sml

I think you can see here the spring collar is fixed as it looks like the allen bolt fixes the spring collar to the strut ... BUT .. you still put your spanner on the spring collar to adjust the height which actually turns the full strut EXCEPT the base (as the base is bolted up with those 2 bolts) ... hence ALL adjustment is via the base.

The spring collar never moves.

Does that sound correct?

Unkle

I am going to make my self look dumb here (never stopped me before)

The allen key it to lock the spring into position WHEN it has been adjusted to the correct height. The collar with the allen key should only be tight when you have detemined the correct height.

So fit it as I mentioned, and when you want to adjust, you undo the allen key and turn that collar to the correct position on the strut to set the height, therefore its the allen key collar that turns not the shock.

The caveat is that this may be a completely different system to the others I have fitted. KW, FK(koni) and Weitec.

sml

I am still trying to understand this but ...

Based on your theory if you release the spring seat allen key and turn the spring seat then you are ...
a) changing the compression of the spring, and
b) changing the base position of the shock/damper
If you do this method, do you at least ensure the base adjustment is perfectly even between both coiloves before you start?

Reading the JIC instructions which I pulled out after I gave-up ... "ALWAYS adjust the coilover height from the bottom bracket, not from the spring seat. By doing this you will not temper with the suspension travel."

Unkle

I think my caveat comes in here, as all three of the systems i have fitted in the past do not have the method implied in JIC instructions, sorry.

sml

I still think the theory holds correct for any coilover that has both the base adjustment and the spring seat adjustment. The theory seems logical.

Back to my last problem .. any ideas how I can pull-out the coilover? It seems too long. I need a way to compress the spring & shock, or find more clearance?

Unkle

With the bottom shock bolts off and the lower arm hanging down, what is the majority of the resistance to the arm going lower? Is it the steering, driveshaft or a springing nature indicating the sway bar is loaded from the other side?

LouZ

OK - I don't have JIC. When I did Bilsteins w/ H&R's it was just a matter of dremeling the rake line clip and bending the cut flange so the hose slipped out (time 5-8 minutes on one side and 3 on the other). Undid the top nuts, then the bottom 2 bolts. with the A-arm completely down, a little wiggle freed the old strut. With the strut out, I lowered the adjusting collar all the way to release as much tension as possible on the coil, removed the top nut with an impact gun, the spring didn't even decompress as high as the threaded bolt. Unscrewed the bottom coil adjusting plate off the old, and screwed it on the new, dropped in the coil, added the top plate, and BY HAND, compressed the new coil down enough to get the bolt started. Slipped the entire ***'y up thru the body, put the bolts in loose on the top, then with a bottle jack, compressed the entire ***'y till the bolt holes lined up with the bracket (first side - 1 1/2 hour, other side - less than 45 minutes).

Now - Q's on your pix, is the top strut in the pix the rear? On the front strut (bottom of pix), is the red collar on the left, threaded? If so, I believe that it, in conjunction with the one holding the coil, get screwed together as a "locking nut set".

Please take a pix of the entire ***'y so we can see top and bottom, it may be helpful in figuring out the assembly procedure.

sml

I felt there was tension both in the driveshaft and sway bar connection .. primarily the sway bar.

Should I just unbolt the sway bar? I considering trying this but didn't want the whole assembly dropping onto my foot!

I only needed about another 10mm of clearance and I could have swung out the top of the strut .. but it was just clashing

Is the steering rod easy to remove? If I could unbolt the steering rod and rotate out of the way, then the coilover would easily drop out

Maybe with a spring compressor, I could then compress the shock by hand to reduce the length by 10mm to slip out the old coilover?

Hang on !!! .. with the old coilover, the spring seat is right at the bottom to lower the car ... what about if I tighten up the spring seat? Would that reduce the length of these old coilovers to increase my clearance to drag them out?

sml

this is the step where I am stuck I need another 10mm of clearance to drag it out.

what is a bottle jack btw?

sml

Yep ... I've given it some more thought and I think I need to tighten that spring seat on these old coilovers to reduce the length. What do you think guys?

LouZ

this:

Unkle

Tighten it means raise it, mean pushing the damper to is full length. You could lower the bottom spring plate to slacken the tension on the damper, but i still don't think it will help. Have you raise both side at the front?

sml

I only raised just the one front corner .. good idea .. are you thinking that if I raise both front corners then then this will help the sway bar drop lower and provide more clearance? That is one good option.

The other option I am thinking .. some of this hard to describe in words .. I screw the spring plate upwards to compress the spring/shock, hence this will make the coilover shorter ie the distance from the spring plate to that top plate with the 4 bolts is reduced. EDIT ... I am confused again and I'm not sure this is correct. Maybe it makes the coilover longer, or no difference? confused .. I think I'll try again with Unkle's suggestion of jacking up the other side to reduce sway bar load.

Unkle

I understand what you are saying, however screwing the spring plate up won't reduce the overall length of the damper. The only way to reduce the overall length of the damper is to lower the piston rod in the damper. This can only be achieved by removing pressure on the damper, or to put it another way lowering the spring pressure (i.e. screwing the spring plate down not up) this will probably still not allow the damper to compress enough without coil spring compressors. however it depends how much the springs have sagged.

boxsey911

Here's another guide about changing out the suspension, courtesy of Warmfuzzies:

http://964uk.com/Documents/Bilstein%20suspension.pdf

No mention in it about having to adjust collars to aid removal.