Soundy
04-10-2007, 04:16 PM
*Whew!* Finally got the chance today to swap in the complete-in-one-piece rear suspension I picked up from ZackieDarko this past weekend. What a chore!
Weather alternated between clouds, showers, hail, and ended up sunny and getting VERY warm.
The 3gee'z rear suspension comes out pretty easily: two bolts each side for the trailing-arm pivots, two each for the upper control arms, two each for the struts, and four bolts in the crossmember. On Zack's car, they all zipped out nicely with my amazing Mastercraft Maximum 3KO Impact Gun :) On mine, all the big ones required a slow working out with the ratchet and cheater bar - can't be sure, but I think someone used some high-strength threadlocker on them (like Locktite Red).
With all that loose, we also had to lower the muffler and remove part of the heat shield, to then disconnect the e-brake cables from the lever and remove them (since that's still easier than disconnecting them at the drums... and since the new rear brakes were in better condition than the old ones, it seemed easier to just leave them as they were). Finally we had to disconnect the flexible brake lines from the trailing arm (remember to pinch the hoses off!).
At some point we realized that my existing rear-end also had a sway bar added (probably an attempt to compensate for the swimming caused by the cut springs on stock dampers, duh) and decided that should be swapped over to the new rear end as well.
So once the two units were side-by-side, off came the remnants of the old brake lines (which I simply cut at the time), and the sway bar. Sway bar onto the new setup, and it was ready to slip back into place...
Getting everything lined up was a bit of a challenge, especially with the off-center weight of the trailing arms twisting on everything. Eventually we found we needed to jack up the crossmember tight to the frame, then use a second jack to lift up each hub enough to put the strut tops into place, and have one person lift up on the trailing arm end enough for the other to zap the strut nuts on.
With the whole assembly now stabilized a bit, we could jack each trailing arm bracket into place and bolt them down, then jack up the hubs again and attach the upper control arm pivots (actually started lifting the car off the jackstands by the time the thing got into place). Reconnected the brake lines, and we were done in the wheel wells.
We had a lot of trouble getting the crossmember bolts started and they were really hard to turn in - we figured either there was dirt, or residual Locktite in the threaded holes, so we flushed them liberally with brake cleaner, let it soak for a bit, and the bolts then spun in happily - all but one I could almost turn in all the way with my fingers.
With everything tightened down, the last step was to run the e-brake cables back in place, replace the heat shield, and reattach the muffler hangers (actually, we did that backward at first... oops).
All said, not a DIFFICULT job, but it was somewhat time-consuming, especially factoring in the stiff bolts, trying to align everything on the reinstall, and the fact that my "assistant" and I are NOT small guys and the back end of the car was only about a foot and a half up on jackstands. Took two of us the better part of five hours, all told, including a lunch break... it turned out to be a nice day so we took our time and enjoyed the sunshine. I still have to reconnect the e-brake cables to the lever and I haven't taken it for a test spin yet... need to shower and rest a bit. This post has already become a lot more involved that intended, but if it helps someone else, it's worth it :) The car is sitting a lot more level now (although the front still seems a little high and I suspect the used struts I got for it came from a Civic) and I'm looking forward to doing a little hard cornering!
Thanks again to ZackieDarko for the parts - still have to do the hood, washer tank, driver's door hinges, and assorted other little bits, but at least I'm mobile again! Special thanks to my buddy Dwayne, too, for all the help.
Weather alternated between clouds, showers, hail, and ended up sunny and getting VERY warm.
The 3gee'z rear suspension comes out pretty easily: two bolts each side for the trailing-arm pivots, two each for the upper control arms, two each for the struts, and four bolts in the crossmember. On Zack's car, they all zipped out nicely with my amazing Mastercraft Maximum 3KO Impact Gun :) On mine, all the big ones required a slow working out with the ratchet and cheater bar - can't be sure, but I think someone used some high-strength threadlocker on them (like Locktite Red).
With all that loose, we also had to lower the muffler and remove part of the heat shield, to then disconnect the e-brake cables from the lever and remove them (since that's still easier than disconnecting them at the drums... and since the new rear brakes were in better condition than the old ones, it seemed easier to just leave them as they were). Finally we had to disconnect the flexible brake lines from the trailing arm (remember to pinch the hoses off!).
At some point we realized that my existing rear-end also had a sway bar added (probably an attempt to compensate for the swimming caused by the cut springs on stock dampers, duh) and decided that should be swapped over to the new rear end as well.
So once the two units were side-by-side, off came the remnants of the old brake lines (which I simply cut at the time), and the sway bar. Sway bar onto the new setup, and it was ready to slip back into place...
Getting everything lined up was a bit of a challenge, especially with the off-center weight of the trailing arms twisting on everything. Eventually we found we needed to jack up the crossmember tight to the frame, then use a second jack to lift up each hub enough to put the strut tops into place, and have one person lift up on the trailing arm end enough for the other to zap the strut nuts on.
With the whole assembly now stabilized a bit, we could jack each trailing arm bracket into place and bolt them down, then jack up the hubs again and attach the upper control arm pivots (actually started lifting the car off the jackstands by the time the thing got into place). Reconnected the brake lines, and we were done in the wheel wells.
We had a lot of trouble getting the crossmember bolts started and they were really hard to turn in - we figured either there was dirt, or residual Locktite in the threaded holes, so we flushed them liberally with brake cleaner, let it soak for a bit, and the bolts then spun in happily - all but one I could almost turn in all the way with my fingers.
With everything tightened down, the last step was to run the e-brake cables back in place, replace the heat shield, and reattach the muffler hangers (actually, we did that backward at first... oops).
All said, not a DIFFICULT job, but it was somewhat time-consuming, especially factoring in the stiff bolts, trying to align everything on the reinstall, and the fact that my "assistant" and I are NOT small guys and the back end of the car was only about a foot and a half up on jackstands. Took two of us the better part of five hours, all told, including a lunch break... it turned out to be a nice day so we took our time and enjoyed the sunshine. I still have to reconnect the e-brake cables to the lever and I haven't taken it for a test spin yet... need to shower and rest a bit. This post has already become a lot more involved that intended, but if it helps someone else, it's worth it :) The car is sitting a lot more level now (although the front still seems a little high and I suspect the used struts I got for it came from a Civic) and I'm looking forward to doing a little hard cornering!
Thanks again to ZackieDarko for the parts - still have to do the hood, washer tank, driver's door hinges, and assorted other little bits, but at least I'm mobile again! Special thanks to my buddy Dwayne, too, for all the help.