Lowering springs

[fourwalls]

I swapped out the standard springs with dobi's about 5 years ago. Running kybs in the front and spax in the back on standard inserts.
after passing a number of wofs in Auckland with the dobi's, got pulled up on non captive front springs in the new home town of Rotorua. Glad they did as the springs were falling out as they had dropped over time
After a year off the road, i installed cobras thanks to a good deal from BNT in rotorua, helps if you go in a talk bullshit with them ,the difference was huge, the wife will even get in the car without fear of 2 black eyes.
I would keep away from dobi's after that, lucky if the car did 20k on them. The Cobras suit my driving style as a weekend twisty tourer

[GDII]

Eibach Prokit for the SW20 now available through an NZ supplier.

http://www.mlracing.co.nz/eibach-pro-ki ... -sw20.html

[thorns]

Interesting, now the question is are they worth $200 more than cobras.

[thorns]

Finally got my arse into gear and ordered a set of Cobras.

Anything i should be doing to prep and make this job easier? Spraying all the bolts etc? Wont be till next week before i get round to installing so have a bit of time up my sleeve.

[GDII]

The only things I can think of would be to make sure you are able to undo the top nut on the shocks BEFORE you lift the car off the ground. The rears can rust a bit due to water exposure. It just makes it easier overall to disassemble things.

Cutting a slot on the brake hose tabs so you can remove the shocks without having to bleed the brakes.

Having good condition shocks will help too. Old worn ones will just make the ride bouncy. Even new OEM Bilsteins don't work 100% with some lowering springs.

Unless your bolts are super rusty you shouldn't need to do anything else until you actually get around to installing them. You might need to loosen a few brake calliper bolts to rotate them out of the way to get some of the big lower bolts out. This is normal.

No need for spring compressors, the Cobra springs and even OEM springs can be put back on with help from a mate. It can be done yourself, OEM is a little harder but not impossible. Just be careful when taking apart the OEM springs as bits can jump at you. Just point the top hats away from you when you take of the top nut and it's all good.

[85AW20v]

Jack the car up on the suspension arm and when the spring is compressed, tie it together with some big arse cable ties. Drop it to the ground and jack it from the chassis rail under the car. Stops the bits springing out out like Phill was talking about. Same applies to front and rear.

[GDII]

Jack the car up on the suspension arm and when the spring is compressed, tie it together with some big arse cable ties. Drop it to the ground and jack it from the chassis rail under the car. Stops the bits springing out out like Phill was talking about. Same applies to front and rear.

That's an option Although the SW20 springs are under very little load so by doing this you create more of a safety issue by loading the spring like this. You'd be lucky to have the top hat fly more than 300mm across the floor without. Half the time the top hat binds on the strut rod and I drop it on it's side with the top hat falling away from me to be safe. Having my carpet tiles on the floor helps prevent damage to the parts.

[thorns]

Thanks guys, will see how it goes, Santa came a bit quick than I expected.

[thorns]

Springs are in, took a bit longer than I thought, fronts were a breeze, rears were a pain the ass, lower strut bolts were wrong way round, so needed to remove the caliper to be able to pull the bolt out of the lower ones.

So far the drop is about 20mm front/rear, imagine it will settle a bit after a bit of driving, but looks much better already. Ride quality actually seems improved over the original ones, although maybe placebo effect, or just the fact the originals were 30 years old.

Just need to get some kms into it now so I can check all the bolts are still tight and then get a new wheel alignment.

[GDII]

Springs are in, took a bit longer than I thought, fronts were a breeze, rears were a pain the ass, lower strut bolts were wrong way round, so needed to remove the caliper to be able to pull the bolt out of the lower ones.

So far the drop is about 20mm front/rear, imagine it will settle a bit after a bit of driving, but looks much better already. Ride quality actually seems improved over the original ones, although maybe placebo effect, or just the fact the originals were 30 years old.

Just need to get some kms into it now so I can check all the bolts are still tight and then get a new wheel alignment.

You might need to loosen a few brake calliper bolts to rotate them out of the way to get some of the big lower bolts out. This is normal.

I did mention this And having the bolts around the 'wrong' way is normal and they should be like this.

Good to hear you like them so far. I found they were comfortable for a lowering spring.