My suspension woes (formerly: Tokico's... which way do they go?)
 

Ok, I'm putting on the new Tokico HP's and I'm a bit confused. When I took the stock rear ones off, the bottom part where the bolt goes in looks the same on both sides. On the Tokico's, they're different (reference picture 1). Did I put it on right, or should I reverse it (reference picture 2)?

Picture 1:

http://www.rotarycarclub.com/attachm...1&d=1207445436


Picture 2:

http://www.rotarycarclub.com/attachm...1&d=1207445436

Correct pic #2... IIRC the other way brings them too close to the rest of the suspension.

Mmmk, that's the way I put them on.

In other news, does this seem to be sitting a bit high? This is on stock springs (22 years old).

http://www.rotarycarclub.com/attachm...1&d=1207499738

Yeah, #2 is correct, the other way can cause rubbing in some oddball situations and possibly lead to shock body failure.

On the ride height, I am looking at my rear right now and it seems to be sitting 1 - 2 inches higher than mine. Did you remove any weight from the back? Is it on a level surface?

Drive it around and see if the suspension loosens up a little bit and take another pic.

Good choice on struts by the way, I used those in my CRX when I was auto-xing and they performed well.

Edit: I think I also spot a loose ground wire in the second pic, you may want to get that bolted up somewhere. I remember reading somewhere that improper grounding on the rear of the vehicle can cause a slight electric charge to build and will accelerate the rust in the back. I'll see if I can verify that somewhere, but in the meantime, it never hurts to have all the grounds bolted up.

The ground is pretty level. It doesn't have speakers or the sound deadening tar in the back, but that's gotta be <30 pounds. When I get the fronts on I'll give it a quick ride around and see how it goes.

Also, that's not a wire hanging by the exhaust, it's a thread of some sort. :dunno:

Btw, the rears are about 100 times harder than the fronts to get the spring and shit in right. Lame...

Did you unload the car after you changed the shocks? They need to settle for a bit ya know!

Ok, completely hypothetical situation here. Say some blithering idiot, not me of course, was changing struts and put the front left spring on the front right strut. Would that cause an issue? :D

Shouldnt.. The springs (theoretically) should be identical.

Well I switched them anyways. God I should of put on new springs too. I'm dreading doing this again... :squint:

It would only be an issue if you put a front spring on the back, but with a stock suspension, it's impossible because the springs are different.

Impossible? You don't know me very well... ;)

Ok, they're on. I think I may have done the impossible, actually fixed something on my car. We'll see...

Oh, and when I pushed the clutch in as I was about to go take a test drive, my back end dropped an inch or two. Now it looks like it should. Not sure why it did that, but oh well. :dunno:

Transmission preload. You dropped the car back down and the tires couldn't turn because the tranny was engaged. Pushing the clutch in let the tires rotate a little bit and let the car settle lol. I wish I had thought of that seeing as I have done it about 1000 times.

Yup, I totally failed. The left front spring pops when the wheel turns. I also burst the left front bushing under the strut (I guess on the A arm). It busted and started oozing. So......... I guess I'm going to DGRR in the Mazda 6.

Would a busted bushing cause the car to feel like something is grinding and make a grinding type noise when turning left?

Anyone know where I can get a/some bushing(s) by Thursday?

Video of the spring popping. When it pops it does it so I can see it, although you can't tell in the video. It's also louder than it seems in the video. I suppose I'll try reseating the spring. I did buy new upper strut mounts. That one that went on that one didn't have a movable bearing, but the other one did even though they had the same part number. Could that be an issue?

http://media.putfile.com/Feh-14

Here's some pictures of the bushing(?) in question. I wiped a fair amount of grease off of the backside of it. :ugh2:

http://www.rotarycarclub.com/attachm...1&d=1207534700

http://www.rotarycarclub.com/attachm...1&d=1207534700

And here's a picture of the new/old upper strut mounts.

http://www.rotarycarclub.com/attachm...1&d=1207534862