Mux213 Levin GTS

[Mux213]

Robo, hey be carefull mate, I might get jalous, she is all mine! all mine!!

Today we installed the coilovers. It was a little more work then enticipated. Pictures I will post later but in short this is what we did:

1) jack the car up, make sure you jack up both sides and rest the car on axle stands (if not you will have a hell of a time fighting the swaybar)
2) remove the wheels
3) remove the retailer holding the brake line to the strutcasing
4) cut a line into the bracket that holds the brake line to the strut casing
5) bend the bracket so we can get the brakeline loose
6) unscrew the bolt on the caliper so you can twist the caliper off of the bracket, rest the caliper on a place so it is not hanging by the brake line
7) use spring compressor to compress the springs, this will allow you to remove them easier
unscrew the 3 bolts holding the strut assembly to the body
9) unbolt the strut assembly at the bottom (2 bolts)
10) have someone press down on the wishbone and pull the strut assembly off, for this you need to lift it a bit and then pull it. You may have to hit it with a hamer a few times to get it off
11) unbolt the bolt ontop of the shock, the shaft of the shock may rotate, if you hang on to the plate at which the springs rested you should be able to get the bolt off.
12) with the bolt off you can remove the top plate, that plate that holds the spring in place, the bumpstop and the spring.

Okay, now if you still have stock shocks and want to replace those you need to unbolt the thing ontop of the strut casing to get the shock out.
From what I've read the easiest way to do this is to put the strut casing back onto the wishbone and bolt it on, then you can easilly unscrew this top nut.

I already had konies installed so the exact procedure I dont know about, there is a good thread about it on club4ag.

Another point to take notice is that at this time you can also shorten the strut if you want to go shortstroke, again I would like to direct you to club4ag.

With the konis we could now compress them completely and turn it to set the damper strenght. Very nice indeed

Back to the steps at hand. We didn't have to loose the nut (we did remove one side but find out this was not needed) but the top nut wasn't the stock one but one that probably came with the konies. The paradise racing coilovers did not fit over this nut, we had to take a grinder and grind off the rimm of these nuts to make them the same size as the strut casing.

Before you put things together it is smart to mark the groves on your coilover. Make a small mark ever 2nd grove, make a larger mark after 4 smaller marks. This makes it so much easier to get left and right to match up.

13) put the adjustment ring on the coilover. Take notice that on one side there is a ledge on the adjusters, this should be top. If you got them you should also place the 2 rings and ballbearings on. Its best to keep the adjustment ring at the bottom, this makes it easy to install the whole assembly
14) if you haven't shortend the stroke you can simply slide on the coilovers and let them rest on the plate on which the springs used to rest. If you have shortened the strut you will probably have to weld the coilovers in place.
Please note that one side has a small grove on the inside, I'm not sure if this is top or bottom but I chose it to be top
15) slide the spring on
16) we had to cut the bumpstops so they fit under the spring, they were next to put on. Push them down a bit further then they should be
17) put the top hat on that finishes your coilover setup
1 put the plate back on that used to keep the spring in place (the top hat should fit nicely into it
19) put the top part on
20) Now put the screw back on, if you've kept the adjustment of the coilovers nice and low and you pull out the shocks you can nicely hold the shaft. You can use the plate that was holding the spring in place to keep the shaft from rotating and screw the nut nice and tight. Have a friend help you with this
21) Push the bumpstop upwards, it will lock the top hat in place
22) Push the shock in until the assembly nicely comes together
23) put the strut assembly back on the car, screw it on at the top first (mounting it on the body), make sure you keep the painted dot on the cover facing forward.
24) pull the assembly down (pulling out the shocks) until it settles into its place and bold the strut casing to the wishbone
25) adjust the adjustment so the spring is nicely pushed against the top, dont worry to much about how much you adjust it
26) fix the caliper back into place
27) fix the brake line back into place
2 using the marks you've made line up the adjusters so left and right are the same, the exact position doesn't matter yet
29) put the wheels back on
30) take the car off the jackstands.

That completes the installation, now for the adjustments. Take a look at how high your car is and measure out how much you would like to lower or highten it. Jack up one side of the car and adjust the adjustment by the amount you want. Its best to always keep the locking nut facing forward. Take a look at the marks you made on the coilover to know the position of the adjuster. Take the car off the jacks and jack up the other side. Put the adjuster at the same position as the first side was (count the marks) and lower the car again. You car should now be at the right height and is ready to be taken out on a spin.

Hope I didn't forget anything

BTW, the 6.5kg springs I have are great, the car really follows the ground very nicely. I was surprised at first because I didn't notice to much difference, it seemed more comfortable then I expected. But when I encountered the first speed bumps, MAN WHAT A DIFFERENCE. With my old springs the springs would compress with the speedbump but once you're off the speed bump the energy in the spring would push my car way up. If I take the speed bump to fast it would smash right back into my bumpstops.

With the new springs the car just follows the speedbumps, I can take the speedbumps on the way back to my house at about 2ce the speed and only then the car starts to feel that its making a jump, still it comes in right on the springs and settles. Its a very crazy feeling especially since the back cant keep up with it.

I need some better rear springs now

[Ivan141]

Good thing I came loitering about while you were wrenching eh?..Not a job one would like to do alone.

Just correcting a little error in the write-up (I know..it's late):
The dot on the topmounts should always be facing to the side of the car, not forward.

Also the decreased jumpyness over speedbumps is mostly the result of the proper setting of your Koni shocks. They now slow the rebound down enough so the springs dont launch you. Trust me, they would still do that with the old weak setting.

[Mux213]

Hey Ivan,

Yupz its great to have help come along, great thanks.

And as for the dots, I believe we had them pointing to the front?!?!

Awell I will copy this post into a new technical thread with fotos, we'll put info in there..

Konis rock

Here is a small treat, does anyone know where this ring goes?

[PetzK]

mux213 Wrote:Back to the steps at hand. We didn't have to loose the nut (we did remove one side but find out this was not needed) but the top nut wasn't the stock one but one that probably came with the konies. The paradise racing coilovers did not fit over this nut, we had to take a grinder and grind off the rimm of these nuts to make them the same size as the strut casing.

Usually you have to slip on the coilover sleeve before bolting on the top nut of the shock; if you grind away the 'corners' on the nut, you might have a hard time to take it off the next time. the nut should be the same size wether its koni or not, its 2" wrench size.

BTW I still have 2 new unused TRD top mounts which I don't need, if you are interested, I see you still have the old ones...

Later,
Patrick

[ZaX]

mux213 Wrote:Here is a small treat, does anyone know where this ring goes?

I admit, don't know...
Anybody???

[Mux213]

PetzK Wrote:Usually you have to slip on the coilover sleeve before bolting on the top nut of the shock; if you grind away the 'corners' on the nut, you might have a hard time to take it off the next time. the nut should be the same size wether its koni or not, its 2" wrench size.

BTW I still have 2 new unused TRD top mounts which I don't need, if you are interested, I see you still have the old ones...

Later,
Patrick

Hey patrick, actually you are wrong because the koni one isn't even a hex nut, it was already round so you cant grip a wrench around it. It has two holes in it and you can use a Y tool just like you have with an angle grinder (different size though) to loosen or fasten it.

Can you send me a picture of the TRD top mounts? and what would you want for them?

[Mux213]

ZaX Wrote:I admit, don't know...
Anybody???

Funny zax!

that wouldn't actually work for me because the bump stop keeps the top hat up for me, if I would do that I would pull the bump stop down and it doesn't go up by itself

I wonder if putting the bumpstop on was a smart idea....

[PetzK]

mux213 Wrote:

PetzK Wrote:Usually you have to slip on the coilover sleeve before bolting on the top nut of the shock; if you grind away the 'corners' on the nut, you might have a hard time to take it off the next time. the nut should be the same size wether its koni or not, its 2" wrench size.

BTW I still have 2 new unused TRD top mounts which I don't need, if you are interested, I see you still have the old ones...

Later,
Patrick

Hey patrick, actually you are wrong because the koni one isn't even a hex nut, it was already round so you cant grip a wrench around it. It has two holes in it and you can use a Y tool just like you have with an angle grinder (different size though) to loosen or fasten it.

Can you send me a picture of the TRD top mounts? and what would you want for them?

okay, my bad

TRD mounts are the same as these, mine are still packaged in a closed plastic bag



they are 134€ new, I could sell mine for about 75, email me at [email protected]

Later,
Patrick

[Mux213]

Look! no safety glasses!



Old vs new:


Not compressed, I'm starting to think putting the bumpstops in was a bad idea, I think I will remove them...

[Widar]

mux213 Wrote:Look! no safety glasses!

Oh you MADMAN!!!

Love the difference between old and new springs, it's huge!

I wanna see pics of the car now with them coilovers on!!