Sooooo, what I'm wondering is. Let me try and word this the best I can.
you see my coilover , there's the exposed threads below the bottom spring perch and then there's the extra threads above the top spring mount. Do I set the bottom perch to the bottom so the 2 little green spanners are touching or do i spread them as open as they can go until the bottom perch is at the top where the threads end OR do I just adjust them so that while decompressed the spring is the exact length of the dust boot above it ????
You get what I'm asking , like . It will then adjust the spring length and firmness then too the shorter it makes the spring. Or do I set them how I have them which is about 3/4 of the way down so the majority of the threads are towards the top?
hahaha educate my noob self..I've never gotten this in depth with suspension befor.

As you see i have the bottom spring perch about 3/4 of the way down the threads.

This is how much to raise the bottom spring perch to make tge spring the same length as the protector boot inside it

How she sits now

 

The bottom collar adjusts overall coilover length. The top two adjust spring preload.

 

but the preload can be set to less by dropping the collar/perch down and more when raised. How do I know how I have the proper preload ? Or do mine look correct ? Where its at i have the rebound setting 4x away from their most firm setting and I literally with all my force pushing hard up on the door jam i can BARELY rock the car side to side, it moves side to side maybe 4mm lolol.Also , to install the adjustable top hats , with my coilovers will I still need a spring compressor tool or will they come apart just by loosening everything up and just swapping the tophats and I think I will have to then clearance the top of the shock tower alittle so the adjustments can be accessed fully ??

 

Proper preload should be set before they get installed to the car. Holding the assembly in your hand, you thread the spring perch collar up to the spring just enough so that the spring is not loose, but the spring can still be rotated by hand. This is usually ~5mm / 1-2 full rotation after coming into contact with the spring. If the preload is too loose, you can damage your car if the strut ever goes to full droop and the spring jumps off the perch.

Then, as mentioned above, the over all ride height is adjusted by threading the strut body into the lower mount. Always make sure the overall lengths are equal on both sides of the car, right to left.

 

Heh. Nik understood what you were asking better than I did. Unless you want to go measuring droop and bump, what he said should get you in the ballpark of proper adjustment.

By the way, adding more preload won’t change spring firmness if it’s a linear rate spring.

I didn’t clearance my towers to adjust my camber plates, but I’m only running -1.5° of camber. My alignment guy was able to drop the strut a bit to tighten everything down.

 

ok. I shall set them like that..thank dude !
Also with the camber plates , do I just swap the coilovers shock mount out for the adjustable one ? And then I take it i can just simply disassemble the coilovers by hand to take all the tension out of them then to be able to swap hats..
wish I had marked done everything I removed my rims now on this car . my God!!!!!!!!!! Between the engine work and now this , lol..on n off on n off on n off n back on.. sooooooo glad I invested in that impact..

 

Yeah, just adjust the spring perches down, and then the top mount can come right off. No need for spring compressors for disassembly.

 

thank you ! You guys are fricken awesome !

 

Well, somehow the rears were where they should have been preload wise. When I went to check them I could kinda rotate the spring BUT the fronts I couldn't and had to back down the top collar / spring perch in order to get it to how it was sapose to be.
I got my camber plates today too but am gonna have to figure those puzzles out now too. This has been an awesome learning experieexperience and again my has cooperated and came apart and went back together with 0 issues at all and no fighting bolts or anything. The old suspension had to take some whacks to get freed from the knuckle but that's to be expected.
also see this endlink ? Is it too short or am I not setting my swaybars correctly? They didn't seem to fit front or back without being fully extended with like 3x threads in each side only which id never drive like that . Am I adjusting something wrong or am I correct in thinking they are too short ? I bought another set ( godspeed, silver ones) and they're longer and seem to fit far better.
The pics are of how the front looks after im almost positive I set them correctly, do they look rite to you ? And the other pic is of the endlinks and the stock endlink is a front one.

 

The end link length should be checked with the car on the ground and the ride height settled. The proper length should have the sway bar ends parallel to the ground.

If I remember correctly​​​​​​, on a lowered first gen the new front links should be longer and the rears shorter, but that also depends on where the tab is located on the new strut/shock, and by how much the car was lowered.

 

I gotta adjust something . When full crank on turn it kinda made almost a binding kinda noise but it hasn't been aligned yet and I still have to put on the upper rear adjustable control arms and the front camber plates.. buuut it did feel pretty nice besides that binding issue BUT I didn't go over 30mph and only took it around the block 2x...
heres how its sitting now that I again adjusted it for preload. Ille 2x check my endlinks again though. I got it sitting EXACTLY where I've wanted it to since the day I brought Troll home.