1. Eibach Alignment Kit (contains two bolts to adjust camber)
2. Breaker bar
3. Gunk Liquid wrench
4. Long sockets for your 3/8 ratchet (12mm to 17mm)
5. 17-22mm sockets for the breaker bar
6. 3 cans of DOT compliant brake fluid (prefferably valvoline...or some other reputable fluid)
7. Bucket for the bleeding brake fluid
8. 9 mm open wrench
9. Flat screwdriver
10. Phillip screwdriver
11. Analog/Digital caliper measurement tool
12. A labeled tray for all the nuts and bolts
13. The actual coilover system (JIC)
14. Coilover wrenches (usually comes with JIC system)
15. Dampening adjustment knob (usually comes with JIC system)
16. 4 jack stands and 1 or 2 hydrolic jacks
17. Ingalls camber measurement tool (camber change tool)
    

Now that we have the car on all fours, we can start working on the front suspension.  Remove the wheel from the front and look behind the caliper.  You should see a bolt that looks like the one below (Figure 2)

Figure 2

Note that the JICs are installed here but I am using this picture for reference in proper suspension removal.  In Figure 2 remove the bolt circled above in white.  Begin to spray the bolts designated in red circles to begin loosening up the bolts.  This will get your caliper to look like this (Figure 3)

Figure 3

As you can see the brake line comes off of the JIC...but on a stock strut (Figure 4), the brake line will have to be taken out of the caliper and snake through the whole of the stock strut.  I don't recommend cutting through the strut with a dremel kit or cutting machine since we might risk damaging the brake line.  This is a close up of the stock strut and the little hole where the brake line will have to snake through.

Figure 4

 The location of the bolt that separates the brake line is illustrated in Figure 5.

Figure 5

Remember to get you bucket ready for the oozing of the brake fluid when you unbolt the thing.  When you snake the brake line out of the stock strut the next thing you need to do is remove the two big bolts on the bottom of the strut itself as illustrated in red circles under Figure 2.  This is where the breaker bar comes into play and the super huge socket (19mm or 17mm) that should fit that bolt.  When the two bolts finally come out, start unbolting the stock struts three bolts from above (Figure 6) and carefully remove and push the strut down.  You may need to spray more liquid wrench to just get the stock strut out from the wheels hub assembly.

Figure 6

 When you're done you should have the stock strut by your side in all its naked glory (Figure 7)

Figure 7

If you are at this part of the article, you just had a taste of removing one of the stock struts.  Congrats.  But we're not even out of the woods yet.  Installing the JIC coilover will be a breeze if you have an extra hydrolic jack.  You'll see why.

Anyway, let's continue.  For now, let's not tamper with the JICs default suspension settings.  I know that there are ways in which we can install the JICs to have it set for camber only settings but I've opted to have it installed to be set for a combination of caster and camber.  If you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about then you better wait for my article on suspension settings or just look at the picture below (Figure 8) and trust my instincts...and install it.

Figure 8 (drivers side)

Figure 9 (passengers side)

Make sure that the four hex bolts on top of the JIC are tight on the camber/caster settings and that the tick marks are set at zero!  Use the allen wrench to tighten.  But don't tighten too hard.  Look closely at the previous pictures, they should give you a good idea at how to position the JIC coilovers.  The Eibach Alignment Kit will not be needed for the front coilovers.

The only thing we need to do to finish this up is to pull the whole hub assembly to mate with the hanging JIC coilover (Figure 10).  This is where the hydrolic jack will be very very handy.  If you don't have an extra jack, you are going to have to have a friend slam the upper bolt into the JICs lower strut hole during the whole time you're trying to haul the hub assembly to align with the JICs.  If you don't have a friend, prepare for a really serious workout.

Figure 10

When you get the 1st bolt into the lower strut of the JIC, everything else is pretty much cake walk.  You can then proceed to rebolt the brake line and clip the brake line to the JICs brake line holder as designated in Figure 11.

Figure 11

You should then repeat the other side so that you can complete the front part of your cars suspension.  Below is the removed stock struts (Figure 12).

Figure 12

You can consider this part of the install 35% complete.

Now that the front suspension is completed we can take a breather and begin contemplating on how we're planning to do the rear suspension.

Doing the rear is not to different from the front.  In fact it is a bit easier. 
So welcome to the rear!

Figure 13


Much like the front (after removing the wheel of course), we will need to spray some of that good liquid wrench on those bolts.  Trust me, it's alot easier.  Then we can begin removing the bolts with the great breaker bar and open socket (19mm I think).  Once both of the bolts are free as illustrated in Figure 14.

Figure 14

start to detach the rear sway bar from the end links as shown in Figure 15

Figure 15

Once you remove the rear sway bar from the end links, bring in the brake fluid bucket and start unbolting the brake line from the drums as illustrated in Figure 16.

Figure 16

The next thing we need to do now is access the three bolts that hold onto the stock strut.  Since we're working on the rear you will need to pry open the back panels to get to this area.

Figure 17

The back panels that cover the stock struts bolts may be a bit hard to get out since we have a brake light in the way.  Just unharness the rear window brake light from the panel...and the rest of the panel should come off alot easier.

Figure 18

When you finally get the old stuff off, you can get a chance to compare.  So here they are side by side
Figure 19

Looking at the top of the rear JICs, you'll notice that there is nothing to adjust except the dampener knob.  No need to worry about the setting or how it will be installed in the rear.

Figure 20

The next thing we need to do is grab a light and shine it up the area in which the coilover will be installed.

Figure 21

Look at the shape in figure 21 carefully.  This is exacly how the coilovers should fit.  Look at Figure 20 as a reference.  Once you do get the top bolted in, get the eibach alignment kit ready (Figure 22). 

Figure 22

Once the alignment kit is out, get one of the bolts and line it up on the upper hole of the strut.  The upper hole of the JIC strut should have the eibach alignment bolt as shown below and the lowest hole should have the regular bolt.

Figure 23

If you notice in Figure 22, the bolt has a weird shape on its thread.  Sort of like an oval.  What you need to do is make sure that the protruding part of the oval is facing upward.  Basically, when you are installing the bolt, make sure the number is facing right side up and level with the ground, much like the illustration below.  The proper direction of the bolt is also displayed.

Figure 24

Continue to do perform the same procedures for the rear on the other side of the car.  When you finally get all the old struts out, take a bow and dance around your struts.  I did.

Figure 25

Welcome to the final part of this modification article.  I consider this part the most fun since everything here goes downhill (easy) from here.  I'm now assuming that you have all the JIC coilovers in place on all four corners of the car.

The next thing we need to do is properly bleed the brakes to remove the air bubbles from the brake system but this will be in another article.

Figure 26 (location of bleed screw)

After you have completed bleeding the brake system.  We need to make sure that all of the springs are set up at the highest ride height by adjusting the perches.  Make sure you do not lock them.

Figure 27

Be careful not to give any gaps between the springs and upper part of the strut.  Basically we shouldn't see too much movement from the springs.  This is where we have to bust out with mr. caliper.  Using the caliper, make a guestimate on your ride height.  Make sure you only use two sets of settings.  One for the front set of coilovers and one for the back.

Figure 28

Once you have the settings, place the wheels back but do not torque the bolts on the wheel so that you can continue adjusting the ride height.  Just tighten it enough so that the wheels don't fall off when you drop the car.

When the car is down, you will need to use the camber measurement tool.  The tool usually looks like this:

Figure 29

Assuming that you're still in your garage or somewhere that has completely flat ground, you then place the camber measurement tool on the brake rotor/brake drum and hope that the camber tool will register at "0". 

Figure 30

On the JICs default settings coupled with the Eibach alignment kit (bolts), I was able to register "0" on all corners of the suspension.  Why is this important?  Because we want FULL contact patch of our entire tire.  This also guarantees even tire wear.  If you don't register a "0"...well...you can try adjusting the suspension's camber settings via top mount or readjust the camber bolt installed in the rear until you get a "0" on the measurements.  Unless you're taking your car to the track, I don't recommend having a camber setting of anything other than "0".

Well, we're almost at the end of the run.  Assuming that you have good camber settings all across your suspension, properly adjusted the right ride height and have properly torqued your wheels' bolts, make sure you set all the dampening settings before you go out on your first drive with the JICs.  Grab the JIC knob adjustment and set everything at soft (S).  Be careful not to turn too hard.  There are only five settings so the knob will not move all the way around.  Don't break the little dampening knob!!!

Figure 31

That's it!  Give yourself a pat on the back and ride into the sunset!

-End Of Article-