I'm hoping to clear this up for myself and anyone else who may be slightly confused by the instructions of "lower the car then tighten the control arm".

Are we talking about this bolt?:


If we are talking about that, what difference does it make? I can't visualize it.

 

I dont know about the preloading, but nice cutaway..

 

That's just the lower shock bolt. I added some fancy graphics of my own to your picture. You want the two upper control arm bolts.

 

that bolt and any other bolt that you loosen while installing the springs.

 

If you tighten them in "droop"..the bushings will be twisted...and when you lower the car it will put undue twisting loads on them....not good. You should tighten them with the car on all 4 wheels, level....

 

you aren't pre-loading anything, you are loading the suspension first before tightening the bushings to PREVENT pre-loading them,

there's no "pre" to it

 

Thanks for the correction. I actually took the term 'preloading' from the 'Eibach Springs' thread in which you also corrected them.

Thank you dannobre for explaining the twisting of bushings.

Whitehot, I didn't realize you even needed to undo those two bolts when changing suspension. A clearance issue? Obviously I haven't done it yet.

 

If you don't take off the upper control arm the only way to get the shock out would be cut it in half. good luck installing the new shock after doing this.

 

Semantics, but you need to take it loose, not completely off right?

 

I'm pretty sure it needs to come off. Not real hard. The hard part is breaking the bolts loose, at that point its just another 30 seconds of swinging the wrench to get the whole thing off.

 

you unbolt the upper arms completely from the chassis pivot points, but not at the ball joint

this allows the upright/hub/spindle and upper arm to pivot outward along with the front shock assembly, once the top of the shock clears the fender lip you can extract it out fully, install is the reverse

 

Yeah....that's what I meant, you just need to loosen the top(take the bolts all the way out) and then you can pivot the A-arm enough to extract the shock/springs. Don't need to take the entire A-arm off. You can leave the one connected at the ball joint. Takes a little manipulation but it can be done. WARNING...............do not let the entire wheel just hang on it's own. When you loosen the A-Arm it will want to sag badly and can mess what I believe is you ABS cable if you aren't careful. I supported the bottom of the rotor with a jack with a towel or soft object between the jack and the rotor assembly to make sure it wouldn't just droop and break that ABS cable. This was after I got tired og holding it up or having it somewhat in my lap during this exercise.

 

the ABS wire has a bracket that mounts to the upright with a 10 or 12mm bolt, taking it loose alleviates the problem

also unbolting the brake line bracket where it mounts on the upper A arm helps avoid pulling on it too

otherwise I haven't had any issue with letting it all sag

 

I've found instead of lowering the car, you can use a jack to raise the hub until the car just lifts off the jack stands. It does the same thing and is easier to wrench stuff.
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Cancer - skin forums

 

I just tighten them on the alignment rack....good access, and real close to home

Jason Rocks