I've been working on lowering my monte with some dirt cheap ebay springs. It's been proving to be a lot more work than I expected. Lots of frozen bolts, no instructions, and an apartment parking lot are not helping.

Here is some progress though. At the moment I've got the front struts with the new springs swapped into them ready to go back into the car.

I bought suspension techniques lowering springs for $75 on ebay. They advertise a 1.2" drop. We shall see if they live up to their advertisement.





After several hours we got the front struts out and called it a day. I went to work on removing the stock springs later. Here is a comparison with the stock strut assembly and the new spring that will go in it. Ideally, I should have gotten new struts, but the car has 200K+ on it, so I don't want to put too much money into it if I don't have to. Since they still work, they stay.



I had to make my own tool to get this top nut off. Using a universal socket on a wrench and another t-50 socket on a ratchet I was able to break this nut loose.

Those springs compressors are a WORK OUT! Let me tell you....








Stock spring vs lowering spring. Stock spring measures 14 3/4" while the lowering spring measures 13 1/2". The lowering springs are also smaller in overall diameter.







Compressing the lowering spring onto the strut. I also cut a bit of the bump stop off, as I read that would help from keeping the car bottoming out all of the time. I cut about an inch off since that's about how much I'm lowering the car.





Stock left, lowered right.



Both completed!



They should be back on the car by this weekend and we'll see if they actually lower the car

Then onto the rears, which look considerably easier than the fronts!

Thanks for looking

 

Well done..... Curious to know if they are actually lower... ... Let us know...

 

Ahhh yes, I remember this all too well. Rigging up a custom tool of multiple tools is pretty much essential to get that top nut, and it always helps to have another set of hands for some of these steps. Looks like it's going well so far and I hope the springs lower the car as advertised (never know with ebay springs). Looking forward to seeing the results!

Looks like those calipers could use a refresh.

 

Wow..