Speaking of pulling my hair out, I have no idea if it was just me, or this car, or both, or neither, but this front suspension install has truly put me to the test.
I feared the tie rods the most (mostly because I don't own the proper tools to get them out). Upon unboxing all of my items I've had since before the winter, I realized I was missing the spacers that were supposed to be included in the kit. I ended up calling a local shop who was able to source them for me the next day, however, upon my attempt to install the 930 turbo tie rods, I could not get my original ones out. I decided to not fight with it and move on to something else, removing the control arms...only to realize I needed the special ball joint socket.
That is on me, I probably shouldve done more research, but more waiting for parts to show up and I really didn't want to unhook my brake lines. While I wait, I'll toss my new bilstein inserts into my struts, easy job, right?!?!
Come to find out, the ones I ordered didn't include the correct gland nut. At this point I'm wondering if I'll be able to get anything done. I called bilstein directly and they no longer make this part on its own I guess? Ended up finding 1 pair on eBay, placed the order, guy is on a business trip and can't ship until hes back. I scheduled an alignment for next week, so I needed to get this done as soon as I can.
Once the set backs decided to stop setting me back, things started rolling, FINALLY! Ball joint socket worked like a charm (with a little assistance from my friend Map Gas) and the subframe was out shortly after.
Took it all apart, inspected some stuff. Probably a good thing I am replacing the torsion bars as my factory ones were showing some signs of corrosion (probably where my squeak was coming from too)
Gave the parts a clean and a quick scuff and hit them with some Eastwood Chassis Black
And after much fighting, bolts not going in, aligning the bushings, fighting the sway bar (ratchet strap method worked wonders), it's all back in. Don't think I've ever had a project fight me nearly every step of the way, so when things decided they wanted to work, it was very rewarding. Ultimately I decided on just having the shop do the tie rods for me, thankfully they're less than 15 min from my house, so it's a quick drive over.
Current status as of today:
I left the pan off for now, I repainted that too while it was out. I had legitimately the hardest time trying to get the sway bar brackets to bolt back to the body I decided against trying to align a 4th thing in the bolt sandwich. It will be coming off for the tie rods in a few days anyways.
Will probably double check all my bolts today and clean the wheel wells while the car is still up. The weather sucks here today (and all weekend), so hopefully can get the car on the ground and take it around the block to help it settle to dial in the height before alignment. Sorry for the long saga, but it's been a bear!