sway bar and control arms

[ttocs]

I have the car ready for primer now other then needing some areas masked off. To keep busy while I wait for a couple of days warm enough to shoot the color and clear I am going to go ahead and install the suspension stuff and just make sure to mask it all off to prevent overspray. I am basically replacing everything from the K to the control arms to sway bars to sway bar mounts. I have never got into this before and just wondering if there are any guides to check out that would help or any other special tools needed? I have access to a cherry picker if I want to move it or might just go get an engine support bar from harbor freight to do the K with. Other then that is there anything else I need to plan for? Thanks in advance.

 

[RichV]

If you have stock-ish swaybars, regular hand tools are fine. Pretty easy job, rear is very simple. Front will take a bit, but it's easy.

 

[Mustanger]

Sure worth it too..

 

[Ferocious]

I think American Muscle has very picture and word friendly guides on all this. I know for sure they have the sway bars and control arms. Basic hand tools should be plentiful. I have like 12 tools and have done all but my A-arms so I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[ttocs]

yea looks like I was making it all out to be harder then it was from finding the info to the actual work. In case someone else is curious a simple google search discovered all the vids I would need to do it. With the wheels off and the x-pipe the rear should be really easy.
[video=youtube;o58Vf8HP1Z8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o58Vf8HP1Z8[/video]
and don't forget, most important is our safety glasses lol.
[video=youtube;t08zRKiMfb0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t08zRKiMfb0[/video]
The only thing I think I am missing now is the sway bar bushings. Going to make a call or two tomorrow and fix that problem and hopefully get started on the project.

 

[ttocs]

I realized I should probably go dig all the gear out of the corner of the basement where it was banished too until now. I was happy to discover the bushings were included from steeda and that the only parts I think I will need is a bump steer tool, a steering shaft extension(I think?) as well as the m&m sway bar relocation kit. So now my questions are can I borrow/rent the bump steer tool from vatozone and do I have a manual steering to need the extension?

 

[g36 monkey]

Your rack should be power unless you decided to drop power steering somewhere in the progress

The stuff you listed is all pretty straightforward. And not sure if the zone has bumpsteer stuff. Fill me in because if they do, I'll be snagging one as well haha

 

[ttocs]

ah manual steering rack, not power... Ok I am greener to steering suspension crap then I am motors and I could not figure out what they meant by if I had a manual steering rack. ok now I feel dumb but its still early to feel dumber later.

Next question the MM K is calling spherical rack bushings (MMST-6). Doesn't matter what option you have or get seems strange they didn't include them.

 

[g36 monkey]

Hmm, mine came with them?

 

[ttocs]

it lists them as parts needed in the instructions, not on the parts included. Turns out I do not need the sway bar relocation. Turns out reading the instructions can be confusing as in the beginning it says the K moves the wheels up an inch and then later it says if you have the stock offset arms then you do not need it. I have the stock offset arms so I am going to go with out it for now if it turns out I need it I will be cursing later.

 

[ttocs]

yea if you look on the parts needed it lists solid bushings. Just strange as it says in the title that it includes everything needed to install the K but there is a lot of things on the site that do not agree. On the page for the K it says a stock offset control arms are not available on 94/95 but I know the box I have in my basement says stock offset 94/95. If that were true it was not available then they would need to include the swaybar relocation for it to include everything.

My next question is that while I have the K out I need to poke some holes in my oil pan. I want one for an oil temp sensor towards the bottom and on top I want a hole to go to a hose that then goes to the bottom of my oil catch can so it automatically drains back. Would you take the pan off at that point or just drill/punch the holes with the pan on?

 

[g36 monkey]

If it were me, and the K was out, I would be pulling the pan, cleaning up everything inside, and being absolutely certain all your metal shavings were cleaned up.

 

[evilcw311]

Yeah I'm with monkey on this. Your gonna be pulling the k anyways and dropping the pan is easy with it out of the way.

No point. In taking chances.


This message courtesy of crapatalk!

 

[ttocs]

after some thought last night I felt the same and started looking up gaskets for it and put it on my list. Then that led me to the question of if it would be better to put an aftermarket pan on it but after some thought I will just leave the stock one there as I am not sure the extra capacity gained for the small loss of clearance is going to buy me anything. I need to make a small cut and bend around the rear shock upper area to make clearance for the shockwaves bag. While I am in there and have everything out I have some POR15 I will give the rear wheel wells a fresh coat after a good cleaning. It should make for a great before/after change with new gear and new paint.

 

[g36 monkey]

I love your build lol

 

[ttocs]

sometimes I do too. This morning in a freezing garage cursing at bolts/screws that look to be original to the car I am not so sure. I put a healthy dose of penetrating oil on it and going to wait an hour. If that doesn't work I already made sure the torch has fuel in it :evil27:

 

[ttocs]

Holy hell those old stock suspension bolts were hell! Didn't matter how much penetrating oil or time with my impact they were not moving. I finally had to break out the torch and get them pretty darn hot before still needing to hit the wrench with a hammer to break them loose. They after all that the air bags were mounted with a bolt on top that I have no idea how they got access to tighten it down. Tried modifying some tools and still wasn't close to moving them so finally I had to drill a hole above them to get access. Thankfully they were not huge so it will not be a big deal to fill/cover them but just when I thought I was done with the hard part I spent 3 hours on that one bolt.... Thankfully once I had it figured out the 2nd bag only took an hour. After they were out I was able to get the paint on the inside of the fender wells as well as up under the gas tank since it is still out. I had the car undercoated when I did the sub-frame connectors but didn't have them drop the tank so now the entire bottom of the car has been coated and I did the front quarters as well so it should be good to go now. Can't wait to start putting it all back together now with new parts on the fresh paint and then move up to the front/K. I already have my friend on call to help with that one.

 

[g36 monkey]

I'm excited!

 

[ttocs]

everything I read says to get the bolts/nuts snug and then get the wheels on the ground before tightening them down fully. It occurred to me that it will be easy to do this with out the wheels on the ground since the bags are empty but then it made me wonder if I need the resistance on the spring/control arm pushing down before its all tight? Does this make any sense?

 

[OLD H2S]

I think it makes a difference, I did mine with the wheels off the ground and the lower arms point too far down and is changing the preload on the front coil over setup and the local pro mechanics said don't worry about doing it on the ground???? Maybe I'm wrong.