Hi guys,
Just thought it might be of some help maybe to people that are considering changing the suspension on the Gen 1 or 2 coupes, if I listed what I found to be the little quirks and odds and sods that made the job a little tougher.
I've had 2 or 3 people ask about this in the last week so maybe this can help give some more confidence to DIY if you know the crappy bits
This isn’t a 100% proof guide, just what I have found as a DIY'er mechanic, so please bear that in mind.
1. Rear stabilizer links.
I would highly recommend that you buy these as replacements beforehand. Even on my newer Gen 1 I found that the bolts had rusted together, and even if you get them off they will be big trouble to get back together. After ringing the local motor factors that wanted £18 each I bought a pair from this guy:
[ebay]320384433795[/ebay] - Less than £15 delivered and do the job spot on.
For removal of these (and replacing) I found that if the car is jacked off the floor then the bolt mountings wont line up. You can get to these easily by laying under the car to at least get them in and semi tight, but you will need 2x14mm spanners.
Eibach Springs - On the backs, these sit perfect, right up against the bump stop and the number of coils remain the same. So no worries there.
On the fronts however, this is a little more tricky. The number of coils are reduced, and so getting a good clamp on these is very hard - you can only compress them a few mm (enough to be safe, but hard to get the top cap back on.
The 2 pointers that I found with this is, don’t sit the spring so it’s butted up against the cup slot. Instead, rotate the spring around by about an inch, so that it firmly sits flat on the guides that are there. If you do, I found the spring leant out and almost popped out its seating, rubbing on the back wall!
The other point is that with the reduced amount of clamp available compared to the stock springs, it becomes very hard (once the old springs are out and you are ready to put the top swivel plate etc back on - MAKE SURE the D shape cut out is slid over the top of the strut) this is very hard to push down.
I sat the strut in a big clamp, and with one person pushing down on it just managed to get the nut on enough to secure. MAKE SURE the spring clamps remain on and be careful and watch it doesn’t ping up in your face.
These were by far the most challenging bits, but not really that hard at all.
Lots of plusgas / wd-40 helps with this as some of the nuts will be stuck fast - a breaker bar does wonders.
Other than this id give it maybe a 5/10 difficulty for what I can do, but if it wasn’t for that spring it mentioned above then maybe a 4.
Time allowance - allow a full day for that bug*er to get the cap back on! (Note, stabilizer links do not need to be removed on the front, if you do these first then the rest is a doddle!
if anyone down my way wants a hand then I can do it (I'm sad and enjoy these sorta things
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Hopefully this is of some use..... if not then delete the thread please mods
