Hey,
I just registered to share this with you guys since I got a lot of good suspension info off here.
2005 Ultimate (117k kms): My 2 rear springs were broken and a font hub was gone so I figured I'd replace springs/shocks all around and both front hubs.
The car is driven in the winter in Canada so I didn't want to lower with the Eibach springs, otherwise I would have gone that route (also, I was looking for a stiffer shock to match with the Eibachs but couldn't find one. I guess most are running stock shocks or KYBs). BTW, Eibachs are way cheaper than OEM springs. If I recall, I could get the set of 4 for the price of 2 OEM.
I went with stock springs and KYB shocks and OEM hubs.
The rears were easy enough and a simple Fri night project.
The fronts were a different story (BTW, I bet this isn't a problem with the Eibachs). Your parts store compressor will not work with the fronts unless you like ticking time bombs. The style that look like a couple of pickle forks may work better as I've had success with those in the past on other vehicles but I couldn't get my hands on one quickly.
The fronts with a 2nd lower coil that is ~3.5" in dia. plus a heavy gauge spring, plus the angle of the turns, make for a very difficult spring to compress. It doesn't help that the KYBs, when fully extended are about 1" shorter than OEM.
After struggling with the fronts for a day, I decided to take them in to a shop. The first shop has a $1000 hand operated compressor but the tension was way too much so he said no way. The 2nd shop said they wouldn't fit their machine. Both referred me to _the_ machine shop and service garage in the area. The service shop said they tried doing fronts on an LS last year and couldn't compress them. They referred me to a heavy equipment shop but I didn't bother as they likely wouldn't have tools that would adjust to such a small dia. It seemed like the only option was to get the machine shop to make a jig and use a larger hydraulic press.
So I used the car as the press. Undo the lower ball joint, loosely install the top insulator, line up the spring/shock assembly, work the shock into the lower mount point and bolt it up. Then with a jack on the outer end of the control arm, you can slowly compress the spring. The only tricky part next is to line up the shock shaft to run it through the top mount, but that was surprisingly easy. Turn on the shock nut and you're done. You're also halfway done with the install since you have the shock in place.
This was surprisingly easy and so much safer than the conventional compress and install on the loose shock. It probably takes the same or less time too.
PS No surprise that the hubs were corroded in. Remove the dust shield as that gives you an opposite side of the hub to hammer on to knock them out.
I just registered to share this with you guys since I got a lot of good suspension info off here.
2005 Ultimate (117k kms): My 2 rear springs were broken and a font hub was gone so I figured I'd replace springs/shocks all around and both front hubs.
The car is driven in the winter in Canada so I didn't want to lower with the Eibach springs, otherwise I would have gone that route (also, I was looking for a stiffer shock to match with the Eibachs but couldn't find one. I guess most are running stock shocks or KYBs). BTW, Eibachs are way cheaper than OEM springs. If I recall, I could get the set of 4 for the price of 2 OEM.
I went with stock springs and KYB shocks and OEM hubs.
The rears were easy enough and a simple Fri night project.
The fronts were a different story (BTW, I bet this isn't a problem with the Eibachs). Your parts store compressor will not work with the fronts unless you like ticking time bombs. The style that look like a couple of pickle forks may work better as I've had success with those in the past on other vehicles but I couldn't get my hands on one quickly.
The fronts with a 2nd lower coil that is ~3.5" in dia. plus a heavy gauge spring, plus the angle of the turns, make for a very difficult spring to compress. It doesn't help that the KYBs, when fully extended are about 1" shorter than OEM.
After struggling with the fronts for a day, I decided to take them in to a shop. The first shop has a $1000 hand operated compressor but the tension was way too much so he said no way. The 2nd shop said they wouldn't fit their machine. Both referred me to _the_ machine shop and service garage in the area. The service shop said they tried doing fronts on an LS last year and couldn't compress them. They referred me to a heavy equipment shop but I didn't bother as they likely wouldn't have tools that would adjust to such a small dia. It seemed like the only option was to get the machine shop to make a jig and use a larger hydraulic press.
So I used the car as the press. Undo the lower ball joint, loosely install the top insulator, line up the spring/shock assembly, work the shock into the lower mount point and bolt it up. Then with a jack on the outer end of the control arm, you can slowly compress the spring. The only tricky part next is to line up the shock shaft to run it through the top mount, but that was surprisingly easy. Turn on the shock nut and you're done. You're also halfway done with the install since you have the shock in place.
This was surprisingly easy and so much safer than the conventional compress and install on the loose shock. It probably takes the same or less time too.
PS No surprise that the hubs were corroded in. Remove the dust shield as that gives you an opposite side of the hub to hammer on to knock them out.
