KW Coilover Install Tips

[hutru01]

I really feel like the stock endlinks would solve the problem. I had issues with the endlinks rubbing when I had them on my LGT sedan.

[VTGT]

I really feel like the stock endlinks would solve the problem. I had issues with the endlinks rubbing when I had them on my LGT sedan.

 

Yeah I talked to one guy and he said his cobb sways and stock endlinks fit like a glove.

[hutru01]

^ If you can wait till the end of the month, I will be up in nova for a weekend....

[VTGT]

^ If you can wait till the end of the month, I will be up in nova for a weekend....

 

That would be sweet. I owe you some beer, what do you drink hehe

[hutru01]

red bull is fine with me....non drinker here...

[hutru01]

Next time, I am up, we will have to hit up Mr Luv (Tommy) and go downtown or something....

[VTGT]

Alright Redbull it is. I'll pick you up a pack.

[Drew888]

VTGT,

Go to your local autoparts store and pick up an electric impact gun, you'll need a small ruler that measures in mm, and a strap wrench like they mentioned above.

Other tools are the standard fare.

You'll mark the bolts (the oe eccentric bolt especially) and remove.

It's much easier with the right tools. The ruler is to measure the drop with the struts out before you put them in. Call Myles or Andrew for the measurement. If you cannot get through I know I have it written down somewhere.

This will put you at Racecomps recommended height.

With 2 of you, you should be done with all four in a couple of hours.

Post up if you run into any issues.

-Drew

[praedet]

HOW-TO Write-up

 

Tools needed:

 

1) Floor jack (and not just to lift the car), big-ass breaker bar and/or impact wrench

2) Jack Stands

3) Spring compressors

4) Torque instrument capable of producing 15 ft-lb to 120 ft-lb of torque. If you use a torque wrench you'll almost certainly need two to cover this range.

5) 14mm crow's foot to torque rear top mount bolts.

6) 17mm pass through socket LINK

7) Various assortment of 12mm, 14mm, 17mm and 19mm sockets.

8) 6mm allen wrench.

9) buddy (Possibly, I didn't use one)

 

REAR INSTALLATION

 

First, let's start with the rears. Everyone seems to be paranoid about reaching the top hats. Not to worry, they're pretty easy to get to:

 

1) Jack up the rear of the car, put it on jack stands, and take off the rims.

2) Remove rear cargo tray cover and two carpeted side pieces.

3) Pull the carpet extension from the rear seat away from the floor. It's just a friction fit like one of those slide-on binders.

4) Pop up the three clips holding the floor piece. There's one at the rear of the piece in the middle and two at the front edge. Careful popping them out, they like to take off and then hide beneath the rear seat. Don't ask me how I know.

5) Remove the floor piece and there are the top hats! Weird, huh, sitting in the floor like that instead of up in the wheel well. Actually, they're recessed a bit under the side panels but are reachable.

6) Support the shock using the car's scissor jack and remove the lower bolt. This requires a MAJOR effort. Some people have used an impact wrench, but I used a broken torque wrench that now functions as a breaker bar combined with my floor jack to break the bolt loose.

7) Remove the two nuts from the top hat. They're a little hard to reach, especially the right rear nut, but with a little patience they'll come off OK.

8) Lower the scissor jack and remove the shock unit.

 

Now we're ready to steal the top hats:

 

1) Compress the springs using the spring compressor until the spring comes clear of the upper and lower mounts.

2) Remove the strut nut from the strut rod. This is a major PITA. The bolt is attached MUCH tighter than the factory torque spec. Place the 17mm pass through socket on the nut, put the 6mm allen wrench in the strut rod hole, and pull! You may want to loosen this nut before step 1, but DON'T remove it before you compress the spring unless you want an STi lobotomy.

3) Remove the top hat. You'll have to proceed slowly to prevent the shock boot from crunching up.

4) Lower the rear coil-over to it's lowest setting and slide the stock top hat on top. Make sure to put on the washer, and start threading the top nut.

5) Once the nylon of the lock nut engages, the shaft will start to spin. Now take the coil-over to the highest possible setting (Lowering the car if it was on) to add as much preload as you can. Now torque it with an Impact gun making sure to only go to 41 ft-lb, the Subaru's spec.

6) Now set ride height and dampening as planned. I chose a setting of 1.5" from the lower perch to the bottom of the threads. the helper spring is almost in coil bind at that setting. For dampening I was 10 from full hard.

 

DO NOT OVER TORQUE THE TOP OF THE STRUTS, THEY WILL BREAK

 

Now reinstall the unit in the car:

 

1) Supporting the coil-over with your scissors jack, reinstall the top mount nuts and torque to spec using crow's foot. Again, right rear nut will be the most difficult. Depending on your tool situation you may have to remove the right rear interior trim.

2) Using the scissors jack, lift either the coil-over, or the hub set-up so that the coil-over and hub align. Install the bolt and nut and torque to spec.

 

One down, three to go! The other side in the rear is the same. Here are the torque specs:

 

1) Upper shock bolts - 22.4 ft-lb

2) Strut rod bolt - 41 ft-lb

3) Lower shock bolt - 118 ft-lb (ugh!)

 

FRONT INSTALLATION

 

First, remove the strut unit from the car:

 

1) Remove the two bolts holding the ABS sensor and brake line from the shock unit.

2) Remove the two lower bolts from the strut. Note the alignment of the upper bolt - it adjusts the front camber. There are marks on the bolt and there should be a vertical mark on the strut. These bolts, while difficult, should be removable without using extreme measures, but your floor jack is standing by (assuming you've got the car up on stands and aren't putting your life in jeopardy by working on the car while supported by only the floor jack).

3) Remove the three bolts from the upper mount and remove the strut unit from the car.

 

DO NOT OVER TORQUE THE TOP OF THE STRUTS, THEY WILL BREAK

 

Camber Plate Set-up:

 

1) Dial the front coil-over to it's lowest setting.

2) Install the bearing seat on top of the upper spring hat.

3) Put the bearing housing onto the strut rod, seating it on the bearing seat you just put on.

4) apply some blue thread locker to the shaft threads, and then screw the top nut supplied with the camber plates onto the threads until it engages with the bearing seat. At this point the shaft will start to turn.

5) Apply as much preload as possible by dialing the coil-overs to the highest setting. (lowest ride height)

6) Using an impact gun, torque the upper nut to 41 ft-lb.

7) Install the hex bolts into the camber plate with some blue thread locker. This is where you decide if you want Camber, or Camber and Caster.

8) Install the plates in the car and tighten the nuts to spec.

 

Unit installation:

 

1) Slide the bearing housing through the camber plate.

2) Have a friend slide the camber piece, and then the top cover onto the top of the bearing housing where it is sticking out.

3) Have them put the setting hex bolt into the 10th hole from maximum camber and then use the two long hex bolts to attach the coil-over to tha camber plate.

4) Loosely install the lower bolt on the coil-over.

5) Install the upper bolt and nut. Align the marks to their precious setting and torque the bolt to spec, taking care not to let the bolt turn.

6) Retorque the lower bolt.

7) Reinstall the two ABS/brake line bolts and retorque to spec.

 

Repeat for the other side. Here are the torque specs:

 

Upper mount nuts - 14.5 ft-lb

Strut rod nut - 41 ft-lb

ABS/Brake bolts - 24.5 ft-lb

Lower strut bolts - 112 ft-lb

 

Congratulations, you're now the proud owner of a Coil-overd Legacy! I

 

DO NOT OVER TORQUE THE TOP OF THE STRUTS, THEY WILL BREAK

 

Using a strap wrench to hold the shaft is great

[praedet]

Pics are here...

 

And, I stole a lot of the directions from somebody before changing them, I just don't remember who...

[VTGT]

Wow, thanks for the complete write up

 

So you do need a spring compressor...

[praedet]

Depends on whether or not you have new top hats, and whether or not you want to shoot them out of the car

[VTGT]

The ride height from your install pictures is about max ride height for the KW's right?

 

Yeah I plan on using the stock top hats that are on the stock strut assembly.

[praedet]

yep, pretty much the max recommended...

[Drew888]

So right after my post...So...whaddya tryin to say

 

So I left a few things out like spring compressors, torque settings, and....wait there's something else very important I'm leaving out....

 

Oh yeah... BEER !

 

I just did this a month ago...I should know better

[whobaru]

Thanks for posting that Praedet, I think it will be most helpfull. Now I'm actually glad I haven't had time to do this yet. So, I'm installing these:

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/IMG_3391.jpg

 

Any advice?

[RaceComp Engineering]

Yours are already assembled, so all you need to do is remove the old dampers and put your complete assembly in it's place. Skip all the spring compressor, strap wrench, disassembly stuff.

 

 

- Andrew

[whobaru]

I know that... just wondering if you have any added input.

[RaceComp Engineering]

Ahh okay. See my next post in a couple seconds....

 

I am working on a huuuge multi page installation and set-up paper for Legacys and Imprezas.....but it's a big project with all the info i'm putting in.

 

 

- Andrew

[RaceComp Engineering]

I edited praedets nice write-up real quick for preassembled coilovers with spec b tops. Main things to look out for is be careful not to overtorque the 3 front and 2 rear top nuts. They're just locator nuts, they aren't bearing much weight so don't wail on them.

 

Be careful and take your time and you're good to go. Call us if you have any issues.

 

HOW-TO Write-up

 

Tools needed:

 

1) Floor jack (and not just to lift the car), big-ass breaker bar and/or impact wrench

2) Jack Stands

4) Torque instrument capable of producing 15 ft-lb to 120 ft-lb of torque. If you use a torque wrench you'll almost certainly need two to cover this range.

5) 14mm crow's foot to torque rear top mount bolts.

6) 17mm pass through socket LINK

7) Various assortment of 12mm, 14mm, 17mm and 19mm sockets.

8) 6mm allen wrench.

9) buddy (Possibly, I didn't use one)

 

REAR INSTALLATION

 

First, let's start with the rears. Everyone seems to be paranoid about reaching the top hats. Not to worry, they're pretty easy to get to:

 

1) Jack up the rear of the car, put it on jack stands, and take off the rims.

2) Remove rear cargo tray cover and two carpeted side pieces.

3) Pull the carpet extension from the rear seat away from the floor. It's just a friction fit like one of those slide-on binders.

4) Pop up the three clips holding the floor piece. There's one at the rear of the piece in the middle and two at the front edge. Careful popping them out, they like to take off and then hide beneath the rear seat. Don't ask me how I know.

5) Remove the floor piece and there are the top hats! Weird, huh, sitting in the floor like that instead of up in the wheel well. Actually, they're recessed a bit under the side panels but are reachable.

6) Support the shock using the car's scissor jack and remove the lower bolt. This requires a MAJOR effort. Some people have used an impact wrench, but I used a broken torque wrench that now functions as a breaker bar combined with my floor jack to break the bolt loose.

7) Remove the two nuts from the top hat. They're a little hard to reach, especially the right rear nut, but with a little patience they'll come off OK.

8) Lower the scissor jack and remove the shock unit.

 

Now reinstall the unit in the car:

 

1) Supporting the coil-over with your scissors jack, reinstall the top mount nuts and torque to spec using crow's foot. Again, right rear nut will be the most difficult. Depending on your tool situation you may have to remove the right rear interior trim.

2) Using the scissors jack, lift either the coil-over, or the hub set-up so that the coil-over and hub align. Install the bolt and nut and torque to spec.

 

One down, three to go! The other side in the rear is the same. Here are the torque specs:

 

1) Upper shock bolts - 22.4 ft-lb

2) Strut rod bolt - 41 ft-lb

3) Lower shock bolt - 118 ft-lb (ugh!)

 

FRONT INSTALLATION

 

First, remove the strut unit from the car:

 

1) Remove the two bolts holding the ABS sensor and brake line from the shock unit.

2) Remove the two lower bolts from the strut. Note the alignment of the upper bolt - it adjusts the front camber. There are marks on the bolt and there should be a vertical mark on the strut. These bolts, while difficult, should be removable without using extreme measures, but your floor jack is standing by (assuming you've got the car up on stands and aren't putting your life in jeopardy by working on the car while supported by only the floor jack).

3) Remove the three bolts from the upper mount and remove the strut unit from the car.

 

Unit installation:

 

1) Fit new coilover to front of car.

4) Torque lower bolts on the coil-over.

5) Torque (only 12 ft-lbs) the 3 locator nuts on top.

7) Reinstall the two ABS/brake line bolts and retorque to spec.

 

Repeat for the other side. Here are the torque specs:

 

Upper mount nuts - 14.5 ft-lb

Strut rod nut - 41 ft-lb

ABS/Brake bolts - 24.5 ft-lb

Lower strut bolts - 112 ft-lb

 

Congratulations, you're now the proud owner of a Coil-overd Legacy!

[praedet]

^^^Thanks Andrew!!!

[whobaru]

Thanks Andrew!!!

 

When might we expect this walkthrough? Sounds really nice! I'll wait

[RaceComp Engineering]

Don't hold your breath.....i need to clear my schedule for like a week and let Myles and Mike answer all calls and PMs and emails. Those suckers. So hopefully the next couple of weeks!

 

- Andrew

[whobaru]

I finish my uber-hardcore finance class next Monday, so I'll be installing after that.

[slimjoe]

Very cool. That should be just in time for when mine come in. But then again, from what's in this thread, it looks pretty easy already.