suspension questions

[mikeroy420]

hey, did a search but could not find the info i need, so i'm lowering my s13 with eibacs and tokico blues and i'd like to do it myself and wondering if you need a special tool to perform this job or not? i was told i need to compress the spring somehow when i put it on. also i am concerned about taking it off because isn't it load bearing(compressed)??? i just don't want to have a spring flying at me or something when i take it off.
Also this might be a dumb question but i'm going to be doing an sr swap and since i've never been in a right hand drive car i was wondering, i know that the gear box is on the left hand side of the driver but is the gear box opposite??? meaning is first gear the closest to you and 5th is furthest away??? then if you put it in a left hand drive car your tranny would be ass backwards,First the furthest away and 5th the closest??? i'm just courious:confused:

[mrdirty]

Originally posted by mikeroy420
... i was told i need to compress the spring somehow when i put it on. also i am concerned about taking it off because isn't it load bearing(compressed)???

yes u do, and yes.

better have someone whose done this before help...

[FRpilot]

yes. you have to get your eibachs compressed. you should bring it to a shop to compress the eibachs and set the tokicos in so that they are one piece. when you take out the springs off your car, the shock will be inside the spring as one set and shouldn't fly out. but if you are worried about lowering your car yourself and having a spring fly through your torso, jus get a shop to do it.

as for the tranny question, the gears will still be in the same place. it will still look like this:

1 3 5
|- | -|
2 4 R

although the japanese drive on the right side and use their left hand to shift, the position of the gears are still in the same place. only car i remember having a weird gear positioning are VWs.

[hookedup240]

I don't know maybe mine was a special case but my friends dad is a mechanic and he installed my shocks/struts/springs, and he didn't use a spring compressor. I know this because i was there while he did the whole install.

[Andrew Bohan]

i used a compressor to get my stock springs off the stock shocks, but s.techs are short enough so i didnt' need to compress them to put them on. if i had gotten new upper mounts too, i woudn't have had to compress anything.

[240Driver39]

yeah i would definately use a spring compressor, UNLESS, u are not taking apart the old struts/springs. For me i reused the upper mounts and this required a spring compressor to disassemble the old assembly. Dont mess with not gettin one. u can rent it at like autozone and get all ur money back upon return.

[mikeroy420]

Ok,thanks alot. One more question,should I reuse my rear strut mounts, or should I get new ones?

[Andrew Bohan]

if you can afford it, go ahead and get all four upper mounts. it'll save you from having to take your stuff apart again if you decide to get em later, plus you wont have to use a compressor. not having to take the old stuff apart save a lot of time too