alignment or wait

[Alerosaint]

I just finished lowering my car...should I take it to get aligned asap or should I wait till its settled????

[Midgear]

I stuck eibach springs on my car and never got an alignment.. wheel stays straight and doesnt pull anywhere.. so I guess it's good-

[Alerosaint]

no excessive tread wear or nuthin huh

[Midgear]

^^^ I can only chuckle at that one.. I've boiled rubber since I put those springs on- only to prove my point that my "granny cars" traction control doesnt work.

shoulda seen the look on their faces when that sheet of thick solid white smoke came seeping from the body lines on the hood-

[[ion] C2]

alignment = totally necessary according to most people, i dunno. i don't want to have to take my side skirts off again for a shop to use their damn chassis lifts.

you put them on yourself? i have a set of Sprint springs sitting here

[Midgear]

^^^ dude.. put them on your car for the love of all that is holy.. and then go get an alignment lol

once I figured out how to get the spring off the strut.. it was pie, first one took me about 2 hours LOL.. the rest took me around 15 minutes each

[doubleN0alero]

I dunno..I had one done and I didn't have to take anything off to have it done. I had to call around to find a place that would do an alignment on a lowered car...that wasn't easy to begin with. The place that did it actually had 3 pieces of 2X6 nailed together like steps that they drove my car up to get it on the lift.

[Alerosaint]

C2;378732']alignment = totally necessary according to most people, i dunno. i don't want to have to take my side skirts off again for a shop to use their damn chassis lifts.

you put them on yourself? i have a set of Sprint springs sitting here
sure did...wasnt that bad really ...i actually pulled up the how to on the forum on my cellphone and used it as a guide...heh heh
^^^ dude.. put them on your car for the love of all that is holy.. and then go get an alignment lol

once I figured out how to get the spring off the strut.. it was cake, first one took me about 2 hours LOL.. the rest took me around 15 minutes each

the first one did take me 2 hours, cause i had to learn how to take off the spring and made sure the springs were lined up right but after that it was not cake but pie....lol...just putting the bolt into the knuckle, getting it lined up was a pain in the arse...the last one kicked my butt to...i was spent

[Midgear]

omg.. thank you for pointing out the cake thing. *edits above post*

[JOEY GLADSTONE]

you dont need to take off your skirts for the lift, in most cases you need to take off the front bumper unless you use wood blocks to get it up

[Cliff8928]

C2;378732']alignment = totally necessary according to most people, i dunno. i don't want to have to take my side skirts off again for a shop to use their damn chassis lifts.

you put them on yourself? i have a set of Sprint springs sitting here

Alignment racks have the ramps they drive on. No need to remove the rocker moldings.

[[ion] C2]

hmm maybe i was just thinking about the install, if i had a shop install em they'd likely use those same crappy lifts as Midas at ASS so they can take off the wheels and mess with the springs easily

i don't know how to install springs, lul. and i know it's not going to go smoothly, nothing rusted ever does. i thought you had to be like super careful and have a friend or two because the spring needs to be super compressed and whatever. and the old one could fly off or something.

[Midgear]

^^ entire strut has to come off the car.. that's what I did anyways.. strut, mount, spring.. all of it- I was able to move my wheel (still mounted on the car) up and down quite a distance lol

[[ion] C2]

make a how-to yo

[Midgear]

C2;378939']make a how-to yo


I'd much rather not pull it apart again.. if I dont have to-

mabey if I get some KYB struts i'll make a how to for it all over again :lol:

[[ion] C2]

don't need pictures just description of what to do in what order lol

don't you need a spring compressor or something?

[Midgear]

C2;378941']don't you need a spring compressor or something?


yes.. that's the biggest bitch of the entire job is compressing that spring to get it off the strut.. we almost launched a spring through my cousins WALL because one of the compressors slipped lol

[[ion] C2]

which is why i'm waiting to spend $200 on having it pro-installed

[FrankTheTank]

C2;378943']which is why i'm waiting to spend $200 on having it pro-installed
you're throwing $200 away then. just go to auto zone and barrow one of their spring compressors.
1) remove struts from car
2) put spring compressor on spring to keep spring de-energized.
3) remove nut that keeps top of strut and bearing plate assembled.
4) remove spring from strut and undo spring compressor
5) compress lowering spring and place on strut
6) attach bearing plate to top of strut with spring compressed on strut
7) remove spring compressor from spring
8) reinstall strut
9) send me $100

[[ion] C2]

hmmm.

[FrankTheTank]

step 9 is crucial.

[Midgear]

you're throwing $200 away then. just go to auto zone and barrow one of their spring compressors.
1) remove struts from car
2) put spring compressor on spring to keep spring de-energized.
3) remove nut that keeps top of strut and bearing plate assembled.
4) remove spring from strut and undo spring compressor
5) compress lowering spring and place on strut
6) attach bearing plate to top of strut with spring compressed on strut
7) remove spring compressor from spring
8) reinstall strut
9) send me $100

that's basically how it's done.. with the finer details removed lol

it's ALOT easier than you think.. its a nice little project to take on if you have a few spare hours of time and nothing else to do.

[Nick_Wa]

What does the typical install take, for just lowering springs (car only has 40k-ish miles on it) for time? Ive had my whole rear end out on my old camaro and helped a buddy with his spring install on his jeep so I know how to use spring compressor and all that, havent had my GA suspension apart yet though. What time should I expect?

[Midgear]

since you have experience.. your probly lookin at 1 - 3 hours depending on if everything goes as planned and how fast you work..it took me a good 4 - 5 hours because I didnt know what the hell I was doing at first :lol:

[Alerosaint]

C2;378939']make a how-to yo

Here is the how to...this is the one I used
http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20
its alot easier with a spring compressor though and maybe just maybe more safe

[03alerospl]

If you haven't gotten an alignment yet go find a place and get it done,
It took me three weeks to get the money and to find a shop that would even touch the car, and after those 3 weeks My brand new tires were worn down to the wear bars, so I now need new tires again next spring :(

[JOEY GLADSTONE]

joel actually has a how-to posted up on here but i cant seem to find it, i used his how to like 2 years ago when i replaced the struts before the air ride came along