Lithium

Took the day off from work yesterday and installed some D Specs and Pro Kit lowering springs. The install itself was pretty easy - did it at my father's house since he has a 2-car garage vs. my piddly single car garage.

Ended up having to help drive him around to the dealership for HIS car...so although the install was easy, it was late and getting dark by the time I got done - so no pictures yet.

I did have a couple of questions though...for anyone that remembers from when they did their install:

1. The initial ride was bumpy as hell but I haven't done any adjustments to the D Specs. I'd imagine this will even out once I soften them up from full hard...?

2. The bumpy ride also got me to thinking about the bump stops. I made no modifications to the bumpstops - neither the Eibach or Tokico "instructions" made mention of doing this. However...I had read both some Roush and Saleen instructions and those kits either had new bumpstops or had you cut the OEM ones in half. Was I supposed to do anything to the bumpstops?

3. When I assembled the front springs/strut assembly, I reused the upper cap/mount assembly. The center strut rod nut (the one that holds the cap on and resists the spring) never seemed to get tight. When I would tighten this nut, it just seemed to tighten forever and ever, only compressing the entire assembly. So, I just back it off until there were a handful of threads "above" the nut - just like the factory assembly that I pulled out. Is this correct? How the hell is this supposed to be tightened to 46 lb-ft per the workshop manual? Thoughts?

Similar stuff with the rears...although, using two wrenches together (one to hold, one to tighten), the top nut on the shock tightened up fine.

Searched hi and low and couldn't find any answers to these questions. Will post some pictures tomorrow.

Timmay!!!

I set my car 5 turns out from full stiff and it ride nice. Definately decreased NVH. I never cut my bumpstops but I never had instructions to do so. But I was wondering about that. Did you install adjustable LCAs or a adj UCA? What is your pinion angle setting at? If its too far off your will have a bit more harshness as well as cluncking in the drivetrain. What about an adjustable panhard bar? I know when I lowered my car my rear end shifted to the driver's side quite a bit. After I centered the rear end that helped reduce NVH as well.

Lithium

Man, I must have had a serious mental lapse or possible stroke last night. Took a closer look at the upper struts this morning and noticed there was quite a bit of play in between the bottom of the nut and the top of the strut cap. So I guess the key here is that you can't torque down the nut until the springs are carrying the load of the car. I was trying to torque them with the assembly sitting in my lap.

Simply hand tightening these got rid of 95% of the clunk/pop sounds. Now it looks like I just need to get some crow foot wrenches/sockets and I should be able to torque it down.

Have not done adjustable LCA's or UCA yet.

I have a BMR adjustable panhard and haven't had a chance to put it in. I simply ran out of time yesterday and have had crummy rainy weather all day today.

06GT4RAD

I cut the top nub off the rear bumpstops because i thought it was simply to close and knew it would bottom out on a decent sized bump in the road. I still havent checked the front bumpstop. There is a Tq. Spec for the strut nuts, check the Tokico Manual it is in there. I tightened mine by hand and then installed and torqued them before lower the car back down. It was a pretty low torque number whihc kind of suprised me. If you over torque them ytou can ruin the strut. The great things about the Tokico's is they are adjustable so you can make the ride as soft or hard as you want. My setup is 4 Turns from Full.

Richard