The day finally came, waiting and waiting for parts to pile up for this 1 glorious day. and luckily things came on time, yes even the overnite parts from japan on torreto's tab at harry's.

so here's a main pic of everything thats going to be installed. here's a rundown.

1- Spoon/Showa Dampers w/ Zeal springs (10k front and 8k rear)
2- jdm ITR front 26mm and rear 23mm sway bars
3- Beaks subframe reinforcement kit (must have for rear sway bar upgrade)
4- Rear ITR strut bar
5- Front Neuspeed Strut bar
6- jdm itr rear LCA's



rear swaybar install

this is pretty straight forward, make sure the beaks kit is ready to bolt on. that means 1 thing, drill the hole to make sure the top hole lines up with the botton vertically.. up and down.

u can see what i mean in this pic, the hole aint the greatest, but make sure its a good size, not overdone and your good to go.


follow the beaks kit directions and it shows how to line up the kit, the one with the chopped circle goes on the inside with the head on the top and the other one goes upside down on the outside. you need a buddy for this part because you have to hold the beaks kit in place while also putting the sway bar with the brackets in place and screw the beaks bolts in while someone holds the swaybar. pretty straight forward. dont tighten anything yet because they have to be aligned with the LCA's.

once its all on this is what it looks like


front swaybar install
this one can get a lil complicated just because you have to have the sway tucked right under the front subframe so that means you have to disconnect the headers or the cat, and also you have to disconnect the linkage one way or another.

so i opted to disconnect the cat and hold it up with a bungee, and disconnected the linkage from under the shifter, that way i didnt have to mess with that nasty linkage pin on the tranny.




i then managed to stick the front sway bar in there and have my buddy hold it up while i connect the brackets which go attached to the front ITR LCA's since they have a little screw sticking out for a nut and a screw hole for a screw. thats how the front swaybar brackets connect.

so in order to connect a front swaybar you need either GSR or ITR front LCA's so they have that little screw sticking out. my cx LCA's didnt have jack.



this is what the finished product will look like. the swaybar endlinks will also connect to the holes on the middle of the control arms, bushing under and bushing top. and just make sure everything is tightened well !



this is a shot of the dampers going in
note: they are on the top of the sleeve as you can tell, and let me tell you im dropped to the *****. i have NO fingergap so u can imagine i can still go TONS lower but there is no lower to go ..lol




once everything is on double check everything and make its all tight.
then just inspect everything and your good to go.

btw - i didnt get pics of the strut bar installs since i had to finish the install quickly but they are on the car also. they are pretty straight forward and even a baby can do em

review - this will come soon, i havent had a chance to really test them out since they were all set on setting 1, tomorrow will try to try 2-4 and so on see how fast i can take a corner now! *dont try this at home kidz!!*
i just have to get my es oval remounted since the exhaust place made the piping straight so it hits the rear LCA, so that sucks
other than that for the drop i have the handling is very tolerable. and once i ride on even other people's car with stock suspension and even how mushy and comfy it is u can feel the bump and potholes etc. so once u think about that multiply that times the drop, + itr bushings + swaybars and you understand how worse the ride can actually be. once u think about it.

jerking the steering wheel side to side is now very positive instead of huge body roll, i would say i have 2% body roll. and maybe thats from the 205/50/15 tires, if i had something with less sidewalls the thing would be on rails which it already is

btw here is a shot after cleaning off some of the snow crap.


any comments and or opinions let me hear em

MAJOR props go out to John over at PasswordJDM !!
Super PROPS to Bill @ Hyperdecals.com for my spoon decals!!
Big shout out to Alan @ A&J Racing


[Modified by chameleon, 1:22 AM 2/10/2003]

 

Well I know you've been asking a lot lately in the ITR forum about suspension, so the big question is... How does it feel? Did you make the right choice in your opinion? I guess you really won't be able to fully tell until you track your car, but what do you think thus far?

 

very nice how do you like the ride now?? also how much did the ITR rearsway bar help out??

adaM

 

Nice install pics. Wish I had the money to throw that on the 4dr... Nice ride man!

 

I like it alot!

 

how does she handle now?

 

i did something similar about year and a half ago.

i just tore out my whole suspension also. but this time around i put in all the polyurethane bushings.

i sure hope you did too since you already had the suspension pieces out.

 

- everyone

quote from original post

review - this will come soon, i havent had a chance to really test them out since they were all set on setting 1, tomorrow will try to try 2-4 and so on see how fast i can take a corner now! *dont try this at home kidz!!*
i just have to get my es oval remounted since the exhaust place made the piping straight so it hits the rear LCA, so that sucks
other than that for the drop i have the handling is very tolerable. and once i ride on even other people's car with stock suspension and even how mushy and comfy it is u can feel the bump and potholes etc. so once u think about that multiply that times the drop, + itr bushings + swaybars and you understand how worse the ride can actually be. once u think about it. *but its good.

jerking the steering wheel side to side is now very positive instead of huge body roll, i would say i have 2% body roll. and maybe thats from the 205/50/15 tires, if i had something with less sidewalls the thing would be on rails which it already is.

* the drive home felt very good, instead of me hitting a bump and the car taking a mini leap it feels like a quick jerk up and down. so its like the spoons are doing their job. my roads definitely arent cali roads so the spring rate i opted for was 10k front and 8k rear which is supposed to be really good for the street, soon after more testing i will def find that out. all the dampers are on setting 1, im gonna see how it makes a diff on 2, 3, 4 etc..

my drop is very low figuring the dampers are on teh highest perch setting.. so makes u wont i have soooooo much more to go on lowering, but cant lower no more hehe ..

* = added

 

Kick ***, though i say you swap spring rates (front to rear)...then go autocrossing and actually use that stuff...but that's my opinion.

 

How about some nice photos of your car on and it's new drop? Maybe some rolling shots?

Ant

 

yeah i did bug them guys so much. the ride is good, i still have my ground controls and just for curiosity i might pick up a set of koni sports and slap that on instead of the spoons and see just how the difference is for comparison's sake.

 

good idea. tomorrow the car goes under the knife, dents taken out, dings, rust spots, scratches, rear 1/4 fenders rolled. new rear bumper. so next weekend if should be blinging. def will get shots..

when the motor is ready to go in, might do the paint job then so that way i can do the engine bay as well. then the new motor goes in. cant wait. have to finish the motor first ..

 

Thank God for the dry winters in California...

Have fun with the Sp00ns!

 

holy chit siiick...thats a lot of suspension mods to install at once. damn tite.

 

on the footwork

now its time to see some track pics

 

are the coilovers what you were refering to that i cant get? those are SICK! but i cant get them? why is that?
let me know how they ride. they look really nice

 

hahaha well you finally found out!! well im basing the fact that you cant use ITR LCA's ..so hence you cant use these especific dampers

tomorrow ima test them out better so review part 2 will come up soon.

 

very nice

 

very nice indeed

 

looks nice man
hey, just curious, where did you get your work done?
i was lookin at the 5th pic and thinkin it was like your own personal garage but then i saw the lift in the background. i wish i had my own lift
can't stand working in this damn winter weather tho.

car looks great man. can't wait to see pics when its done

 

keep this on top for a bit, nice work!!!!

Jonathan

 

my buddy works at a bmw dealership so on the weekends when he goes to work for little stuff i come over and do my own projects.. its power tool heaven. yeah beats the crap outa working in my front jark with a jack and hand tools.

 

any before and after pics?

 

Good How-to The next thing I have planned for my car is a GSR brake/swaybar swap, so this should be similar...

 

Thanks for the info and the pics...I will be doing some suspension work in the fall.