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Full B&G Coilover and SPC front/rear camber kits Install

47K views 88 replies 44 participants last post by  adhd_Sloth 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I did a little (hah!) write-up on Honda-tech, but here's an exact copy:

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread/2004724

Okay, any input on this DIY is helpful since it is for the community here and I will be linking to it...

I installed the B&G Full Coilovers and SPC front/rear camber kits in approx 14 hours total. This is mostly due to my lack of previous experience with a job of this calibur, and also the lack of proper tools (I had to walk to a store 3 times for sundry parts) and/or air tools and a buddy to help with some of the tougher parts. Oh, not to mention lack of instructions :| . On a scale of 1-10, 10 being hardest, this job was a 7, but if you factor in the time it took and all the hiccups I ran into, it was more like a 9 ;). Learn from my mistakes!

Parts you'll need:

Honda Civic 06-07 Maintenance guide with torque specs
10, 12, 14, 16, 21/22mm (can't remember) socket wrench sizes.
A pass through 19mm socket wrench that will be able to get to the top strut bolt sitting in the recession.
3/16in. socket wrench.
Hex Set
Flat head screwdriver
Zip ties
2x 8mm 1.25 nuts
Spring Compressor!! Don't start without it.
Hydrolic jack (2ton)
Smaller 1.5ton jack (optional)
2/4x jack stands
Patience and Muscle!

Any ways, here goes:

Start with the fronts just to leave the easier to handle rear last.

1) Break the lug nuts before lifting the vehicle.

2) Jack the front up by the front cross member and place jack stands at both front jack points (see manual), then remove both front tires.

3) Pop the hood and look for the cowling plates that are hiding the front strut's top mounting bolts.



4) Loosen all 3 smaller bolts (remove two if you like), then take your 19mm open ended socket wrench and break the thread on the strut bolt. It's a pain, but it's SOOO much easier while the strut in on the car. DO NOT TAKE IT OFF!



5) Take the ABS line off the strut, and also the brake line, and make sure they are hanging out of the way.



6) Take off the top strut assembly bolt, then the bottom - make sure you take the top one off, then tilt the rotor towards yourself so the strut doesn't stick on the mounting point. Be careful when taking off that last bolt, the front struts have quite a bit of compression left in them. Also, use a block/brick/tire/spare jack to hold the wheel assembly up so it doesn't just fall down once the bolts are out.



7) Once the bolts are out, pull the strut assembly off to the side so it isn't hitting your speedo/brake lines or CV boot, then take off the bolts at the top holding the strut on and pull the strut assembly out carefully. (NOTE: If you have problems removing the strut, work the Spring Compressors in there and compress the spring to give you a little more wiggle room. Be careful of your CV Boot Joint!!)

8) Now that it's out, compress the spring using the spring compressors (VERY necessary! It wasn't on EP3s, but FA/FG's are compressed WAY more), then take the top strut bolt the rest of the way off. (This is what took me forever since I didn't have a open wrench that could get a grip on the bolt, and I didn't loosen the bolt while it was on the car.)



9) After it's off, remove the spring compressors, take the Top Hat/Pillow ball mount off the stockers, and put them on the B&G's. (NOTE: This isn't necessary if you bought aftermarket pillowball mounts!). Also make sure you notice the arrow on the top hat, it should be facing in towards the engine when you install it back in.

side at fully lock.

9b) Take the metal ring off of the stock pillowball mount. (You don't have to, but I found that it was rattling around every once in a while, and it might have gouged the top perch - better safe than sorry.)



9c) Put the perch on like so.



9d) Put the supplied rubber ring between the bottom of the perch and the top of the spring.

9e) Here's the full assembly.



9f) Make sure that after assembling and mounting, that you adjust the preload so the spring doesn't move around. If I remember correctly, I adjusted it so there was approx 3.75" from top of the bottom tightening thread lock to bottom of lower spring perch. As far as height went, I found that 7" from top of the bottom tightening thread lock to the top of the shock body (not the shaft, just the black plastic body) was perfect.

9g) As a note, the assembly still looks weird with that space between the perch and the pillowball mount. But there seems to be no other way to assemble it, and it's riding perfectly now.

10) Adjust the height on the front Coilovers if they have that option, then put the Coilover assembly back in the same way you took the stock ones out, put the 3 top bolts on to hold it in place.

11) If you got the SPC front camber bolts, put the camber bolt in the top bolt hole.

12) Tighten the top 3 bolts, then tighten the top strut bolt with the 19mm open ended socket wrench 'till it turns the thread.

13) Now the B&Gs I got didn't have a long enough stem for the speedo line to clip back into. I need to send pics to CorSport which will be relayed to B&G about this. So for now, loosely zip tie the speedo line to keep it out of the way while driving. I honestly don't think it would catch or pull or get snagged while driving w/o a zip tie, but better be safe than sorry.

14) Attach the brake line to the mounting point, and use the 8mm 1.25 threaded nuts that you bought. The stockers are welded onto the stock assembly :(.

15) Put your Front wheels back on, adjust camber using the SPC bolts, then lower the vehicle.

Fronts are done!

Rears:

1) Break the rear wheel lug nuts.

2) Use the rear cross member (in front of the gas tank, behind the sway bar) to lift the vehicle, then put jack stands under the two rear jack points. (see manual)

3) Take the wheels off.

4) Pop the brake line out of the bracket. Use a flat head screwdriver carefullly.



5) Unbolt the brake line bracket from the body.



6) Take the ABS line out of it's bracket.



7) Loosen the rear shock bolt on the top. Just pull back the trunk lining and use a wrench and a hex key to loosen it.



8) Here's where you can do one of two things. Loosen the lower camber arm bolt itself, or loosen the 10mm bolt, then use two wrenches to break the death grip thread.




^^ The little nut is holding the black nut and welded base in place. It turns easier than the other side, but if you have air tools or big muscles, it's unncessary.

9) Put a block/jack/tire under the wheel assemby with a bit of pressure so it doesn't just fall.

10) Make sure you bolt the 10mm bolt back into the base after pulling the camber bolt out.

11) Take out the bolt holding the shock in place.



12) Remove the top bolt holding on the endlink under the vehicle, and loosen the bottom one so the end link is not connected to the sway bar. You will probably need a hex key to loosen the bolts.



13) Remove the two bolts holding the Camber arm in place and remove it if you are going to replace it with an aftermarket one. Otherwise, leave it alone.

14) Here's a pic of the SPC rear arm compared to the stock one.



15) Remove the bolt holding the shock in from the top, then remove the shock.

16) Remove the stock coils. Just twist them away from cables to get it out.

17) Put the new shock from the coilover kit back up in the hole. The B&G came with a washer for the top, and a washer for the bottom of the hole. Tighten it down.

18) Put the SPC/Aftermarket camber arm in place on the body. Just follow the directions that came with it. A note on the SPC camber arms though, the "B" holes START at -3 degrees camber!! So put the bolts in the "A" holes (lol) to get daily driver camber. Here's a link to 8thcivic's DIY for the camber arm and some pics of the SPC.

DIY on 8th Civic. Props to 06blaksi!:
http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32040

Adjustible camber bolt for the rear arm:


Camber bracket (in the "B" holes!):


Camber arm mounted up and somewhat adjusted:


19) Install the Coils now. Adjust them to the height you want! On B&Gs, you will probably want to leave like 1 or 2 thread only if you are trying to get the tire a little in the well when it's just sitting. Oh, FYI, you can't install the B&Gs upside down...the holes are different ;) I know!



20) Re-install the Camber bolt to the wheel assembly.

21) Re-install the bolt to the bottom of the shock.

22) Re-install the endlink to the sway bar.

23) Re-install the brake line bracket, and speedo line.

24) Put wheels back on.

25) Adjust camber

26) Lower vehicle.

DONE!

Of course, make sure all bolts are tightened back to specification while doing this!! And after you are all done, take the car out for a VERY short jaunt down the street, progressively gaining speed and listen for noises. The fronts will pop once each side (at least they did in mine), and that should be it. After driving it, lift it up, check all the bolts, change the height if you want, and lower it back down again. And then get an alignment :thumbup:

With the B&Gs, I started out at full soft on rebound/dampning, and just now upped the fronts to 11, and rears to 9 (out of 18). Seems to be the best for my style of driving, but I'm sure I will change them after a little while to fit my needs.

All in all, the B&Gs handle AWESOMELY. It has turned my fun handling car into something that I absolutely love to drive around corners in and feel like I'm in full control! I just need some summer tires to take full advantage of this fun now ;)

Feel free to point out mistakes, or better methods to my madness. Remember this is all without previous coil install experience. I'm proud to have done this all myself. :thumbup:
 
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#52 ·
JeShUa said:
I just wear old J's.. or something else old :x. ANYWHO. I wonder why you cannot edit any of the posts in this section :x it makes no sense to me.
Webby (or another admin) locked it down, but not sure why. Maybe they didn't like the fact that I'd edit it whenever I needed to update a pic or refine the installation process? None the less, if I have an edit now, I just post it in here and one of the admins catch it. No biggy.
 
#53 ·
few questions,

i just loosen this and this will drop the shock?



do i take the smaller bolt out the the bigger one? and that would disconnect the caber arm from the hub?



then i would take of the bolt that holds the strut?



then the next step will be to take off the rear sway bar?

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Pathbearer/Picture021.jpg/[img]

sorry im new to this type of suspension cause im so used to the ep3 suspension and i dont want to mess this up since its not my car that i will be working on.
 
#54 ·
Sorry for fully quoting you, but I feel I might as well include the pics to keep the responses clear :)

supreme x jdm said:
few questions,

i just loosen this and this will drop the shock?

^^ Yes, loosening this one nut will release the upper part of the shock entierly. No other nuts or bolts hold the top part in.

supreme x jdm said:
do i take the smaller bolt out the the bigger one? and that would disconnect the caber arm from the hub?

The smaller one is just holding that black plate in place (the larger nut is welded to the plate). If you have air tools (or strong arms, unlike myself), there is no need to loosen the smaller bolt at all, just loosen the main bolt itself. If you don't have air tools, and are not strong enough to loosen the bolt, then take out the small bolt I'm pointing to in that picture, and use tools to loosen the nut that is welded to the plate. It comes off easier than the bolt. After you loosen it, just re-align the plate, and put the smaller bolt back in.

And yes, that bolt releases the hub from the camber arm.

supreme x jdm said:
then i would take of the bolt that holds the strut?

Yep, removing this bolt is pretty easy and once it's out, you can remove the shock entierly.

supreme x jdm said:
then the next step will be to take off the rear sway bar?



sorry im new to this type of suspension cause im so used to the ep3 suspension and i dont want to mess this up since its not my car that i will be working on.
You don't have to remove the sway bar, just separate the endlinks from the hub and the sway itself.

Hey no worries. Once you are down there looking at it, it's 10x easier than the front and makes 10x more sense. Let me know if you have any other questions! :thumb:
 
#59 ·
Regarding Two Bolt Picture, Camber arm to hub disconnect:

The smaller one is just holding that black plate in place (the larger nut is welded to the plate). If you have air tools (or strong arms, unlike myself), there is no need to loosen the smaller bolt at all, just loosen the main bolt itself. If you don't have air tools, and are not strong enough to loosen the bolt, then take out the small bolt I'm pointing to in that picture, and use tools to loosen the nut that is welded to the plate. It comes off easier than the bolt. After you loosen it, just re-align the plate, and put the smaller bolt back in.
I don't understand the statement in bold above. If the large nut is welded to the plate, and you choose to be "strong" and not remove the smaller nut like you say, and try to crack loose just the large nut with the small one still attached, then won't you be breaking the weld between the large nut and the plate? Wont you also be trying to shear off the smaller bolt? Shouldn't the weld be kept, and always remove the smaller nut first? This also means when turning the large nut, the plate will turn with it. Please clarify, as I don't think breaking welds to disassemble this joint was the intention of HMC for this connection.
 
#57 ·
Strong, but not bouncy (I've got the B&G's dialed in at 12 clicks from soft, if I remember correctly) unless I hit a sloping bump in the road like a couple of places on my commute... Hitting potholes is painful, made even more painful by the fact that my ball bearing collar on the driver's side front assembly is now shot and cracked because of pot-holes. Buying one today and installing it...when it's not raining and freezing!

Otherwise, it handles very very well. No regrets, but if I did it all over again, I'd buy a set of Skunk2 lowering springs and just slap 'em on the stock struts, and replace them with Tokico's when they blew. There's no need to have an adjustable setup on the street, and my envisioned ideas of going to a track are laid by the way side because of lack of time in my life.
 
#70 ·
i have a pretty bad problem i just installed the tein basic coilovers but had some problems with the rear shocks... as i try to tighten the top nut the whole thread of the nut turns with it and as a result the nut never tightens
... the same thing happens with the stock shock just that u can use a hex key with the stocks to prevent it from turning with the nut, but you cant use a hex key with the tein shocks

any tips on how can it get them to tighten without the whole thing turning?
 
#74 ·
19mm open ended socket wrench ???

went to homedepot, napa auto parts, autozone, and advance and no one can help me find this that would enable to get the middle bolt in this pic.. do you have a pic of it

im doing this right now(below) but i just cant crack it...any sugg??
 
#80 ·
Got a quick question. How do you lower the rear? I ask cause I've never worked with a rear set up like this where it's independent. What gets lowered just the spring? Or the shock also? And if so for example if I lower the spring 1" do I lower the shock 1"? Thanks. Please clarify.


Brought to you from the DRIVIN LOW N SLOW REALM ?
 
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