Granatelli coil over report.
Ok I gotta brag here guys. I picked up the Grantelli Motor Sports coil over kit last week. First off I found its not as easy as pulling the stock strut off and slapping it together. There's a little more work involved then that. Here's the things I had to do.
1.) Remove the strut, this is the hardest part of the entire process. Provided you can get the bolts out without any problems you're more then likely going to invent a new language with cuss words.
2.) Ok so you got it taken off its time for the next step. You have to disassemble the strut, involving removing the plastic splash shield on the strut as well as taking off the upper strut mounting bracket.
3.) After you have it all apart to where its just the strut you have to modify the stock strut some if that's what you're using. Under the plastic splash shield our struts have a metal lip sort of ressembling a spring perch. that has to come off but be careful not to cut into the strut itself only the lip. Considering you wont be using the splash shield around the top of the strut now would be a good time to primer the bare metal from grinding the lip down, or some sort of rust prevention.
4.) This was probably one of the easiest steps of all. You are now ready to assemble the strut, In the kit there is a metal sleeve that slides over the top of the strut. It slides down and rests on the lower mounting bracket of the strut itself. Make sure you get the slot in the sleeve lined up correctly there's a cut out that has to go around the portion of the strut which physically mounts to the spindle. Next you slide the spring on the strut. There is a plate that sits in the top of the spring with a few washers and a bearing, Slide them on as the illustration shows Last step of assembly is the plate that sits on top of that.
Now I noticed that since I didn't have caster camber plates that the top plate wouldn't work on it, so it had to stay off .My stock mounting plate squeezed down right onto the washer and bearings. Although if you attempt to do this I would reccomend getting Caster Camber plates , and even though the paper work didnt say it I believe I read somewhere that you really should switch to caster camber plates with coil overs anyway. I didnt have a choice due to funding.
5.) Next step is removing the stock spring. Be careful you dont get hit by it when it comes out. Even with the A arm all the way down the spring still has some tension on it and could be dangerous.
If you need ball joints brakes bearings tie rods or anything of that matter requiring you to remove the brake or rotor setup now would be a good time to switch them since you have it this far down. Also if nothing else is needed now would be a good time to add grease to the grease fittings if your car is equipped.
6.) Remount the strut and all the things you removed to get to it, Rotor, Brakes, Tire.
7.) After reassembly test drive the car.
It's pretty simple to do and doesnt take long if everything cooperates. Mine took a couple hours for the passenger side because of problems removing the strut which like I said is the hardest part of all of it. I was only able to do one side before it started raining so I still have the stock setup on the driver side. I had to go to the store shortly after and noticed a tremendous difference between the two sides, the passenger side has lost most of its dive when I corner where as the driver side still feels like stock. A big accomplishment provided I dont have an operational sway bar on the front of my car. The set I purchased had a 300 ft. lb. spring rate. After assembling the kit and lowering the car with it adjusted all the way down it doesnt sit much different from the stock side as I only have a V6 in my car at the moment.
I just want to say that the guys and gals at Granatelli have out done themselves in my opinion and made another fine product which fits our cars. I would deffinately suggest this kit to anyone thinking about switching to coil overs.
Topic: Granatelli coil over report. (Read 1216 times)
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