I'll never use a spring compressor to pull the upper mounts off again. Its a waste of my time,its not nearly as bad as I thought. I'm all about being safe,but after having to do some trouble shooting on my car. I ended up removing & re-installing my stock springs @ 10 times one night.drool You already have the tire off on the ground.So lay the strut on the ground on a rubber "Kneeling/Gardening" mat. Butt the bottom of the strut against the tire,remove the nut with an impact.Cover the upper mount & impact wrench with a large beach towel or small blanket to catch the upper mount. Your done in @ 5 seconds. Obviously you have to use the spring compressor to put it back together. But taking it apart is way less violent than I expected.
Some people like to read fiction,I prefer to read repair manuals. Weird I know- Henry Ford: "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" Fuseable Link Distribution Block repair link
I am looking forward to hearing about these "front spring" adventures. I put FMS 'sport' springs on a few years ago and was thoroughly disappointed with both the ride and the car height. At the moment I've got those rear springs removed and am putting standard Aspire springs on without doing any cutting. The car is not yet reassembled (few other things going on at the same time) but I'm trying to achieve stock Festy height but with a firmer ride. It is not a huge ordeal to re&re springs providing all the bolts come loose and the interior plastic trim is already out! Some folks say to cut 1/2 coil and others go all the way to 2 cut coils. I'm going to cautiously start at '0' and go from there. Next time around I will be tangling with the FMS front springs. My Aspire spares are in perfect shape but it is nice to know that Rio front springs are an option, especially since replacement Festy springs have not been available 'over the counter' for well over a decade.
Bert just go with coil overs,you can keep your spring rate and get adjust ability. Advandceddynamics has pointed us to springs for @ $20 each. And you can get the adjuster hat on ebay for dirt cheap. The added beni is smaller dia spring leaves more room for tire sidewall.Cutting springs makes the progression change quite a bit.
Some people like to read fiction,I prefer to read repair manuals. Weird I know- Henry Ford: "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" Fuseable Link Distribution Block repair link
Rio Springs are already over kill on a Festy.Then when you remove a coil the will become even stiffer.
Some people like to read fiction,I prefer to read repair manuals. Weird I know- Henry Ford: "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" Fuseable Link Distribution Block repair link
^x2 Rio springs are a lot stiffer then the festy... If you cut them that makes them more stiff, I cut my festy springs with the Rio strut a d came out pretty good but If you use the Rio springs and cut will be wayyyyy to stiff.
I have been riding with cut 2004 rio springs on the front for a few months. I think it is just barely too stiff. I tried to not cut as much... no workie. I am currently trying to figure out which specification of springs to stack and replace the rio's.
HULi ---------------------------------------------------------------------------> Any-where, any-way, any-time.
"CL4P-TP" - 93 Festiva L
I would love to go with coil overs but I knew from others experience that the cheap ebay ones is a bad choice... And I didn't have the money to get the correct expensive ones, so that's why I decide to use the festiva coils and cut them and install with Rio struts, I couldn't be more happy it turned out way better then I thought it would it is just about the perfect stiffness... Obviously coil over is better but for the money this is awesome.
I think those complaining the Rio spring is too stiff, have too hard of an ass... Working great for me, need some GR2's inside them to stiffen it up!
No thanks,its way to much spring for the weight of the car.
Some people like to read fiction,I prefer to read repair manuals. Weird I know- Henry Ford: "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" Fuseable Link Distribution Block repair link
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