How to: Front Coilovers for a S10

Ok, I've noticed that every once in awhile, the subject of coilover front suspension will come up, but nobody ever does anything towards it..

So I figured I'll be a test mule...I went and puchased the bolt-in front coilover set from Carrera. They ended up costing $444.18 shipped, and arrived in 3 days! I was very surprised at the timely arrival. Here is the link so you can check them out yourself:

NOTE: Carrera was bought out by QA1 some time ago, heres their link: QA1 PRECISION PRODUCTS, INC. | LAKEVILLE, MN.

They arrived just as I imagined by UPS, and came undamaged and in very good quality. They feature a billet aluminum sleeve that surrounds the shock body and a aluminum collar that you adjust the spring height with...anyways, on to the install.

Before you start any type of suspension modification, its good to measure from the ground to the fender lip to get an idea of were you're starting with. You can see that even with 2" drop spindles, my 94 SS is nearly a 4x4 at the 'before' height.

After you read through the instructions and count all your parts to make sure everything is there, its time to start ripping into things. Set the vehicle on jackstands, pull the wheel, then disconnect the tie rod end, sway bar end link, and lower ball joint. Refer to Carreras instructions on how to do this properly. Pull the coil out and remove the lower control arm from the truck.

Now we move on to preparing the shocks for installation. There are actually 2 ways of installing the coilovers in your lower control arm, known as 'ears up' and 'ears down'. You want to put them ears up if you are leaving the vehicle at stock height, but ears down if you lowering it. You can see in this picture that i flipped the brackets on the bottom of the shocks to the 'ears down' position (they come 'ears up' from the factory; refer to the first pic).



Next is just a shot of the new shock compared to a puny stock shock. I saw a difference of size in shock body and rod diameter.

Last is the new shock ready for installation. It has the sleeve installed on it, with the washer, and the top bushing is in place.

These coilovers are made to install in GM lower control arms that have the pear shaped hole in the spring pocket. Some older control arms have a round hole, and they will need to be modifyed. Carrera explains this and provides instructions of what to cut.








When you are installing the shocks 'ears down', they will only fit in the control arm one way, and thats by placing the edge of the mount thats going to sit closest to the ball joints through the hole first, then the back edge will fall right in, like this.

Bolt the coilover mount to the lower control arm with the 2 3/8" bolts that are provided, then place the coil on top of the sleeve.

Now comes the hard part, and I do recommend 2 people doing this. You need to put the lower control arm assembly on top of a floor jack, and raise it up into the spring cup on the frame, while guiding the shock stud into its mounting hole and the coil spring into its pocket. I dont have many pictures of this, since I was doing it by myself, but here is the shock stud thru the hole with the nut and bushing hardware installed.

Then after that nut is in, the entire assembly will hang down. Now you need to jack up the control arm so you can reinstall the inner bolts that the control arm pivot from. Attached is a pic after things finally got on their way.

Since we are lowering it as well, were probably going to need to modify the bumpstops so they dont hit right away. Here is a shot of the modification process, a small aftermarket snubber would be a better option haha..

Ok, after they are done, bolt them back into place, reinstall the lower ball joint and tie rod end, but not the sway bar. I found it got in the way of adjusting the coils with the spanner wrench. When all that is done, move over and do the other side. Here is a shot of both sides done and ready to be put on the ground:






Final thoughts and road testing:

As soon as I hit the first bump I felt a difference over the stock coils, which were very stiff. Then I went on the highway and took a couple turns at high speed, and they seemed to a much better job at controling body roll than the stock setup.

However, after driving 50 miles, the coils settled 1 1/2 inches! I left it like that, and have since driven 50 more miles, and they haven't moved. So I will eventually get back under there and readjust the collars to compensate.

At nearly $450, its not a cheap mod. But it is way under the price of bags, and offers more towards the performance of your vehicle, which is what I wanted. I recommend them, but be prepared to sweat installing them. It will most definetly be easier to do with 2 people, but they are still a b!tch to get the control arm to line up so you can put the bolts in. Good luck! Let me know what you think...

AV

Credit goes to AVTekk on S10 Forum for this How To.