Today I tried installing the Ground Controls on my 98 civic and had no luck.
I did get the skunk2 camber kit in within an hour, but after spending 4 hours on the drivers / front side with the GC's I gave up!

Below are pics of during the install and the problem I am having. I am starting to think that I was sent the wrong adapters. The shocks in the picture are Bilstein HD's and the GC's I ordered are suppose to be for the HD's. Take a look:

Let's get the first pic out the way. That is installed upside down? I'm 99.9999% it is. Just had to take a pic since I tried every possible way to install the GC's....



In the next picture I have the GC sleeve angled so you can see the adapter at the bottom. It's about 1/2" thick and will not slide pass the gold piece on the Bilstein's where the metal pipe stops.



Here is a top shot of that 1/2" thick ring I am talking about in the pic above:



Ok, in this next picture you can see just how the 1/2" adapter that is marked in green can only go that far down. But, I believe the adapter should slide down to where the blue arrow is on the Bilstein shock.

You can actually see in the instructions underneath the shock how the arrow is pointing to the shock all the way down to that little rest spot on the shock....



Below is a closer pic to show exactly how the GC was sitting. When some weight from the car was let onto the GC's that 1/2" piece popped right out and the spring was loose....



I did manage to get the skunk2 camber kit installed on both sides though:





This next pic is from the passengers side. I didn't even bother with the springs or shocks on this side, since I had all the problems on the drivers side...



Thanks for any input on this!!

 

i wish i could help you more but since no one is respnding here i wll give you my thoughts
i think that when you order the ground controsl sometimes you have to order them specifically for what shock you are using
that is all

 

I told them when I ordered the GC's that I was running Bilstein HD shocks. And as you can see on the instructions above they say "Bilstein" even though it is hand written in. Thanks for trying anyhow

 

Call GC and see if you got the right parts.............

 

that rubber thing isnt even needed...its just to make that piece not spin when u are adjusting.....take it out and put those bitches in

 

Fugg, I cant help you exactly....

I have GC and Koni Yellows.
that inner metal ring on the red sleeve just barely fit over my Konis and stops at the C-clip around the shock so the coilover sleeve (red sleeve) has a place to sit.

If your inner red ring does not fit over your Bilsteins, they may have sent you the wrong size ring. I remember someone here saying that the Bilsteins do NOT work with GC's.... and they had a bad experience trying the same setup you are trying .

It is possible they assumed you would not use the inner red ring and this would have you use the spring perch that came with the Bilsteins just as you would use that perch with NORMAL (not coilover) spring setups.... did your Bilsteins come with a bit 4 inch diameter or whatever spring perch? My Koni Yellows did, and you can use it with the GC's, but its just not the prettiest or lightest apporach to take.

EDIT---> I see the silver spring perch in the corner of one of those pics.. on the right, there it is, use that for now.... and remove the inner red ring from the red sleeve.

Hey, also, your first pic the GC sleeve is right side up... that is correct they way you show it.

try that
good luck bro !


[Modified by owen_the_soyboy, 1:51 AM 3/31/2002]


[Modified by owen_the_soyboy, 1:52 AM 3/31/2002]

 

Yeah, I'm thinking I have the wrong ring inside the sleeve. With it on it won't go further than the pic below and wthout it it slides all the way down past the blue marking to the very bottom of the shock!

Even if that metal ring would slide down to the blue arrow it's not even in there tight. It's like someone took a punch and just tapped on it to open the metal just a little at the top of the sleeve.



Mark at shox . com said Ground Control has an e-mail address on their site. I am going to e-mail them the pics I took and maybe they can tell me exactly what is going on. Now, that I have the camber kit in my alignment is totally screwed up What am I suppose to do, get an alignment and next week when I get the GC's installed wait another week or two and get a another alignment This really sucks!!!!

 

What rubber things are you talking about?? It's all metal.