pifcat2

I bought the $200 spring tool on eBay and removed the Eibach's with no problems (once I realized the discs have to be as far apart as possible) from my sedan. When I went to install them in my coupe, the lower arm wouldn't go down enough because the swaybar was holding it up. I unbolted it and the strut as well since I was transferring Bilsteins too. I struggled with it awhile to align everything to bolt up.

Why would the sway bar keep the lower arm up on my coupe while it didn't in my sedan? BTW, the coupe was lowered quite a bit, I think the springs were cut as they didn't look aftermarket. The spring was also missing the top rubber cap.

How do you compress the strut to align the lower the bolt mount? I had to grab it with both hands, get close to it and push the rotor asm with my chest.

Is there a better way to remove the top strut nut? I used a 7mm allen socket (uncommon) and closed end wrench. There's not much room in the bracket to move it so it was tedious to just to make one rotation of the wrench.

pifcat2

I finally got the fronts replaced and am working on the rears.

On the other side, I replaced the struts first then the springs. To install them on the coupe, I still needed to unbolt the swaybar and pry it around the mount and hub assembly to move the lower arm down. Maybe it's a stiffer bar but the diameter looked the same.

It's easier to remove the left strut bolt by jacking the wrench up. The right bolt was loosened with a few hits on the wrench from a small sledge hammer.

You can loosen the top strut nut easier with an open end rachet wrench that turns a socket. This would allow use of the allen wrench to hold the rod.

The rears seem to remove easier so far...

pifcat2

Removing the rears should have been easier but I snapped the top flat off while trying to remove the nut. The top or lock nut came off okay. With nothing to hold onto, I stripped the threads and hand to dremel the nut off.

The nuts on the other side came off okay once I let penetrant soak and had the strut supported to the ground. The one that snapped was hanging which must have forced weight to the bottom of the nut holding it in compression. Live and learn, I wish there were tips offered or a removal thread. Maybe the other forums are better for this.

Now I either have to have this one repaired (or both) or just buy a new pair. Repair is about 85% the cost of new. In retrospect I should have bought all new since removing them from the donor car and then swapping them doubled the work and time. I'm on day 3 and still not done.

pifcat2

Removing the rear springs was a pain. The bottom disc of the tool kept hanging up on the control arm and the angle made it difficult to line the screw part of the tool within the hole on the arm at the bottom of the spring. Once compressed, I used a jack to level it but it was still difficult to get the socket wrench aligned to remove it. I ended up using a pry bar and pushing the hub asm down to get the compressed spring out.

To get the best limited compression distance I placed the disc as high as I could and 2 1/2 rings from the bottom of the spring. I also had to disconnect the swaybar so the hub asm could be pushed down.

Because I was transferring spring and shocks, it totaled 32 removal and replacements...

ZedStyle

would the rears be bad if you just wanted to compress enough to change spring pads?

pifcat2

The pad is up in a metal "cup" so you have to compress it enough to remove the spring to remove it. To top it, the brake line is in the way so you have to work around it. Not much room to work with.