Start with a bit of pic whoring, here's the motor in its current stance.
and here's the Coilovers to be fitted.
Well happy, needed a bit of reshaping on the brake line bracket and droplink but was pretty basic.
First off grab a big pile of tools, note the vast array of hammers....
Your gonna need a power bar, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm and 19mm spanners and GOOD sockets (six sided not those useless ring ones, especially the 19mm's)
Make sure you have 2 x 19mm sockets. Rubber mallet, claw hammer and toffee hammer.
5mm hex key and/or an angle grinder.
OK I'm not gonna teach a granny to suck eggs by going into jacking the car up and taking the wheel off but you end up with this
Nice excuse to pic whore my front discs and color coded calipers.
After the wheels off soak the 2 x 19mm bolts holding the hub to the shock, the lower drop link nut and depending how long since you sorted your brakes, the 2 x 17mm bolts on the back of the caliper follower with WD-40 or equivelant.
In work we use rocol shock freeze spray which is amazing stuff if you can get it.
lower drop link here
Slacken off the 19mm's and (if you can) remove the lower dop link nut. You may be abe to use a 14mm spanner and 5mm hex key depending on how new our droplinks are.
Mine wasnt playing so I cut the droplink in half with the ange grinder then ground the bottom nut off later.
NOTE
If you do this make sure you have spare droplink nuts or you'll get into trouble later on. I had to re-tap an old nut but it did the job nicely.
Clamp the brake line with either a brake line clamp or mole grips and kitchen/blue roll to protect the line.
Remove the 12mm bolt holding the brake line and allow the excess fluid to drain into a container.
Retain the nut and copper crush washer, you will need these for re-assembly. Best to replace the crush washer at this point while your at it.
To remove the Brake caliper fully, remove the bottom 17mm bolt holding the follower to the hub and tap the caliper away from the disc with a rubber mallet if its tight. Remove the top 17mm bolt and the caliper will come away. drain excess fluid from the caliper and put to one side. Disc will side straight off, give it a quick wipe down and put this to the side also.
Will add some pics on removing the brakes later but done it so many times I couldnt be bothered to take any this evening.
Should end up with
You then need to remove the brake line away from the strut, there will be a U-clip holding it on (shown above) This is a bit awkward, will need grips, flat screwdriver and a mallet to tap it and pull it out.
Depending how you go about it you will also need to remove the clip shown below and remove the brake line as the line wont thread through the strut from the bottom.
Personally, I carefully ground away the loop on the strut and just pulled it out. Give it a good clean, more than likely be caked in rust and grime/mud.
With the brakes now completely out of the way you can remove the bottom strut bolts and loosen the top mount bolts and remove the top cup (if you still have one)
Shiggle the bottom of the strut away from the hub, I used a heavy duty screwdriver and rubber mallet to prise it away.
Support the bottom of the strut and remove the top mount bolts, then you can drop the strut out of the bottom. should be easy enough, mine practically dropped out on its own.
Here it is on the floor looking very sorry for itself, definitely seen better days.
and compared to the new one
Put the kettle on and have a break. !!
Fitting is practically the opposite of removal.
Have lots of copper grease handy for this, just makes life easier later on if you have to remove them.
Start by threading the strut up through the top mount holes and support the bottom
and nip them up
Give the hub a damn good clean and coat the mounting face in copper grease, at this point I re-attached the lower drop link and did the nut up finger tight.
The hub should slot into the bracket fairly easily. I used a screwdriver to line the bolt holes up, then slotted them home.
Can now tighten all the nuts and bolts.
Top mounts torque to 29ft lb's
19mm hub bolts torque to 188ft lb's
upper droplink nut torque 36ft lb's
lower droplink nut torque 47lb's
For re-attaching the brake line I got new u-clips, the old ones were shot and unusable.
Part number: 90468-08034
shiney new, available from camskill or Mr T directly
you need two of these per corner unless you hack up your old strut to remove the brake line in which case 1 will do.
Fit the brake lines back into place and tap these into the grooves
Clean and refit the brake disc and caliper. You may need the rubber mallet again to tap the caliper back into position. Grease the 2 x 17mm bolts before fitting.
Torque to 65ft lb's
Replace the crush washer and re-attach the brake line, torque the bolt to 22ft lb's.
Top up the brake fluid resevoir and remover the brake line clamp.
Dont forget to bleed the brakes when your done.
Easy as that.
Adjust the ride height to suit your stance according to manufacturers instructions.
Chris69
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How To:- Fit Coilovers
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