wish i would of read this first...i'm 1/2 way through the hotchkis (front) & couldnt get the rears on....

 

the rears are easier with a jack then with the spring compressors.

 

yeah they were! there is no way you'd ever compress them with the tools @ autozone.


after reading the thread.....

[img}http://static.flickr.com/76/196666008_21e3168611.jpg[/img]
all done.
[/img]

 

my bad, heres the finished drop

 

Nice.
I meant to get an allignment this weekend but things came up and I never got around to it.
Plus it's been raining all week. Really weird for Vegas.

 

i haven't aligned yet either. there really isnt much pulling going on, i figure i'll give it a few more days just so she settles in

 

Has anyone done their own install with the H-techs. I just got mine in and I don't mind paying $200 for the install but I would rather do them on my own if it's not that hard. I read the directions for the Hotchkis and it doesn't seem to be too hard. I just wanted to know if anyone with the H-techs ran into any problems doing the install. Thanks.

 

Well, I havent' seen the H-Techs, but they shouldn't be much different. I would use the method I did with the jack for the backs because it was easier, even if your Tiens fit in the rented spring compressor.

 

I'll defenitely try your technique with the rears. I'm going to rent the spring compressor tonight and start the project. I know I won't finish it all tonight so I'll finish the rest tomorrow morning. I'll post up pics when I get it done. I'm hoping 6 hours the most.

 

Does anyone know the specs on how much torque I should use when putting all the bolts back on?

I found the answer to my own questions....

http://www.yoursciontc.com/informati...que_specs.html

 

that is very helpful

 

I don't know specifics on torque, but I tightened mine as tight as I could by hand, and a week later, the big top nut had come a little loose and it started clanking. I just cranked them all down one more time and I haven't had any trouble since. That was about eight months ago. Warning: the back springs are a biznatch to get to...

 

So I did some of the work on Friday night and than the rest of Saturday morning. The job would have been a lot easier with some real spring compressors. If you can get some real ones, not the kind that you have to crank about 200 times on each side, it will make the job a lot easier. I started with the back since it was the hardest part of the job. It all went pretty good until one of my socket wrench attachments broke. I had to rush to the store before they closed. I lost an hour there. The nuts on the bottom of the rear struts are tightened so that even superman can't take them off. I used the jack to push socket wrench up to loosen it. Maybe if my car was up on a real lift, than it might have been easier. I just used some jack stands.
I tried the shortcut technique on the rears, Mr. Meaty, but for some reason it didn't work for me. When I lowered the control arm to look at the strut and spring assembly, the bolt was still not sticking out of the top. I didn't bother removing the rear panels in the trunk because I didn't know how to get the grocery hooks off and didn't want to bother with them. I managed to pull the panel up and get to the screw that way. Sorry, I was being lazy.
Everything went back on fine and than we started on the front. The front was like 30 times easier than the back. The only pain in the ___ was taking the spring off the strut. When we tried to remove the nut on the top, the whole assembly was spinning so we couldn't get it to loosen. We had to un-compress the spring so that it would put pressure on the boot and the metal piece above that. So I recommend that you first loosen the nut free before you compress the spring. Don't loosen it to much, just break it free and than compress the spring. Other than that, the front was not bad.
Would I do it again....No unless I had an impact gun, hydraulic jack and some hydraulic spring compressor. I owe a lot of thanks to dexter_5000. He came by and helped me out on the project with his thousands of tools. You defenitely need more than one person for this project to go by faster.
Overall, I love how the car feels now. The wheel and spring combo make the car hug the road real well. The ride quality is a little stiffer than normal but not much. I have about a finger and a half gap right now and that was actually the day after I put them on that I saw that drop. I don't know how much more it will drop but it looks good.

 

What kind of srings did you guys use?? I am thinking of getting mine done soon. hopefully sooner then later!! hehe... And how much were the springs?

Thanks!

 

NYNativ.
Sorry about that, I forgot about the front. I ended up barely putting the compressor on, then had my buddy use vice grips to hold the top coil of the spring to the top plate. Along withalot of WD-40, we finally broke the nut free.

And with the rears, the reason you didn't see the shaft coming up was because you didn't get it in the whole, so it was being compressed. I had a problem with that too.
I had to jack it up very slowly while guiding the shaft ever so slighly into the hole
I didn't have a choice using the compressors on the back because how tightly wound the Hotchkis are. No matter, I'm glad you got it done in one weekend. I got kids so I had to spraed mine across two weekends.

This was probably the most time consuming mod I've done, but now I can say that I have done every single mod on my car. So yeah, it was frustrating, but I dont' think it is a job worth paying someone else $200 to do.

 

kdog_1981 : I bought the Tein H-Techs. $110 + shipping

Mr. Meaty :

After the first couple of hours working on the springs I was wondering why I didn't just pay someone $200 to do it but I'm glad I did it myself (with help). I get to know my car more. This is defenitely the most time consuming mod I have ever done.
I'm in the same boat as you with the kids. I just didn't have the option of working on it next weekend because we are taking a trip so I had to get it all done this weekend. The thing you have to remember is that once you start, there's no turning back.
One thing that you could do is to take the strut/spring assembly off, take it to a shop and have them put the new springs on the strut and than go back home and place the strut back on the car.

 

Yeah, I actually did the fronts one week, no problem except the shaft spinning. Still had my TRDs on the back, which actually looked pretty good. I think I read that someone is actually riding with Hotchkis up front and TRds in the back!

So the next weekend, I did the rear, and come saturday night, I almost did take it to a shop, but they said they could do it the next morning.
By then, I had found out about using the jack, and one of the reasons (and ways to convice my wife to let me get new springs even though I had some already!) was that I wanted to be able to say that I did ALL the work on my car myself.
We'll see what happens in a few years when I go turbo!
I got a friend that does motor swaps and turbos on Hondas so hopefully he'll be around to help!

Enjoy your springs and post some pics here and in the "Post Pics of your Lowered tC" thread!

 

After two aleves, a backache and a gallon of water, I finished my Hotchkis springs today, by myself, with only handtools in 100 degree weather.

For anyone installing theirs by themselves, be sure to use alternative method when installing your rear springs. Do NOT try to use one of those sh*tty spring compressors. Don't spend hours trying to even mess with it.

with that being said, i'm off to autozone to return that stupid "spring compressor", 'cos i need my 40 dollars.

 

How much of a drop is it? any pics?

 

kdog, there's pictures of h techs all over the forums. Do a search for them and it will turn up a bunch of results. The h techs are a slightly less aggressive drop. They sit really even and look really good, but I'd recommend the goldline drop