install the new one. If that`s the case then 10 minutes sounds about right. Even less time with air tools.
Click to expand...
wrenchjeff is mostly correct.

Remember that the 45 minutes per side included removing the stock suspension, assembling the coilovers, and mounting the new coilover.

To change a spring:

Lift car and remove wheel (already doing this anyway when changing to drag radials at the track).

Loosen top spring mount all the way by hand - 30 seconds?
Remove one 3/4" bolt at bottom shock mount - 1 minute?
Remove lower spring mount - no tools - 10 seconds?
Compress shock by hand move away from lower control arm, drop spring, Replace spring - 1-2 minutes of jimmying stuff around?
Reinstall bottom end of shock in lower mount, tighten 3/4" bolt - 1-2 minutes of wrestling stuff around again?
Reinstall lower spring mount - 10 seconds?
Retighten upper spring mount by hand - 30 seconds?
Install drag radials.

Done.

I need to do some work on my car, so maybe I'll actually time the process tonight. But that's all there is to it.
 
#22 ·
now will this work on the se/sxt
 
M
#23 ·
JMatt said:
wrenchjeff is mostly correct.

Remember that the 45 minutes per side included removing the stock suspension, assembling the coilovers, and mounting the new coilover.

To change a spring:

Lift car and remove wheel (already doing this anyway when changing to drag radials at the track).

Loosen top spring mount all the way by hand - 30 seconds?
Remove one 3/4" bolt at bottom shock mount - 1 minute?
Remove lower spring mount - no tools - 10 seconds?
Compress shock by hand move away from lower control arm, drop spring, Replace spring - 1-2 minutes of jimmying stuff around?
Reinstall bottom end of shock in lower mount, tighten 3/4" bolt - 1-2 minutes of wrestling stuff around again?
Reinstall lower spring mount - 10 seconds?
Retighten upper spring mount by hand - 30 seconds?
Install drag radials.

Done.

I need to do some work on my car, so maybe I'll actually time the process tonight. But that's all there is to it.
Click to expand...
Thats cool. I thought that maybe there was a simple process and I was overlooking it.
 
J
#24 ·
MyMopar said:
Thats cool. I thought that maybe there was a simple process and I was overlooking it.
Click to expand...
Yes - see my new thread. I timed it last night: 4 minutes 30 seconds. Not including changing the tire. So if you're changing to drag radials at the track, add 9 minutes total (both rear shocks) to your procedure and you can completely change the rear springs.
 
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