FMS B's and KYB AGX's just put on...what a day..

[smokediver27]

OMG OMG OMG what a difference. I'll give the quick story in case anyone else is considering putting shocks/springs on. I used many of the threads on stangnet to figure this out, never done it before today. Whoever had the car before me was a moron, had chopped the springs unevenly, even to the extent that the passenger front was 1 inch shorter that driver front, Isolaters were destroyed, and shocks were still the stockers.

Started at 0700 am, tried to remedy a problem I'm having with my rear end leaking due to bottom bolt being broken, NO luck. Anyways, rear shocks and springs were suprisingly easy. Only minor trouble I had was the driver side shock top nut was a pain to get off, ended up using vice grips so bolt wouldnt turn. Springs fell out easy, and were simple to put back in.

The front ones were a whole different story. First off, my cheap impact wrench didnt have the gonads to get the bottom two shock bolts broke lose, so off I went to Sears (fearing the wrath of my wife) and bought me a Craftsman ($159). Got back home, and this wrench is my new found love, so strong it shredded two of my cheaper impact sockets, and had no problem gettting the bolts out (600lbs max torque in reverse). Anyways, got everything down, and for all my might, I couldnt get the spring pried out, so back to town I went to get a tie rod puller so i get get the arm down lower. This did the trick and I got the driver side done after about 4+ hours. Passenger side was considerably easier, only other hang up was that I have NEVER messed with brakes before, so i had to read up about compressing the cylinder to get the calipers back on.

Whole job took me from 0700am this morning to 0800pm tonight (given I'm an amateur, had to make two trips to get what I needed, and had to run back and forth between computer to read up on it)

Have only taken the car around the block so far, and it feels like a whole new car, no vibration in steering wheel, corners better than ever, and ride is super smooth. I havent got a chance to even play with the settings yet, front is on 2 right now and back is on the softest setting (1 I think)

Anyways, if you are thinking about doing it, DO IT, I'm no mechanical genius by any means and made it through, and I think I'll be very happy I did.

 

[WMDPALMER]

Good to hear you were victorious! What kind of drop did it give you so far? Ride was smoother?

 

[smokediver27]

Not too much of a drop..maybe 1/2 inch at most, but keep in mind that my springs had already been cut by the jabroni before me.

Ride is noticeably smoother, vibration that used to be felt in steering wheel is no longer there, when I turn up my driveway (descent incline) you dont feel the car sag way down on one side. I'm looking forward to playing with the adjustments to see what all they can do.

 

[Black Stampede]

That's awesome man. Congrats.
We just put C-springs on my car yesterday. Took a total of 4 hours. I also put '96 Cobra shocks and struts on it cause my buddy had full Griggs suspension put on his Cobra when it only had 1800 miles so I figured hey they may be stock, but they're brand new. Man, what a difference though. Far less body roll, better ride, and much less nose dive.

I say you need to go find some corners. Around your block isn't enough.

 

[SuperStang83]

Go find some turns man! Sounds great so far though. Good luck and have fun!!!

Jakob

 

[swingline]

Do you NEED air tools to get it done? I don't have any and I will be attemping the Bullitt kit sometime very soon. I know it will make the job easier but I figure I should be able to get most bolts off with enough WD-40. Also, did you put new bushings on? How was that? Did you use the guide found in the FAQ at the top or another guide?

 

[smokediver27]

Hey swingline, I suppose it is possible to do it without air tools, but in my case, I don't know how I would have done it. I actually sprayed all the bolts/nuts the night before with PB Blaster and let it sit overnight. I didnt have any good cheater bars to try and do it manually, but I did bust one 3/8 ratchet trying to get the break calipers off the front, and I shredded 2 cheap impact sockets getting the lower strut bolts disconnected (24mm nut,21 mm bolt head I think) I didnt put any new bushings on, just new spring isolaters.

I used two FAQ guides, here's the first (used this one for the fronts)
http://www.stangnet.com/tech/spring.html

I'll try and find the other tommorow (not at home right now)

 

[R.J.]

nobody said any thing about a spring compressor for the front springs, do you need one for a 95?

 

[smokediver27]

Nope, don't need one (spring compressor that is), let me see if I can remember this right, first thing I did was take the brake caliper off and set it on a 5 gallon bucket inside the wheel well (2 shorter bolts on back of caliper, NOT the longer ones) had to take the ABS sensor loose so it wouldnt hang , put a jack under the A arm, jacked it up to ride height to compress the spring, unbolted the front sway bar and took the outer tie rod loose (need a special tool to do this, 15 bucks at autozone or you can get a loaner) , unbolted the caster/camberplate up top (2 nuts, one bolt, you may have to cut off some useless rivets to get it loose) , next I slowly lowered the jack making sure strut didnt hang up, lowered it all the way to floor, pried spring out with prybar, pryed new one back in place with new isolaters, and reversed the process to raise it. 2 hints to follow as you raise is to raise slowly as the swaybar is kinda hard to bend the bolt back in, and make sure the abs sensor line is in the same place when you started ( i had to take the sway back loose on both sides due to the wire getting on the wrong side of the sway bar). everything else is self explanatory. Also, try and make sure you mark the position of the caster/camber before you take it off so you can get it back close to where it was...hope this helps...

 

[Black95GTS]

this is kinda shady, but if you want to avoid your wife's rage, you can return that craftsman wrench no questions asked. I helped my friend install a Jackson Racing supercharger on his Integra R... (I know its rice but the car absolutely rapes, HP to weight ratio is sick now) and we "borrowed" many tools from Sears during the process. You can always pull the "honey i saved 160 bucks before, so I'm gonna buy xxxxxxx with it"

 

[AznStanger3v]

ouch, 13 hours to do struts, shocks, and springs. i never needed a special tool. i just used two ratchets on the front sway bar. i had ZERO air tools. i used my fold-up 4 way tire iron and attached it to the wrench as my breaker bar.

 

[1slow95]

Good to see you made it through allright . I actually changed my springs during a power outage with no power tools. I didn't have to remove the tie rod ends either, I just removed the whole LCA since I was changing ball joints at the same time......Now go out and find some curvy backroads so you can enjoy your new springs!