Whats Up every body!
I've slowly been gathering parts for a suspension upgrade. So far I have:
Tokiko HP struts
Suspension Techniques springs
Monroe front strut mounts
Gabriel rear strut mounts
Strut Mate front strut boots
The remaining parts I plan to get are:
Prothane bushings set( from gravana tuning, control arm, motor mounts, rear axle, transmission )
front & rear swaybars ( not sure which brand yet, expecting stock front & aftermarket rear )
Hears the thing though, I brought a pair of junkyard complete front strut assemblies for 25$
to familiarize myself with the setup. I noticed two things.
The first, I noticed part from the junkyard assembly and part from j-body.org. The spring bumpstops. The Monroe strut mounts do not seem to have come with them. ( only the mount, bearing, & bearing plate ). My question is can I use the one's from the junkyard assembly or should I buy new ones? & if I should buy new ones, from where? cause I've been looking & everytime I get these small looking bolt bumpstops.
The second thing I noticed is that the Monroe strut mounts dont seem to have any camber like the OEM strut mounts. Is this something I should be concerned about, should I be looking for camber plates like the ones mcmoney made?
Also everything above is to the best of my knowledge, If I have made an error anywhere please let me know, Im relatively new to this stuff, but I'd like to be a DIY'er.
Bumps: Use the junk yard ones unless you see something wrong with them. Most drivers never hit them anyway.
Camber: Standard mounts will not have any camber adjustment. You'd have to get camber plates for that, like McMoney's.
DIY: Overall looks good. A bit strange that you have all that performance stuff (bushings, swaybars, strut bars, etc) and you cheaped out on the meat and potatoes of your suspension (Springs and Struts).
Thanks for the answers, one thing though, About the camber. Im not talking about adjustability, Im just talkin about the angled OEM mount. Should I be concerned that the Monroe Mount doesnt have an angle (camber)?
lol, its funny u mentioned the "Meat & Potatoes". I brought the struts first. It seemed like it was gonna take me forever to get them. but they were by far the most expensive piece, so I thought I would balance quality w/price. But since Im slowly gathering the parts anyway, I think I may sell them & get a better set. (Everything still in the box NIB!!!, for u ebayers :-))
The springs however, I wanted to get the Eibach Prokits, but I think they may be too low, & I dont wanna take that chance.
Prolly change to Eibachs after these springs are on, so I can get a better judgement of ride height.
get rid of the HP's, sell them, return them,whatever.
Your not going to get very good results unless you get adjustable shocks, the HP's are just aftermarket replacements. With S-techs your going to want Koni Yellows, not cheap, but worth the money. AGX's are good too, but you'll void the warranty on them with the S-tech springs.
Also there really is no need to replace the stock strut mounts, unless your going toward something like a camber plate, or solid pillowball mounts.
-Chris
He's not talking about S-Techs, he said Suspension Techniques (SusTech). SusTechs are 1.1" drop and will work on the HPs. Tien S-Techs are 1.7" drop and will work on Koni and D-Specs only.
Yeah the Monroe mount should have an angle to it IIRC. Possible you got the wrong part, or maybe they changed the design, or maybe I can't remember correctly... Anyone else know?
Hey C.T.S, I just learned a hard lesson. Know your part #!
You were right, wrong part, I just looked it up on Monroes site and its a freakin 92 beretta mouint!!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!! And I told them its a 95 cavalier!! And I dont have the receipt!!! GRRRRR!!! Thats what I get for trustin my neighborhood Straussauto. Some people know what they are doin, but some people dont! LOL, I guess Im the latter in this situation
Oh well, lesson learned! I guess now I should consider a pillowball mount
Thanx again guys
why not use your stock mounts?
i figure since they are mad of rubber & they are over 10 years old, Id get some solid ones that would further eliminate play in the suspension setup. Now that I think about it, Even if I had gotten the Monroes, they were rubber too. heh, go figure
