[DIY] Removal & Refitting front Springs

[sid]

DISCLAIMER: The following information is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and should only be used as a reference. If you

do not have the skills required for such a task, please take your car to a professional. Neither myself or OzHonda

take responsibility for your actions and carry out these actions at your own risk.

Aim: To replace front springs
Tools and parts: Hammer, ratchet, 10mm 12mm 14mm 17mm spanner, beer, jack stands, jack, and a lot of

swearing, spring compressor, patience and maybe some other little stuff.
Steps: have about 22 pics or so
Additional information: SAFETY FIRST! & Good to have a mate to be there to help if anything goes wrong.



THIS IS BEING PERFORMED ON MY ED9 '89 CRX
and also i don't know specific names on the parts but just trying my best :)



http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/001.jpg
Pop the hood and locate the upper mounting bolts & nuts n stuf


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/020.jpg
Use an allen key (don't know what size but i found one that exactly fit, from the shed) and spanner thing to loosen

up the spindle nut on the shocks. Just a couple turns will do fine. DO NOT UNDO IT ALL THE WAY!

Then move on to the nuts on the side and just loosen those up a bit too, but do not take it all the way off.


Jack the car up and support it on stands.

[sid]

DISCLAIMER: The following information is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and should only be used as a reference. If you

do not have the skills required for such a task, please take your car to a professional. Neither myself or OzHonda

take responsibility for your actions and carry out these actions at your own risk.



http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/002.jpg
Undo the road wheel lug nuts


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/003.jpg
Pop the wheel off and this is what you should see


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/004.jpg
If you go round to the inside and take a look there's a bolt that's holding in the brake line to the shocks. Remove

that & be sure that the brake line is free from shock.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/005.jpg
There's a bolt where the bottom of the shock meets the forks? Loosen that up a bit, don't take it off just yet.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/006.jpg
In this pic, you can see where my pinkie is pointing to show you where the next nut is, to remove. take that all the

way off. the long bold that it's screwed in to is sorta hard to take off. This is where I used a hammer and a piece

of metal to hit on the bolt to pop it out of the other end. This can take some time, just be patient and remember,

SAFETY FIRST!!
Once you manage to take the bolt out, proceed to take out the nut, from the previous pic, off.

[sid]

DISCLAIMER: The following information is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and should only be used as a reference. If you

do not have the skills required for such a task, please take your car to a professional. Neither myself or OzHonda

take responsibility for your actions and carry out these actions at your own risk.



http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/007.jpg
Back on top of the car, take off the nuts that hold up the shock to the car.
you have to fiddle about to take the shocks out.
Once it's out..


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/008.jpg
Spring compressor goes on.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/009.jpg
Spring compressors come in a pack of 2. Clamp both sides evenly.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/010.jpg
Still compressing the springs. make sure they're on nice and snuggly cause the last thing you want is to have the

springs decompress and break your jaw. In this pic also, have taken out the shocks out already and disassembled it.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/011.jpg
King Springs vs stock springs


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/012.jpg
Had to compress the King Springs when I put it back on, this also aided in assembling the shock back together.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/013.jpg
Pop the shock back in to place.

[sid]

DISCLAIMER: The following information is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and should only be used as a reference. If you

do not have the skills required for such a task, please take your car to a professional. Neither myself or OzHonda

take responsibility for your actions and carry out these actions at your own risk.



http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/014.jpg
Put the nuts back on, finger tight.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/015.jpg
Screw the brake line back on to the shock


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/016.jpg
This bit was tricky. Pretty much the way you take it out, you put it back in.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/017.jpg
Popped the lower bolt back in to it's place. This part too can take a while but don't stress! you'll eventually get

it lol


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/018.jpg
Using the car jack helped :)


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/019.jpg
Tighten the bolt that connects the bottom end of the shock to the fork.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/020.jpg
Tighten the bolts on the side of the shock to the chassis then tighten the spindle nut.

[sid]

DISCLAIMER: The following information is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and should only be used as a reference. If you

do not have the skills required for such a task, please take your car to a professional. Neither myself or OzHonda

take responsibility for your actions and carry out these actions at your own risk.



http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/021.jpg
Putting things back to it's original place.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/022.jpg
Put the roadwheel back on.

And that's pretty much done. When screwing nuts/bolts back in to place, refer to the cars user manual or some

reference where you're able to find out how much to turn it to the specified torque.


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/023.jpg
This is what my other spring looked like.. I didn't break it.. it was already broken.. while it was on..


http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk88/sidzcrx/024.jpg
Old springs together

going to do another DIY on the rears, in the near future.



Regards,



Sid

[teaseR]

good write up but it looks like u need first aid!

[sid]

had a cut on my finger from a while ago. tissue paper and sticky take just helped made the finger stronger, was not cause of the spring change

[SiReal]

ive never seen a stock spring break but i guess if its 20 years old, u can never know.

good stuff nonetheless - trying stuff out by yourself.

I found the most time consumer part in the several installs was the spring compressor.

[EK1.6LCIV]

excellent write up! This has come in handy thanks

[jdm_b16a]

I've never had to resort to using spring compressors when installing/removing springs, either stock or aftermarket. Maybe I've been lucky!

Also can't believe you did this procedure using the OEM scissor jack. Whilst it obviously worked I only ever use a garage jack and jack stands.

Peter

[vinnY]

^ hey? you can see his jack stands
he was using the oem jack to line up the front shock forks with the control arm

[schuebyTeG]

thanks alot for this man

I plan on getting removing the suspension next week :)

I guess you havnt done the rear yet ?


thx agian

[bennjamin]

incase i missed it - you should LOOSEN the wheel nuts (ie just slightly crack) when the wheel is on te ground. Makes it much easier to take off.
Also you shouldnt need to loosen the upper mount (single 14mm bolt and allen key top of piston) until its entirely out of hte car and held by spring compressors....JUST IN CASE !

[phwoaaa]

for oem springs u dont always have to use the compressors .. but at your own risk obviously... if u lie down the suspension and hold the top of the suspension carefully and undo the bolt with a rattle gun or something it'll bounce off about 2metres away... but nothing crazy enough to break your hands ! but that doesnt mean to try catch it!

and usually when putting lower springs on you dont need to use the compressors as it is shorter then oem which allows it easier to screw the bolt back on.

[ECU-MAN]

for oem springs u dont always have to use the compressors .. but at your own risk obviously... if u lie down the suspension and hold the top of the suspension carefully and undo the bolt with a rattle gun or something it'll bounce off about 2metres away... but nothing crazy enough to break your hands ! but that doesnt mean to try catch it!

and usually when putting lower springs on you dont need to use the compressors as it is shorter then oem which allows it easier to screw the bolt back on.

thats the most dangerous way to do it,

you could end up with a spring wrapped around you neck like some zoolo african woman.

dont mess with OEM springs with out a decent pair of clamps.

any other way is asking from trouble. you might get away with it many times, but it will be your last time you do it when you cop it.

dont risk it that way

[Bludger]

ATM i got lowered springs & ****ed up shocks on the car. i'm trying to put dc2r spring & shock combo back on.

the problem is that its longer than whats currently on the car....

I've spent the better half of a whole day, trying to get it on but its still doing my head in.

any tips???

its already caused my drive shaft & mid shaft to accidentally pop out. i had to cut open the cv boot to put it back together.

please help

ARRRRRRRRRRRR

[vinnY]

move the bottom shock fork towards the wheel hub then angle your shock/spring combo into there
poke the top hat studs through the holes and screw the nuts down a few threads to hold the shock there
now angle the shock towards the hub and slide the fork up and on to the shock body

after that will just be your luck whether you can get the fork holes to line up with the lca

best way i've found when doing it myself is to jack up just the shock fork until it lines up with the lca's bolt hole, shove a screw driver into it and use it to line up the hole on the other end so you can slide the bolt into

[Bludger]

yeah, thats exactly what i've been doing, but the shock is just so fricken long.

grrrrrrrrr

more will come tomorrow.

i'm gonna poor petrol over it and burn it if it doesn't go in tomorrow.

[vinnY]

might need someone to step down on the hub while you match up the holes

this should make the lca go low enough so you can quickly shove it together

[Bludger]

I even undid the top bolt ( don't know what its called) the one attatched to the UCA.

forgot to leave a jack underneath to support it and the whole thing dropped. the mid shaft separated from the left drive shaft.

couldn't get it back together untill i cut open the cv boot with a knife to fiddle it back together, thats how much of an OD this sussy change is:(

[vinnY]

doh well when you go to repair the boot you'll just have to remove the shock again

are you doing this alone? if you are then you might need another hand, as i said you should be able to step down on the hub(not the studs!) and move the lca low enough to match up the holes on the shock fork
don't tighten up the bolt that holes the fork to the shock body otherwise you won't be able to rotate it and get it into position properly

[Bludger]

got both the front in eventually, combination of 3 things helped me.

1 - scissor jack, lifting & pushing different parts.
2 - big thick screwdriver for prying.
3 - spring compressor's used on the springs while shock and spring combo was on the car.

my situation was unusually very difficult because, previously was running on lowered springs and then trying to put on a longer spring & shock combo. I dare say that now its even higher than when it 1st came out of the factory.

There is more than 10cm gap between tire & guard.

hope this info helps ppl.

[vinnY]

bushings have probably shifted from being push/pulled and from the forces of being used with lowered springs, give it a few days and see if it goes back to normal
otherwise loosen the bolts, sit the car down and torque them up again

[antO]

great guide!~
Thanks

antO