How exactly did you lower the fronts? Sorry I'm new to 3rd gen and I want mine seriously low. What'd you do and how'd you do it? What parts were used? Thanks man and sorry for the noob questions.
It's actually super easy. Wish I could find the old link from Red Pepper Racing but it seems all there tech. articles are outdated. As far as tools go.
Jack/Jack stands
Air Hammer (try and find a bit that will fit into the end of the torsion bar) or Big hammer and chisel (I'm kind of a girl when it comes to beating shit with a hammer so I needed the air)
Snap Ring Pliers
Thick cut off wheel or file if your feeling super manly
Grease
No additional parts needed really. I would look into trying to fab up some top hats. Because we can't all afford sweet custom Bilstein suspension bits. It's one of the things on my to do list.
I'm gonna leave it at that right now.
I'm sick and been working all day. I'll give ya a nice detailed guide when I get home tomorrow.
First let me say I'm no expert. And I might have done it wrong since I just eye balled it :P And um.. I am not responsible for your shit breaking? lol But, ya here goes.
Step 1) Alright get it in the air. Toss some jack stands under it. (Pref. behind the front wheels gives you more room to work)
Step 2) Now crawl under that bad boy. Careful now. Your gonna wanna start humping the hell out of all that 3rd gen goodness, but you have to resist. Were here for a reason remember?
You'll see something like this. This is a very rough rendering of the bottom of my box. I'm not 100% sure where the adjustment nut is. It's somewhere around that green circle. Not to scale?
Step 3) Pull the rubber caps off those big long hard torsion tubes. Your gonna see something that looks kinda like the end of an axle inside the tube. This is where it gets fun. You have snap rings on the front and back of each torsion bar.
**Something I would recommend is spraying the bars with some lithium grease or something a few days before, I had a ton of rust and dirty jammed around mine**
Step 4) Pull out Birtha or Mcairhammer whatever you choose. The spring steel that makes up the torsion bar itself is fairly soft. And the original guide said to use a brass punch and hammer. Clearly the hulk was not with me that day. So I resorted to Mcairhammer, I even broke one of my boss's bits. Start from the back hitting towards the front of the car until your able to remove the first snap ring. Then go towards the back until your able to get the back one off. Now this is where it gets a bit fuzzy since I can't remember which way you continue. I wanna say you push it out the front but not 100% on that...
And this is where I'm gonna stop for tonight since I wanna double check on that.
Here we go. You can see the keyway right at about 4:00 o'clock. It goes in as far as I can feel. I'm just unsure of how far back they were saying to grind it.
If you don't mind, dumb it up as much as possible. Lol. I'm pretty smart on some things but I just want to make sure I'm doing everything correctly. After all is said and done I think I'll make a new write up on how this is done but be more thorough with pictures so idiots like me can do it. I'll definitely post it on HCW. I think we should have a 3rd gen how to forum on here. I appreciate all the help man as I'm new to all this. Thank you!
Maybe I'll do a write up. But I been busy :P You don't file on the housing which is the piece you have pics of. You actually file off on the bars that came out. Your essentially widening the keyway so the key in the tube can slide in at a different position.
I'll be doing write ups as I go. I just re-upholstered my headliner and it looks pretty smexy. But no write up needed as It's the exact same as 4th gens. Anyway, the part that confused me on the RPR write up was this "mark the rear t-tube keyway (it will be filed off later) -tap the t-bar out towards the rear -file off the rear keyway from inside the t-tube (so the t-bar can be re-inserted in any location)"
Lol too late I did both sides. Oh well. I got it though finally! Haha now I just feel like an idiot now that I know how It's done. Way simpler than I made it out to be. Thanks for the help man. Now my wagon is sittin pretty.
Man I haven't updated in a long time... I'll have some pix up later... I bought some wheels, ripped off my muffler so ended up just redoing some exhaust plumbing, did some interior bits, ripped off part of my tagged lip so put the other one back on, broke my fogs in the snow so they have tape holding one in, and I lowered the back to match the front... But, I think I might have snapped one of my torrision bars not quite sure of that one yet.
And things that I need to build... In order of importance hopefully work picks up soon or I start getting my unemployment checks :P
-Panhard bar (I really need one of these)
-Strut tower bars (Not sure how the back one will work but the front will be cake)
-And a bull bar but thats more for shits and giggles. I think I can just bolt it up where the tow hooks are and be golden.
But ya I'll have some wholesome 3rd gen porn up as soon as my camera charges
Flipped the face on one of the 13in steelies... dont think the 115 welder was burning quite hot enough. It penetrated but dosn't seem to look very pretty on the back side
Added some stickerz and painted the rear bumper!
DAT TIP SON!?!?!
Some mid 90's Enkei wheels 14x6 not in horrible shape one has a 1in long gash in the lip and im missing 1 center cap.
Comments
Jack/Jack stands
Air Hammer (try and find a bit that will fit into the end of the torsion bar) or Big hammer and chisel (I'm kind of a girl when it comes to beating shit with a hammer so I needed the air)
Snap Ring Pliers
Thick cut off wheel or file if your feeling super manly
Grease
No additional parts needed really. I would look into trying to fab up some top hats. Because we can't all afford sweet custom Bilstein suspension bits. It's one of the things on my to do list.
I'm gonna leave it at that right now.
I'm sick and been working all day. I'll give ya a nice detailed guide when I get home tomorrow.
Step 1) Alright get it in the air. Toss some jack stands under it. (Pref. behind the front wheels gives you more room to work)
Step 2) Now crawl under that bad boy. Careful now. Your gonna wanna start humping the hell out of all that 3rd gen goodness, but you have to resist. Were here for a reason remember?
You'll see something like this. This is a very rough rendering of the bottom of my box. I'm not 100% sure where the adjustment nut is. It's somewhere around that green circle. Not to scale?
Step 3) Pull the rubber caps off those big long hard torsion tubes. Your gonna see something that looks kinda like the end of an axle inside the tube. This is where it gets fun. You have snap rings on the front and back of each torsion bar.
**Something I would recommend is spraying the bars with some lithium grease or something a few days before, I had a ton of rust and dirty jammed around mine**
Step 4) Pull out Birtha or Mcairhammer whatever you choose. The spring steel that makes up the torsion bar itself is fairly soft. And the original guide said to use a brass punch and hammer. Clearly the hulk was not with me that day. So I resorted to Mcairhammer, I even broke one of my boss's bits. Start from the back hitting towards the front of the car until your able to remove the first snap ring. Then go towards the back until your able to get the back one off. Now this is where it gets a bit fuzzy since I can't remember which way you continue. I wanna say you push it out the front but not 100% on that...
And this is where I'm gonna stop for tonight since I wanna double check on that.
http://www.redpepperracing.com/wiki/ind ... _front-end
http://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/i ... 8&hl=devac
and a copy of the factory service guide
http://www.redpepperracing.com/technical/v/87Civ-fsm/
I have just about come to the conclusion that all the perfect-bodied wagons are in Washington. Very pretty car!
- Rob
And things that I need to build... In order of importance hopefully work picks up soon or I start getting my unemployment checks :P
-Panhard bar (I really need one of these)
-Strut tower bars (Not sure how the back one will work but the front will be cake)
-And a bull bar but thats more for shits and giggles. I think I can just bolt it up where the tow hooks are and be golden.
But ya I'll have some wholesome 3rd gen porn up as soon as my camera charges
Plus lowered Radio Flyer (been slow at work) :P
Business time
Flipped the face on one of the 13in steelies... dont think the 115 welder was burning quite hot enough. It penetrated but dosn't seem to look very pretty on the back side
Added some stickerz and painted the rear bumper!
DAT TIP SON!?!?!
Some mid 90's Enkei wheels 14x6 not in horrible shape one has a 1in long gash in the lip and im missing 1 center cap.
And then that roof rack!
Keep up the productivity.