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Start
out by putting the front of the car on jack stands and removing
the front wheels.
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Unbolt
the brake line from the shock body by removing the two bolts
shown in the picture.
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Remove
the nut from the shock at the point where it meets the shock
tower. Spraying some WD-40 on the nut will help in the removal.
If you are not using an impact gun, you will have to insert
an Allen wrench into the shock shaft to hold it while you
use a wrench to remove the bolt.
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Now
you will need to remove the bolt from the bottom of the
shock. Do this by removing the nut and tapping it out with
a rubber mallet or piece of wood, once the bolt is flush
with the lower control arm, use a Phillips screwdriver and
mallet to push the bolt all the way out.
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Next
remove the two upper control arm bolts.
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You
may need to push the upper control arm bolts through the
holes. You can grab the upper control arm and wiggle it
until it comes out or you can use a socket extension and
push it out. Either way it will come out easy.
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Now
you will need to rotate the upper control arm towards the
front of the car so that you can remove the spring. Be careful
not to hit the paint on the fender. If you cant get the
shock/spring to clear the fender, push down on the lower
control arm to free up some room while you pull the upper
control arm out as shown.
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This
is what you should now have. If you are lowering the car
any more than 1.5 inches they you will need to cut the bump
stop or else you might end up hitting it anytime you go
over a big bump. If you need to do this then remove rubber
bushing, metal washer, dust boot, second metal washer, and
bump stop.
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And
cut the bump stop as shown. Reinstall the stop along with
the other hardware.
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put
the new spring on (Longer springs in the front) . At this
point you will want to remove the rubber ring that is either
on the old spring, came off in your hands as you were disassembling,
or on the underside of the shock tower. Take this ring and
place it on the top of the new spring so that it will be
seated correctly when you put everything back together.
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swing
the upper control arm back into position and then put the
bolt in the shock fork (bottom of the shock) with the nut
just finger tight on the end for now.
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Now
take the jack and place it under the lower control arm,
You will most likely want to place it under the lower ball
joint nut to keep the jack from sliding out as you jack
it up. Basically you are going to be jacking the whole assembly
up and you don't want the jack sliding out from under the
assembly while the shock is compressed. You will have to
determine the best lifting point based on the type of jack
you have but again, I recommend the lower ball joint.
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Now
for the only tricky part (not too hard). Slowly raise the
jack while positioning the shaft of the shock into the shock
tower. As you position the shock, make sure that the upper
control arm does not bind, it should stay horizontal as
in the pic.
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Once
the shaft is in position, raise the jack until there is
about as much thread showing like the picture shown here.
Reinstall the shock nut and tighten.
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Now
you want to lower the jack. This will allow you to reinstall
the upper control arm. Once the upper control arm is installed,
you will raise the suspension up again (from the same jacking
point used earlier) high enough to compress the suspension.
The reason for this is that anytime you tighten bolts on
your suspension, you want the suspension in the position
that it will normally be in (compressed most of the way).
If you do not do this, you risk binding the suspension and
also ripping bushings. Now that you have the suspension
in its (mostly) compressed position, tighten all bolts.
re install the two brake line bolts and recheck all the
bolts one last time. Now re install the tire and repeat
on the opposite front side.
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On
to the rear. which is quite a bit easier than the front.
Start by lowering the front of the car and put the rear
on jack stands. Remove the tires. Remove the bolt
that connects the lower control arm to the trailing arm.
In the picture the bolt is already removed.
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Next,
you will remove the bolt on the upper shaft of the shock
(again using WD-40). The access to the strut tower will
be a little different depending on what model you have but
should not be hard to figure out. Take a rag and wrap it
around the bolt so that when you take it off, you
wont loose the bolt and washer.
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Now
remove the bolt from the bottom of the shock and remove
the shock assembly. Install the new spring, cut the bump
stop (if needed for your application) and put the shock
back into position. reinstall the bolt in the bottom of
the shock hand tight. Jack up the suspension assembly until
you can reinstall the upper shock nut. Also reinstall the
bolt that connects the lower control arm to the trailing
arm. Jack the assembly up until the suspension is in its
normal mostly compressed position and retighten all bolts.
Double check the bolts for tightness and reinstall the wheel.
Repeat on opposite side.
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Lower
the car and take it for a test drive. Make sure to drive
very slowly. At about 15 MPH, turn the wheel back and forth
and listen for any noises. You need to take your car in
for an alignment as soon as possible. DO NOT go out and
drive you car hard right away! you must make sure that everything
is tightened and secure. Do this buy driving careful for
a bit until you are sure that everything feels right. As
you can see in the pictures, the Neuspeed Race springs lower
the 5th gen Civic a good bit. Time to hit some corners!
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