How do I assemble my supsenion back in? I am having problems aligning the fork and lowe control arm and getting the bolt to go through.

This photo here:

http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg

 

put a jack under the lower control arm(directly under the knuckle) and slowly jack it up and at the same time align the fork hole to the control arm hole as it goes up. simple done

 

apply upward pressure to the brake rotor.

throw a jack under the rotor and crank it up.
it will give you enough clearance to align the fork with the arm.

 

Does the spring have pre-tension on it (meaning is it compressed at all when the suspension is off the car, like when you have on stock springs)? If so, you have to be sure you assemble the shock with the upper spring seat oriented to the correct angle. If it's off, it will cause the fork to be slightly rotated with respect to the lower control arm bushing, which will make it very tough to try to get the bolt through there.

But if the spring is short enough such that it is not tensioned at full droop, then you should be able to just rotate the fork to the required position.

 

Finally got the fronts installed.

Now onto the rears.

i've got h&r sport springs and koni yellows.

before i had the rear spring perches in the middle. now i wanna put it on the lowest (bottom spring perch)

after assembling the spring/shock, i found the springs just tangle there, it is not compressed at all.

should it be compressed when shock/spring is not on the car. .

so if I install it, will it be compressed?

 

ttt

 

Some springs are too short to be compressed when off the car but once you get them on the car they will be compressed because of the cars weight.

 

be careful with the rear suspension.

the trailing arm and lower control arm bolts are always really tight on their because of the awkward alignment position they seat in. Do not try to just break the bolts. all you will do is make the bolts even tighter..

tighten the bolts before you try breaking them.. i use a 1/2 inch air gun with an assload of torque to break the bolts, but since your probably using a ratchet or breaker bar, tighten the bolts as far as they can go..then begin loosening them.

and remember to apply upward pressure on the rotor or lca(same as fronts) to fit the bolts back in.

if the bolts are completely seized..
get new lower control arms or cut the bolts out.

 

I think he's re-doing some suspension work, so he shouldn't have any problems.

I've always used an impact wrench on my suspension bolts, and I've never had a problem, but I've had my suspension off many times. It's really not applying a ton of torque that gets them loose, in fact high sustained torque is what breaks the bolts. Repeated impacts like from an impact wrench is what will get them out easiest without fear of breaking them.

The first time I ever took my suspension off, I used a 12V electric impact wrench. It was slow, but it got the bolts out without a problem, and my car had about 105K miles on it at the time.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
The first time I ever took my suspension off, I used a 12V electric impact wrench. It was slow, but it got the bolts out without a problem, and my car had about 105K miles on it at the time.</TD></TR></TABLE>

there's no way in hell you got the rear trailing arm/lca bolts out with a 12v electric impact gun. especially with 105k miles on it. i'll bet my life on it.

my gsr has 40k miles on it. it took a while of holding my 1/2" ingersall air gun on them bolts. we usually have to cut them out or replace the lower arms if they have alot of miles.