Advance1

Hey guys,

So i'm currently having trouble putting my car back to stock. Right now I have Bilstein PSS on my 02 s2k, but when I tried reinstalling the stock suspension I was having a SUPER HARD time getting the oem Strut back in so I could line up the bolts. Anyone have any suggestions?

The PSS have a much shorter body length so I was able to get them in and out of the rears. The OEM on the other hand was a major pain in the ass. The furthest I got was inserting the tophats into the trunk and screwing it in but I could never get the rear bolt to line up with the suspension.Tried stepping on that shit as well to get it to fit but never any luck.

Is the correct way to do this to detach the rear sway bar for additional clearance? I'm only finding DIYS on how to install new coilovers (typically all of them have a shorter body length so they don't have this problem).

I also tried compressing the springs and putting them on there but had no luck.

Any tips are welcomed!

smokeyrabbit

Detach the sway bar, loosen the upper control arm bolts if they're not seized. Don't forget to pre-load the suspension before torquing everything back up.

FISH22

A giant pry bar does wonders. I usually insert it through the lower control arm... the tip of the pry bar rests under the forward part of the control arm, and the middle section of the pry bar over the rear part of the control arm. When inserted like this, the pry bar handle should be angled out a bit, and just start pushing on it (I usually use my foot while using my hands to line up the shock and shoot the bolt.

zeroptzero

Do you have a spare 2 x 4 wood stud sitting around your place ?, last time I did it I put it through the lower arm and had someone sit on it while I wiggled the strut into place. You need to get some leverage on it so the wood stud works well - 6-8 feet long ?

iamxpl

both methods suggested will work

Advance1

thanks guy, so should i am assuming my best bet would be to detach the sway bar, loosen the control arm, and use a pry bar? I've used similar approaches to the pry bar method but was already afraid of bending something with too much force.

zeroptzero

You won't need to pry much if you disconnect the parts that you list.

I just wanted to avoid taking things apart when I used the pry method. For some reason all of my control arm attachment point nuts seem to strip when I take them apart, I have an easy fix for them when that happens but I prefer to avoid them stripping if possible. Prying with a long wood stud won't bend anything, metal bars might if you put them in the wrong spot.

TommySalami

The rear sway bar is your problem here. Disconnect it and you'll be ok.