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I tried out a different Rust-Oleum product today. This time the paint stuck to the exposed metal pretty well. I'm going to occasionally check on the shaved lip for any rust that may form. If I see anything then I'll come up with a better solution.
Some of this stuff made it past my masking tape and was spread around part of my rear bumper. I sprayed the paint with WD-40 and it wiped right off, even after sitting for about an hour.
PRESSING OUT CASTER BUSHING
A few days ago I ordered an "Orion Motor Tech" bushing press kit off Amazon and it finally arrived. I've been looking for cups to use to press out the large rear bushing from my front control arms and I'm happy to say that this kit had everything I needed to get the job done.
I used the cups from the Orion kit to push out my stock bushings and press in my Powerflex caster bushings.
INSTALLING FRONT CONTROL ARMS
With my new caster bushings pressed in, the arms were ready to be reinstalled back onto the car.
Getting the arms reinstalled was a bit tricky. The rear bushing must be slotted into the subframe first before the inner bushing can be secured.
One issue I ran into was my caster bushings being a little too tall for the subframe slot. I could get the bottom to slip in, but the top wouldn't clear.
I resorted to using a plastic mallet to force the bushing into place.
Once the rear bushing was positioned in its slot in the subframe, I did not tighten it down. This is because I needed to be able to wiggle the control arm in order to get the inner bushing into place. This was the most frustrating part of reinstalling my control arms.
I found that when I lined up the bolt hole for the rear bushing, the inner bushing would not be centered in its slot in the subframe. This made fitting the bushing sleeves in between the bushing and the subframe impossible.
By not bolting the rear bushing in place and allowing it to move around in its slot in the subframe, I was able to get the inner bushing and its sleeves to roughly line up.
I was having a lot of trouble getting the holes to line up perfectly to allow the inner bushing bolt to slide through everything, so I resorted to pounding the bolt in using a big hammer, which forced the bushing and the sleeves to line up properly.
I then used a plastic mallet to bang on the control arm and move it around enough to get the bolt holes for the rear bushing to line up so I could bolt that down. Once that was done I used the spanner wrench included with my Powerflex bushings to rotate them into their correct positions (or at least I tried). The arms and caster bushings were really held in place and very difficult to move, so I positioned the bushings as best I could.
If everything works out I should have the car reassembled in the next few days. All I have left to do is reinstall everything.
I finished reassembling the front knuckles with the wheel hubs installed.
To reinstall the knuckle, the first thing I did was fit the control arm ball joint into the bottom of the knuckle. The knuckle secures the ball joint in place using a bolt. The joint is grooved, and the bolt must line up with the groove before the bolt will slide through the knuckle all the way.
You can see the groove in the side of the ball joint. The bolt that secures the ball joint in the knuckle passes through this groove. The ball joint can be rotated to position it properly.
After getting the knuckle seated on the ball joint I torqued the bolt.
Like I mentioned a few days ago, I tried to save some money when purchasing new ABS sensors by purchasing two front right sensors rather than a left and a right because at the time the left side sensor I wanted was much more expensive than the right side sensor.
Here is a picture of what the right side sensor looks like when installed in the left knuckle.
With the brake rotor installed, the wire does clear the rotor, but it's too close for comfort. I hopped on Rock Auto to purchase a front left ABS sensor and noticed that the VEVO brand of sensors I originally purchased is no longer available. I put in an overnight order for an Ultra-Power brand sensor.
I then moved on to installing my struts. I haven't adjusted my bump stops yet so I removed the springs from the strut and installed it.
I then loosely installed the wheel.
I have a lot more work to do around the rest of the car so instead of lowering the car down and trying to set the bump stop I moved to the other side to install the front right suspension.
I didn't notice this when removing the stock knuckle but the ball joint was not oriented correctly when it was installed in the knuckle. Instead of rotating the ball joint so that the groove properly lined up with the knuckle bolt, the bolt was instead forced into place, marring part of the ball joint. This damage prevented the ball joint from properly inserting itself into the new knuckle. I plan to use a Dremel to clean up the ball joint.
INSTALLING REAR SUSPENSION
I didn't take any pictures, but I forgot to install the rear dust shields onto the rear knuckles. The dust shields go in-between the knuckles and the wheel hubs. I need to separate the rear hubs and knuckles and reassemble them with the dust shields in place before they can be installed onto the car.
Assembling my rear knuckles has been quite the drawn out process. I didn't install the dust shields onto the knuckles when I pressed the hubs into the knuckles. The dust shields sit between the knuckles and the hubs so I had to go back and separate the hubs from the knuckles so I could install the dust shields in between them.
The Orion press kit I purchased off Amazon had the perfect sized puck that I placed on the back of the hubs and used a rubber mallet to bang on to release the hubs from the knuckles while the knuckles were secured in a vise.
I then spent a few hours figuring out how to reinstall the knuckles onto the car, only to realize that the side hooks that hold the parking brake shoes in place need to be inserted into the dust shields before the dust shields are installed onto the knuckles, so I had to undo all of the work I did. I took knuckles back off the car so I could disassemble them again to install the parking brake hooks.
Side note – the nut that secures the dust shield to the knuckle is too thick to be properly secured. There isn't enough space between the nut and the body of the knuckle to get a socket around the nut to tighten it down. The dust shield is held in place by the hub and its four bolts so I'm not worried about being unable to tighten down this one nut, but I think it is worth mentioning.
I'm skipping describing the steps I took to install the rear knuckles onto the car to bring attention to the parking brake. I really struggled to assemble the parking brake while the knuckle was installed in the car. I wasn't able to do it.
Maybe it's because I'm going at this incorrectly, but I cannot for the life of me secure the shoes using the hooks I inserted into dust shield. I spent over an hour trying everything I could think of. I only installed one knuckle, which is still on the car. I am going to disassemble the second knuckle and try to assemble the parking brake into the dust shield before installing it onto the knuckle alongside the hub. I am thinking that will be the easiest way for me to get the parking brake together.
Struggling with the parking brakes put my work on the rear suspension on hold, so I moved back to the fronts.
I adjusted the bump stop of the front left strut. The bump stop prevents the damper from compressing past whatever point the bump stop is set at. Bump stops prevent the tire from contacting the fender and causing any damage. I set the bump stop by bolting the wheel onto the hub and using a jack to raise the control arm until either the bump stop engaged or the wheel hit the fender. The wheel ended up hitting the fender, meaning the bump stop was set too low. I slowly lowered the control arm until the wheel no longer contacted the fender, and then locked the steering wheel in each direction while spinning the wheel to see if the tire made contact with anything. When the wheel and tire would make contact with the fender while turned, I would lower the control arm just a bit and test again until I found a point where the wheel and tire would not contact anything when at full lock. I then measured the distance from the top of the wheel to the fender. My thought process was that since I now knew the maximum height the wheel could be without making any contact with the fender, I could just adjust the bump stop until the bump stop would engage with the wheel at my desired (measured) height. I wouldn't have to spend any more time turning the wheel left and right to test for rubbing/contact.
Where I left the front left strut a few days ago. At this point I had not measured anything on the strut. I removed the springs and threw it onto the car.
I found that the closest my wheel could reasonably be to my fender was 2 and 1/4 inches. At this level of compression, the tire would just barely contact the front and back of the fender liner at max lock. Raising the wheel any higher into the wheel well past this point would cause significant rubbing issues with the fender liner. With a gap of 2 and 1/4 inches between the wheel and the fender, the tire is beginning to tuck into the top side of the fender. I don't realistically ever see me being in a situation where I am reaching this level of compression at max steering lock so I am not worried about the slight rub at this height.
For reference, the strut on the left is my passenger side strut which I have not touched, and the strut on the right is the strut I adjusted the bump stop height of.
I ended up having to lengthen the strut by 1 and 3/4 inches.
After copying the change I made to my adjusted strut to the other strut, I tightened down the bottom lock rings to prevent the height from changing. At this stage I don't plan on touching the adjusted passenger side strut (the strut with the springs still installed). Now that the passenger strut has its bump stop adjusted too, I will use the passenger strut as a reference for where the springs should be on the driver side strut that I originally disassembled.
I disassembled my knuckles and tried installing the parking brake assemblies onto the dust shields while the dust shields were separated from the knuckles and hubs. This made assembling the parking brakes very easy.
With open access to the backside of the dust shield, I was able to use one hand to keep the shoe hooks in place while securing the spring-loaded clips with my other hand.
After assembling the parking brakes I installed the dust shields and hubs back onto the knuckles.
I then installed them back onto the car for the fourth time.
Which is when I ran into my next issue with the parking brakes. With the hub blocking access to the parking brake components, I am unable to connect the parking brake cable to the parking brake. I am going to have to separate the hub from the knuckle and parking brake, install the knuckle and parking brake onto the car, connect the parking brake cable to the parking brake, and then install the wheel hub.
ADJUSTING REAR BUMP STOPS
Taking a break from dealing with the parking brakes, I removed the springs from one of my rear shocks and installed it to set the bump stop.
When compressed, the rear wheels tuck in a lot. I also don't think I'll need to use the 5mm spacers i purchased for the rears to clear the trailing arms.
I found that rubbing only occurred when the top of the wheel was closer than 1 and 1/4 inches from the fender, so that was where I aimed to set my bump stops. When compressed beyond that, the tires would make contact near the top of the fender well. I also noticed that the tire always cleared the rear bumper tab by a decent bit, so I also don't think I'll need to trim them.
ADJUSTING FRONT SUSPENSION
I reinstalled the springs onto my bare front strut so I could use it to find my desired compression and droop travel. This is the part of adjusting my suspension that I'm not entirely confident I did correctly.
I reinstalled the springs I removed earlier onto the strut and installed the strut onto the car. I measured the distance from the top of the wheel to the fender. I measured 6 and 3/4 inches. I then subtracted the distance that was between the wheel and the fender when I set my bump stops (2 and 1/4 inches). 6.75 - 2.25 = 4.5 inches of total possible suspension travel (compression and droop).
After calculating that I had 4 and 1/2 inches of total possible suspension travel, I installed the wheel and jacked up the control arm. I would continue to raise the wheel until I saw the entire car begin to lift up. I believe the car lifting upwards was a sign that the coilover spring was supporting the car, meaning the suspension was compressed to where it would be at static ride height. I then measured the distance between the top of the wheel and the fender. That distance is how much the suspension can compress, while the remaining (a.k.a. how much the wheel went up before jacking the control arm caused the entire car to lift) was my possible droop travel. To change how much the wheel would lift before the entire car would lift, I messed with the spring perch. The less preload placed on the spring, the more compression travel given to the suspension. I ended with a little over 3 inches of possible compression travel, leaving just under 1 and 1/2 inches of possible droop travel.
Adjusting the compression and droop is simple and can be done with the suspension still installed in the car. If where I have set my front struts set ends up being wrong, I will easily be able to adjust them.
Unfortunately my car will not be ready in time for the HDPE event I'm registered for this coming weekend.
This took a long time to figure out, but I finally did it. There may be a more efficient and easier method for installing the rear knuckles, but this is what worked for me.
What made installing the rear knuckles difficult for me was figuring out how to install the parking brakes onto the rear knuckles. The parking brakes cannot be installed on the knuckles after the hubs have been bolted in because the hubs will block access to parts of the dust shields that you need to mess with to install the parking brakes. Even after the parking brakes are assembled, the hubs still can't be preinstalled onto the rear knuckles like I did with the front knuckles because the hub prevents you from being able to connect the parking brake cable to the parking brake.
To fully install the parking brakes onto the car, I assembled them onto the dust shields, and then connected the parking brake cables on the car to the parking brakes.
Parking brake cable clip
Parking brake cable installed
This took some effort, since the spring on the parking brake cable is very stiff, but using a pair of needle nose pliers and a flathead screwdriver I was able to get the cables clipped into the parking brake assemblies.
I then slipped the ball joints from the upper control arm and the trailing arm into the knuckle and hand tightened their nuts. Once the knuckle was held in place, I inserted the dust shield into the knuckle and hand threaded the four bolts that secure the hub to the knuckle.
I used the four bolts to hold the dust shield in place as I fitted the wheel hub.
Once the bolts were hand-tight I was able to fit a small torque wrench behind the knuckle and torque all four bolts to spec.
After that I connected the lower control arm to the knuckle and torqued it to spec. I used blue Loctite on all the non-factory bolts included with the SSB knuckles.
Next I connected the wheel speed sensor. There is one bracket that connects the sensor wire to the body of the car, and a second bracket that connects the sensor wire to the trailing arm.
Next, I tightened down the nut for the trailing arm.
There wasn't enough room to fit a ratchet or torque wrench onto the nut of the trailing arm ball joint, so I had to resort to tightening the nut using a crescent wrench. I also noticed that once the nut gets tight enough the ball joint will spin in place when I turn the nut. There was no way to hold the ball joint still while I tightened the nut. I placed a jack under the ball joint and lifted it up to place load on the ball joint, which held it in place and allowed me to tighten the nut completely.
My jack wasn't tall enough to reach the ball joint so I stacked four lifting blocks that came with my QuickJacks on top of my jack. I raised the knuckle until the trailing arm was about parallel to the ground.
After tightening down the nut on the trailing arm ball joint I moved to tightening the nut on the ball joint of the upper control arm. I encountered the same issue where the ball joint would spin when I tightened the nut. Jacking up the knuckle again solved this issue. There was more room around the upper ball joint so I was able to properly get a torque wrench on the nut and torque the nut to spec.
The last step in installing the knuckle was to connect the adjustable toe arm. I used blue Loctite on this bolt.
After securing the knuckle in place, I worked on adjusting the rear suspension. I tossed on the brake rotor and rear caliper, hand tightening the caliper bolts, so that I could properly install the wheel onto the car.
ADJUSTING REAR COILOVERS
Like the fronts, I started by stripping one of the rear coilovers of its springs.
I then threw it on the car and lifted the wheel to see if it contacted the fender. It did, so I extended the length of the shock and checked again. I repeated this process until the wheel didn't make contact with the body, even at full compression. I then copied that body length onto the other coilover, and then reinstalled the springs.
I set the bump stops to engage when the wheel is just over an inch away from the fender.
At full droop, the wheel sits five inches away from the fender, meaning the suspension has 4 inches of total possible travel.
Having zero preload on the springs results in the most compression travel possible. Even with zero preload on the springs, I was still only able to achieve just a bit over 1 and 3/4 inches of compression travel (if I made and understand my measurements correctly).
I then copied my adjusted springs onto the other coilover and used masking tape to mark where I set the collars.
FINISHING SUSPENSION INSTALLATION
With my coilovers finished, I started working on buttoning up the rest of my suspension.
When I initially removed my brake calipers, their pistons were partially extended, which prevented the calipers from being slipped back over the rotors without first removing the pads and pressing the pistons back in.
I used a screwdriver to press the pistons of all my brake calipers back in enough for me to insert the pads into them when the calipers were installed on the rotors.
I had no issues with reassembling the front suspension.
For whatever reason, the rear brake caliper bolts wouldn't cleanly screw into the calipers. When I tried to screw them in, the bolt threads ended up deforming. Instead of forcing them in and risking damage to the caliper threads, I went out and bought replacement bolts from a nearby Advance Auto Parts. The bolts are 30mm M10 x 1.5.
The new bolts threaded in without issue. With that, my suspension was complete.
I tightened down my castle nuts by lodging a breaker bar between the studs and the ground, which prevented the hubs from moving.
I installed some cotter pins I bought from Harbor Freight.
After torquing everything down I lowered the car to see what the car looked like before I made any changes.
In this state the springs have no preload, which means the car has maximum compression travel. The bump stops are also set to engage at the last possible moment to allow for as much suspension travel as possible. The problem is that with no spring preload, the car sits so low the coilovers are only about one inch from engaging the bump stops anyways.
The fronts had a 1 inch gap between the fender and the tire. The picture may not look that way because the tires have a rounded edge.
The front fenders measured 25 and 9/16 inches from the ground. On stock suspension the front was 27 and 1/4 inches from the ground. In this state the front was lowered just shy of 1 and 3/4 inches.
The front wheels were 3 and 1/3 inches from the fender. Remember that my bump stops engage when the wheels are 2 and 1/4 inches away from the fenders, meaning that my car only has a little over one inch of possible compression before the bump stop engages.
At ride height my rear tires were tucking into the fenders.
The rear fenders measured 24 inches from the ground. On stock suspension the rear was 26 and 1/4 inches from the ground. In this state the rear was lowered 2 and 1/4 inches.
the rear tires were 1 and 5/8 inches from the fenders. My rear bump stops engage when the wheel is 1 inch from the fender, meaning the car has 5/8 of an inch of possible compression travel before the bump stops engage.
The rears needed to be raised. One issue I encountered was that my rear coilovers were already so long that I was barely able to slip them into the car. If I threaded the body to extend the length of the coilovers any longer, I wouldn't be able to fit them in the car. This gave me no choice but to apply preload to my rear springs to raise them up.
After two tries, I settled on applying 9/16 (14mm) of preload to the rear springs. This raised the rear ride height at the cost of total possible compression travel.
The rears now measure 24 and 11/16 inch from the ground to the fender.
The rears now have 2 and 3/8 inches between the wheels and the fender.
I haven't driven the car yet so I can't be certain, but I'm worried my suspension may not have enough compression travel.
If I find that the rears don't have enough travel, my options are to flip the lower control arm to raise the shock mount, and to disconnect the lower control arm when fitting the rear coilovers, which will allow me to thread the lower mount of the rear coilovers lower than it already is and still be able to install the coilovers. I believe this will raise my bump stops, but may also allow me to remove at least part of the preload I applied to my rear springs, increasing my compression travel.
I haven't adjusted the front suspension yet.
BRAKE ISSUE
I started the car up for the first time in months and ran into two brake issues. The ABS light in my gauge cluster is on and I believe at least some of my brake calipers are squeezing their rotors, preventing the car from moving. I put the car in gear and tried to set off, but the car wouldn't move. I also got out of the car and tried to push it, but that didn't work either.
I'm going to pull the codes off my car tomorrow to see what is causing the ABS light to turn on. I'm not sure what to do about the car not moving.
I went back and adjusted my front and rear ride heights by raising my spring perches. My goal was to have both my front and rears 1.25 inches lower than stock. I raised both my front and rear spring perches by four rotations.
Front ground to fender
Front wheel to fender
Rear ground to fender
Rear wheel to fender
My adjustments ended up being pretty spot on. I will monitor the ride height in case my coilovers settle over time and the car lowers any noticeable amount from where its at now.
FIXING BRAKE ISSUE
I couldn't figure out why my wheels wouldn't turn. I flushed my brake fluid and my wheels started turning again. I guess the issue was related to pressure built up in the braking system.
TRAILING ARM RUB
After getting my wheels to turn again, I took the car out for a very small test drive. The car wasn't moving easily and I was hearing a lot of sounds coming from the rear. My friend and I thought something may be wrong with one of the rear parking brakes so we took the parking brake apart and looked for issues. After a while, we noticed small aluminum shavings on the ground. I turned the wheel we removed around and that's when I saw what had been causing the sound — the inner lip of the wheel had been rubbing against the trailing arm. I checked the other side and found the same thing. My rear wheels had too much toe in, causing them to grind against the trailing arm. There was no issue with the parking brakes. I adjusted my rear toe and now the wheels have decent clearance to the trailing arms. I also tossed on my 5mm spacers just in case, but I may not need them once the car gets aligned.
This one hurt.
FENDER LINER RUBBING
The last rubbing issue I encountered was with the front fender liners. At full steering lock, my front wheels contact the back of my fender liners. I am thinking about heating up the fender liners and using a roller to try to stretch them and increase clearance.
did you use the ssb camber+caster plates? if so you can just use regular camber plates for now to get some more clearance. those ssb camber+caster plates work better with the SSB adjustable control arms
I got my car aligned today. The drive to the alignment shop was very sketchy. Luckily the shop was only 10-15 minutes away.
I asked for -3.5 degrees of front camber, -2 degrees of rear camber, and 0 toe all around. The shop told me they could not increase my front camber any more than where it was without the toe changing. The reason I asked for -2 degrees of rear camber is because I wanted to space the bottom of the wheel out away from the trailing arm and tuck the top of the tire in to avoid the fender. With my 5mm spacers installed, the wheels completely clear the trailing arms, but now the tires rub against the fenders when the rear compresses. I will remove the spacers and see if the wheels clear the trailing arms. When I was setting my rear bump stops I did not have the spacer installed, so I am pretty confident that ditching the spacers will cure my fender rubbing issue.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
My friend and I went for a first drive in the car on a twisty road. The coilovers have 32 clicks of adjustment. I set them all to 8 clicks from full stiff for this drive. I will play around with them more in the future. My initial impressions are that the car is very very buzzy inside now and the car can take turns with much more speed. I'm assuming the increased NVH is primarily because I replaced my rubber strut mounts with camber plates. The increased NVH is transmitted throughout the entire cabin. I don't hear any sounds coming from a specific area or direction. Instead, the car as a whole feels more buzzy inside. At the setting I set the coilovers to (24/32 clicks from soft) the suspension is harsh. If you are someone who spends a considerable amount of time behind the wheel of an Evo I advise you to avoid camber plates.
I am registered to attend an HPDE later this month. I'm hoping I'll really be able to feel the difference then.
not sure what this means. is Toe a separate $ervice or something?
might want to learn DIY alignment
I was told that increasing my front camber beyond the -3.2 and -3.0 they're at now would cause the toe measurements to change and vice versa. Same situation in the rear. Trying to zero the toe in the rear would cause the rear camber measurements to change. I do want to learn how to align the car myself in case I ever have to have the car realigned.
COILOVER DAMPER ADJUSTMENT
I just went for a drive with all the coilover knobs adjusted to full soft. This eased most of the NVH worries I had about the car. The car still cornered flatter and dove into turns more aggressively than it did on stock suspension while being similarly comfortable. I still notice more NVH in the cabin but it is much better than before.
I was told that increasing my front camber beyond the -3.2 and -3.0 they're at now would cause the toe measurements change and vice versa. Same situation in the rear. Trying to zero the toe in the rear would cause the rear camber measurements to change. I do want to learn how to align the car myself in case I ever have to have the car realigned.
yeah thats why the computer alignment and tech training was invented but the impact on each setting is just a "smidge". they just repeat the process until you get to the sweet spot. a little toe-in is not bad
depends where youre adjusting the camber (camber plates or camber bolts) the wheel can go inwards or outwards. which will make the tierod "too long" or "too short", making the wheel "toe'd out" or "toe'd in". obviously you just "shorten" or "lengthen" your tierod by a few turns until the wheels both point dead straight (zero toe)
you need to find a shop who will take the time I guess. maybe custom/bling wheels shops. even my local used-tire place has the computerized alignment. i dont use them because I knew I was going to keep dismantling, upgrading and testing (parts and settings i read online lol)
but the impact on each setting is just a "smidge". they just repeat the process until you get to the sweet spot. a little toe-in is not bad