I got a chance to get my SVT suspension installed. Those of you that said to give myself a lot of time were dead on; I was busy until 4AM!
Most of the time was spent on the rear springs. I tried the LCA bolt in insta-broke the 15mm socket. Tried an impact and that was futile as well. Before hand I had stopped and Auto Zone and rented an internal spring compressor which ended up being the tool of choice. I had to add a steel pipe to the threads to prevent them from hitting the top of the spring perch. Even then someone needed to put downward pressure on the LCA to be able to swap the springs.
The fronts were easy in comparison. Other than having to use a breaker on the strut/knuckle bolt, all went well.
Thanks for everyone that supplied advice in my other thread. I haven't had a chance to test out the new setup with the new wheels but the look of the car has been improved 1000 times over from doing this. Interesting also is it looks like I have sway bar mounts on the rear crossmember even though I do not have a bar?
Monkey-Gein wrote:ummm, question. isn't the SVT set up only a 1/2 shorter then the normal suspension.
It's advertised as 1/2" but I've read that it can be up to 3/4". I was originally going to go with the Multimatic but after a conversation with Steve, I decided the SVT was better for what I wanted to get out of it. It's not much of a drop but anything that brings it down from the factory 4x4 look is an improvement. The 215/45's have a slightly larger overall diameter so that sucked up a bit of wheel gap too. Also, it's settled a bit more than in the pic above. Once I get it all cleaned up I'll put a little more effort into some pics.
For now I'm going to take the sway bar and linkage from my girlfriend's car until I decide how to proceed.
I did get a chance to take it for a drive tonight and I must say I'm impressed. It handles SOO much better than the factory setup and the ride quality is only slightly worse. I'm a happy boy
Monkey-Gein wrote:ummm, question. isn't the SVT set up only a 1/2 shorter then the normal suspension.
Depends on the year of the car being dropped, My SVT with stock suspension was 3/4 of an inch lower than my wifes 2000 ZX3 which was lower than a newer Focus to begin with.
As the years progressed the cars got higher so the SVT suspension will give more of a drop on newer cars.
Oh well they would have needed struts after a years use.
