Hello HT,
Got my Koni/GC package delivered yesterday (did the Honda Tech package), going to install it this evening or tomorrow morning, here is my plan of attack:

Jack up the back of the car, put stands under it, let suspension hang.

Remove rear wheels.

Spray down all the bolts with some PB Blaster. Wait a few minutes for the magic to happen.

Remove bolt from upper control arm/dogbone, let suspension hang even lower.

Remove the big bolt holding shock/strut assmebly to LCA.

Remove the 2 upper bolts, remove stock assmebly.

Reverse, installing the new setup.

Repeat for other side.
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Jack up front of car, support with stands, let suspension hang.

Remove front wheels.

Spray down all the bolts with some PB Blaster. Wait a few minutes for the magic to happen.

Remove the "fork" mounting bolt.

Loosen the pinch bolt.

Remove the upper bolts.

Remove shock/strut assmebly from car.

Remove "fork" from old assembly, place on new assembly.

Reverse, installing the new setup.

Repeat for other side.
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This is my first set of adjustable coilover shocks, I'm not well versed in setting them up, figure once I got all 4 units installed, I'd "ballpark" the basic height I want and go for a drive to seat everything. Then go around each of the wheels and measure from the bottom of the well to the ground with a tape and make fine adjustments so that everything matches left to right. Was thinking to delay alignment for a few days, maybe a week or so to give the springs time to "settle".

Please, let me know if I'm missing anything here or if you have any pointers to ease install and setup.

Thanks for reading,
Rob

 

Did you get the Koni-specific sleeves?

 

I have the adj koni yellow/gc coilovers and love how they handle there just a little on the rough side, even on the softet setting. Most importand thing you should keep in mind is getting your car corner ballanced and aligned after you break in those springs for a couple days

 

^^^that is if you have a front/rear camber kit, which you should

 

(Loosen and) Bolt in but do not yet tighten all bolts connected with rubbers

Lower car on its wheels with all the car's weight on them

Roll car back and forth, shake up and down

Tighten bolts

(repeat this whenever adjusting ride-height)
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This is the procedure for pre-loading the LCA's? I hear if you don't do something like this, you risk blowing out the bushings...noted. What about, while the car is still on jackstands, putting a jack under the arm and compressing the suspension that way? Seems like it will be difficult to get to the bolts when the car is on the ground, especially after it's been lowered.

Yes, definitely the correct sleeve kit, ordered the whole thing from GC, came pre-assembled:







No camber components yet, hopefully won't need them right away, only going for about a 1.5" drop, shouldn't be too radical a change in the geometry...what is "corner balanced"?

 

Bushings are fixed when their bolts are tightened. When altering ride-heigth the bushings get twisted. When fixed while twisted, they wear out quick and hinder ride height adjustment, and good suspension workings.

Perfect alternative.

 

i would suggest investing in a camber kit if you plan on dropping more then 1". ive heard you dont NEED to unless you pass 2" but you still see the side effects of negative camber on your tire tread. its very important to to get a proper alignment done for a more positive feel on the road and better life of tires, ball joints. corner ballancing is what all cars with coilovers do before they see any track time. basically what they do is put a weight scale under each tire and adjust the coilover hieght per the weight. there is a formula for it but i dont remember. what this does is give equal ballance when you turn and better handeling overall. with the price tag for the coilovers, why not spend the extra hundred-whatever bucks to make sure you get the best performance outta your investment??? ive done 90% of the suspension upgrades you can possibly do to my ej1 all myself, and have personally seen how "half a$$" suspension upgrades turn out when not done right......... its always nice to do it right the first time

 

Thanks for all the advice, I wrenched into the night and completed the project around 12:30, first test drive was awesome, car stays flat when cornering and the ride isn't too harsh. I'm going to put a couple hundred miles on it and re-adjust / re-torque everything, then get an alignment. Will look into corner balancing, sounds like a good idea, the whole point of all this is to make the car handle better.

Here's a couple pics of my car post install of the suspension:



Here's my original stance:



I like the progress so far, thanks again for all the input...

 

Even at a 2'' drop you still don't need a camber kit. You don't need a camber kit unless you are supper slammed, OR you are adding camber.

Camber does wear tires, however, it does it very slowly. I had almost 20k on my old tires before I noticed the very slight inner wear.

All you need is an alignment. You simply need your toe to be adjusted.

 

that car is clean man!

 

Looks real good!!! All you need now are wheels

 

car is super clean bro!

 

+1 for not wasting your money on a camber kit. Camber doesn't wear tires, toe doe. I have 1.6 and 1.4 camber all around and tires have been wearing evenly for 9 months!!!

I had 2.4 camber back in high school and drove 30,000 miles on that car with no tire wear issues.

 

Really?

Anyways I run -1.8* and -2.0* with perfect tire wear.

 

fail.