Defender

The instructions that come with the "X" frames are in Japanese -- which I do not read, therefore the following will be helpful to anyone installing the X frames.

You will need: an 8 mm allen socket -- 3/8 or 1/2 in drive and the drive handle to go with it. You will also need a 14 mm socket and the drive handle to go with it. Theoretically you should have a torque wrench as well.

After you have the car safely jacked up and supported, you will be able to locate the four bolts that have to come out by simply holding up the x frame under the front of the car and seeing where the holes on the X frame line up. Note that the X frame has to be installed ONE WAY ONLY so the holes line up.

Having located the four bolts -- remove them. I used some loc-tite on the threads of the allen-key headed bolts (these came with my X frame) being used to install the X frame. Line up the X frame with the holes and hand tighted the new bolts through the X frame holes into the holes in the car. Finish by tightening with a torque wrench. The torque should be approx. 29 Ft. Pounds. I made mine a little (but not much) tighter.

The whole job took less than 15 minutes.

I THINK I really do feel a difference in the rigidity of the front suspension and steering now.


Eliot

mingster

Great post.

I thought the specs were 36 pounds for the fasteners?

Defender

I had looked through some of the older posts regarding the installation and saw a few that indicated that the translation from Metric to Standard resulted in a value of about 29 Ft. Lbs. Anyway -- my 30 year old torque wrench was inaccurate 30 years ago -- and I was not wearing my reading glasses while I was under there and sort of saw the needle go to about the 40 Ft. Lb mark. That combined with the Lock-tite I put on the threads leaves me in a "don't worry about it" frame of mind. I will check it the first time that I change the oil anyway.

Eliot