[Z06] Installing pfadt coilovers ?
08-08-2008, 09:25 AM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
Installing pfadt coilovers ?
For those of you who may want to install the Pfadt coilovers, I've just written step by step instructions for a C6Z06. The instructions that came with the shocks was missing a lot of details and in some cases was just downright wrong. In any case, if it helps anyone, here it is (sorry for the length of it, but it doesn't leave much out): By the way, this will likely work for any other coil overs, and if the others aren't adjustable, omit the drilling out of the access hole in the trunk area.
PFADT COILOVER INSTALLATION DETAILS
- Jack up the car and place it on jack stands. Make sure the jack stands are clear of the leaf spring attachments or the sway bar.
- Remove the wheels
FRONT SUSPENSION
- Remove the brake calipers and tie them up out of the way. Calipers are held onto the bracket with a 13/16" head bolt.
- Remove the top mount of the shock absorbers. To remove the top nut, use a par of vise grips to hold the threaded stud from turning while turning out the nut with a 15 mm wrench. This is tedious as the nut is a friction nut and will take effort almost the entire length of thread. On the driver=s side, you will need to reposition the coolant recovery tank by removing two hold-down nuts with a 10 mm wrench. The vertical bolt will have a rubber cap on the stud which can be easily removed by pulling up. Once you=ve remove the two nuts, pull the front of the tank towards the engine and the rear stud will now clear. Lay the tank on top of the radiator housing where it will be out of the way. You can now access the driver=s side top shock mount attachment.
- Remove the bottom two bolts. There is a nut on the bottom side so you will need a 13 mm wrench on top to hold the bolt head while turning out the nut with a 13 mm socket on the bottom side.
- Remove the sway bar bushing attachment and the two lower control arm links. Use a 6 point torx drive into the stud to hold it from turning while removing the nut with a 18 mm wrench. Once the nut is removed, you may have to use the torx drive to spin out the stud from the lower control arm due to the tightness of fit.
- In order to remove the shock (which is under gas pressure so it won=t compress), the upper control arm attachment to the frame must be removed. There are 4 bolts attaching it to the frame (15 mm head). First, place a floor jack under the lower control arm and raise it slightly to take pressure off the upper control arm from the spring. Between the upper control arm attachment and the frame are a series of spacers or washers. Take note of how many there are and where they are. It may be best to run the bolts out but not completely off so the upper control arm can be pulled away and the washers counted at each post. I found there were 4 washers on each bolt on both the driver and passenger side front control arm.
- Once the washers are counted and noted, remove the upper control arm attachment bolts off and collect the washers. Lower the floor jack to remove tension off the leaf spring. The shock can now be easily removed from its prior position.
- With BOTH upper control arms removed and the lower control arm resting down, the leaf spring should now be completely unloaded. Remove the four attachment bolts holding the leaf spring onto the bottom of the sub-frame. Slide the spring thru from either side. If you ever intend to re-install the spring, be careful to not cause any scratches on the spring. GM documents this repeatedly as being essential, as it will lead to de-lamination of the composite spring material.
- Install the lower mount of the coilover onto the lower control arm. Don=t tighten up the bolts yet. Be sure to install the rubber spacer on the upper coilover stud.
- Put a jack under the lower control arm where the ball joint is mounted and start to lift the lower control arm. As you do this, guide the upper coilover stud into the upper shock mount hole. Once you have the coilover rubber bushing making contact with the upper shock mount, stop jacking up the lower control arm.
- You will now need to put the upper control arm attachment bolts on the control arm and put the washer/spacers back behind the bolts. You may note that the last washer in the group is a type of sealing washer with an o-ring like material on the inside hole. This is to retain or grip on the bolt to keep the washers from falling off as you try to re-install the upper control arm. If these sealing rings are broken off and don=t grip the bolt any longer, you can duplicate this by using a small 1/16"cross section, 1/4" i.d. o-ring to stretch over the bolt threads after you install the washers. It will keep the washers from falling off the bolts as you re-install the upper control arm and save you a lot of aggravation.
- Manually move the upper control arm and re-attach it with the four bolts. Be careful to thread these in by hand to make sure you don=t cross thread them, especially the first two bolts. You may need to move the floor jack up or down to get the right angle for the bolts to thread into the mount. Work them in evenly and torque them down to 48 lb/ft with a torque wrench.
- Install the coilover upper bushing, washer and nut from inside the engine compartment and tighten until the bushings squish out to match the diameter of the washer. On the driver=s side, re-install the coolant recovery tank. Once re-installed, make sure the top of the coilover isn=t touching the bottom of the recovery tank or you=ll have a hole in the tank.
- Tighten the lower coilover bolts (13 mm)
- Re-install the front sway bar. Leave the bar loose in the bushing mount until you put back the lower control arm links. Once the links are tightened, then tighten the sway bar bushing bolts to specs.
- Re-install the brake caliper. Check all bolts that you have removed to make sure they are tightenned as per specs
REAR SUSPENSION:
- Remove both brake calipers and tie up to the rear brake duct to keep them out of the way
- Remove the rear sway bar attachment at the lower control arm link. Use an 18 mm wrench on the nut while holding or turning the stud with a torx drive.
- Remove the rear sway bar hold down brackets. The upper attachment is an 18 mm head bolt, while the lower one is an 18 mm nut. The lower attachment is the lower control arm pivot bolt and the bolt head is 15 mm. Once the bolts and nuts are removed, remove the sway bar entirely from the car.
- Remove the lower shock anchor bolt with a 15/16" socket and wrench. Remove the upper shock hold down bolts using a 13 mm wrench. The shock is now loose but won=t clear the suspension.
- Remove the four hold down bolts of the composite leaf spring. Remove the hold down brackets.
- Place a floor jack under the lower control arm ball join area and support the lower control arm by raising it about 2".
- Remove the upper control arm bolts holding the control arm against the frame using a 15 mm socket. Don=t drive the bolt all the way out. When all four bolts are 90% of the way out, reach behind the upper control arm attachment and verify the number of washers or spacers between the control arm and frame. If you=re careful, the washers will stay on the bolt. Run the bolts out by hand and pull the control arm away from the frame. Lower the jack and let the lower control arm hang down. Repeat exactly for the other side. Once both lower control arms are down, the shocks can be pulled out and the composite leaf spring will be totally unloaded and can be slid out from either side.
- Remove the carpet from the back of the car so you can drill the rear shock adjusting access holes by following these procedures;
a) remove the rear carpet cover which runs across the back of the tail lights. Unscrew the
Cargo net hold downs on each side and the adjacent plastic retainers. Using a
screwdriver near the rear latch, gently pry up where the two hold down plastic pin retainers hold down the carpet. Now pull the carpet away from the rear of the car. The two cargo lights on each side have plugs that you will need to remove at the light. Once that is done, that carpet section can be removed.
b) the large section carpet on the trunk area is removed by pulling up where the compartment door and battery door areas start. You should remove the child seat retainment bracket bolt on the passenger side. The rest of the carpet is just held by the adjacent panels and just need to be pulled out from underneath them. On the left (driver=s) side, remove the emergency gas door and driver=s door releases thru the slits provided in the carpet. The carpet is now free to be pulled out from the car.
(NOTE: The picture of the trunk area shown by Pfadt instructions are not for a C6Z06, and the respective dimensions are not applicable. Read below on how to do it correctly)
- Using a small electric or air drill, mount a 1/8" drill bit and drill a pilot hole from under the car trying to center the hole projecting from the middle of the rear shock upper mount. Proceed carefully since you will be drilling at an angle and the drill will want to walk on you. Once you=ve done one side and are satisfied with its position, simply note the placement from above and duplicate the other side by measuring. Its easier than drilling from underneath.
- Once the pilot holes have been drilled, use a 2" diameter bit to enlarge the hole. Drill from the top or inside the rear cargo area. Measure and transfer the hole area to the carpet section you will need to either punch a hole in or make a slice so you can later access the hole in the trunk to change the shock adjustment. (TIP: a slice in the carpet at the right spot is best since it can be opened for access be almost hidden afterwards. I cut a 5/8" hole with a plug cutter and it was off so I ended up making another slice beyond it...not pretty) The shocks are adjusted with a 2.5 mm allen wrench. The instructions claim it is included with the shocks but it wasn=t in mine.
- Re-install the carpet in reverse order. Using a large straight blade screwdriver to push the carpet back under the panels helps in the process.
- Install the bottom mount of the coil-overs on each lower control arm using the same bolt you had before. Don=t tighten the bolt at this time.
- Put the jack under the control arm and gently raise the lower control arm to bring the upper end of the coil-over into the upper mount. You may need to rotate the coil-over upper plate to properly align it with the mounting point. Put the original bolts in making sure you start them by hand to prevent cross threading. Tighten securely.
- Make sure all the washers/spacers are in their proper place on the upper control arm attachment and push the control arm against the frame. Start the bolts by hand one at a time. You will note that the two inside bolts have a stamped steel bracket that apply side load towards the upper control arm bushing. Make sure these have NOT rotated the other way when you took them off. The flanges are towards the bushing, not against the shock mount. Tighten the upper control arm attachment and torque down to 48 lb/ft.
- Tighten the lower shock mount.
- Repeat for the other side.
- Re-install the rear sway bar in reverse order that you took it off. Be sure to run the link bolt thru the end of the sway bar before you attach the rear sway bar attachment bolts/nuts. Torque down and recheck all the bolts for the rear suspension.
- Re-install the rear brake calipers. You may need to compress the pistons on the last brake caliper since the first one may have moved the pistons out a bit too much to clear the rotor.
PFADT COILOVER INSTALLATION DETAILS
- Jack up the car and place it on jack stands. Make sure the jack stands are clear of the leaf spring attachments or the sway bar.
- Remove the wheels
FRONT SUSPENSION
- Remove the brake calipers and tie them up out of the way. Calipers are held onto the bracket with a 13/16" head bolt.
- Remove the top mount of the shock absorbers. To remove the top nut, use a par of vise grips to hold the threaded stud from turning while turning out the nut with a 15 mm wrench. This is tedious as the nut is a friction nut and will take effort almost the entire length of thread. On the driver=s side, you will need to reposition the coolant recovery tank by removing two hold-down nuts with a 10 mm wrench. The vertical bolt will have a rubber cap on the stud which can be easily removed by pulling up. Once you=ve remove the two nuts, pull the front of the tank towards the engine and the rear stud will now clear. Lay the tank on top of the radiator housing where it will be out of the way. You can now access the driver=s side top shock mount attachment.
- Remove the bottom two bolts. There is a nut on the bottom side so you will need a 13 mm wrench on top to hold the bolt head while turning out the nut with a 13 mm socket on the bottom side.
- Remove the sway bar bushing attachment and the two lower control arm links. Use a 6 point torx drive into the stud to hold it from turning while removing the nut with a 18 mm wrench. Once the nut is removed, you may have to use the torx drive to spin out the stud from the lower control arm due to the tightness of fit.
- In order to remove the shock (which is under gas pressure so it won=t compress), the upper control arm attachment to the frame must be removed. There are 4 bolts attaching it to the frame (15 mm head). First, place a floor jack under the lower control arm and raise it slightly to take pressure off the upper control arm from the spring. Between the upper control arm attachment and the frame are a series of spacers or washers. Take note of how many there are and where they are. It may be best to run the bolts out but not completely off so the upper control arm can be pulled away and the washers counted at each post. I found there were 4 washers on each bolt on both the driver and passenger side front control arm.
- Once the washers are counted and noted, remove the upper control arm attachment bolts off and collect the washers. Lower the floor jack to remove tension off the leaf spring. The shock can now be easily removed from its prior position.
- With BOTH upper control arms removed and the lower control arm resting down, the leaf spring should now be completely unloaded. Remove the four attachment bolts holding the leaf spring onto the bottom of the sub-frame. Slide the spring thru from either side. If you ever intend to re-install the spring, be careful to not cause any scratches on the spring. GM documents this repeatedly as being essential, as it will lead to de-lamination of the composite spring material.
- Install the lower mount of the coilover onto the lower control arm. Don=t tighten up the bolts yet. Be sure to install the rubber spacer on the upper coilover stud.
- Put a jack under the lower control arm where the ball joint is mounted and start to lift the lower control arm. As you do this, guide the upper coilover stud into the upper shock mount hole. Once you have the coilover rubber bushing making contact with the upper shock mount, stop jacking up the lower control arm.
- You will now need to put the upper control arm attachment bolts on the control arm and put the washer/spacers back behind the bolts. You may note that the last washer in the group is a type of sealing washer with an o-ring like material on the inside hole. This is to retain or grip on the bolt to keep the washers from falling off as you try to re-install the upper control arm. If these sealing rings are broken off and don=t grip the bolt any longer, you can duplicate this by using a small 1/16"cross section, 1/4" i.d. o-ring to stretch over the bolt threads after you install the washers. It will keep the washers from falling off the bolts as you re-install the upper control arm and save you a lot of aggravation.
- Manually move the upper control arm and re-attach it with the four bolts. Be careful to thread these in by hand to make sure you don=t cross thread them, especially the first two bolts. You may need to move the floor jack up or down to get the right angle for the bolts to thread into the mount. Work them in evenly and torque them down to 48 lb/ft with a torque wrench.
- Install the coilover upper bushing, washer and nut from inside the engine compartment and tighten until the bushings squish out to match the diameter of the washer. On the driver=s side, re-install the coolant recovery tank. Once re-installed, make sure the top of the coilover isn=t touching the bottom of the recovery tank or you=ll have a hole in the tank.
- Tighten the lower coilover bolts (13 mm)
- Re-install the front sway bar. Leave the bar loose in the bushing mount until you put back the lower control arm links. Once the links are tightened, then tighten the sway bar bushing bolts to specs.
- Re-install the brake caliper. Check all bolts that you have removed to make sure they are tightenned as per specs
REAR SUSPENSION:
- Remove both brake calipers and tie up to the rear brake duct to keep them out of the way
- Remove the rear sway bar attachment at the lower control arm link. Use an 18 mm wrench on the nut while holding or turning the stud with a torx drive.
- Remove the rear sway bar hold down brackets. The upper attachment is an 18 mm head bolt, while the lower one is an 18 mm nut. The lower attachment is the lower control arm pivot bolt and the bolt head is 15 mm. Once the bolts and nuts are removed, remove the sway bar entirely from the car.
- Remove the lower shock anchor bolt with a 15/16" socket and wrench. Remove the upper shock hold down bolts using a 13 mm wrench. The shock is now loose but won=t clear the suspension.
- Remove the four hold down bolts of the composite leaf spring. Remove the hold down brackets.
- Place a floor jack under the lower control arm ball join area and support the lower control arm by raising it about 2".
- Remove the upper control arm bolts holding the control arm against the frame using a 15 mm socket. Don=t drive the bolt all the way out. When all four bolts are 90% of the way out, reach behind the upper control arm attachment and verify the number of washers or spacers between the control arm and frame. If you=re careful, the washers will stay on the bolt. Run the bolts out by hand and pull the control arm away from the frame. Lower the jack and let the lower control arm hang down. Repeat exactly for the other side. Once both lower control arms are down, the shocks can be pulled out and the composite leaf spring will be totally unloaded and can be slid out from either side.
- Remove the carpet from the back of the car so you can drill the rear shock adjusting access holes by following these procedures;
a) remove the rear carpet cover which runs across the back of the tail lights. Unscrew the
Cargo net hold downs on each side and the adjacent plastic retainers. Using a
screwdriver near the rear latch, gently pry up where the two hold down plastic pin retainers hold down the carpet. Now pull the carpet away from the rear of the car. The two cargo lights on each side have plugs that you will need to remove at the light. Once that is done, that carpet section can be removed.
b) the large section carpet on the trunk area is removed by pulling up where the compartment door and battery door areas start. You should remove the child seat retainment bracket bolt on the passenger side. The rest of the carpet is just held by the adjacent panels and just need to be pulled out from underneath them. On the left (driver=s) side, remove the emergency gas door and driver=s door releases thru the slits provided in the carpet. The carpet is now free to be pulled out from the car.
(NOTE: The picture of the trunk area shown by Pfadt instructions are not for a C6Z06, and the respective dimensions are not applicable. Read below on how to do it correctly)
- Using a small electric or air drill, mount a 1/8" drill bit and drill a pilot hole from under the car trying to center the hole projecting from the middle of the rear shock upper mount. Proceed carefully since you will be drilling at an angle and the drill will want to walk on you. Once you=ve done one side and are satisfied with its position, simply note the placement from above and duplicate the other side by measuring. Its easier than drilling from underneath.
- Once the pilot holes have been drilled, use a 2" diameter bit to enlarge the hole. Drill from the top or inside the rear cargo area. Measure and transfer the hole area to the carpet section you will need to either punch a hole in or make a slice so you can later access the hole in the trunk to change the shock adjustment. (TIP: a slice in the carpet at the right spot is best since it can be opened for access be almost hidden afterwards. I cut a 5/8" hole with a plug cutter and it was off so I ended up making another slice beyond it...not pretty) The shocks are adjusted with a 2.5 mm allen wrench. The instructions claim it is included with the shocks but it wasn=t in mine.
- Re-install the carpet in reverse order. Using a large straight blade screwdriver to push the carpet back under the panels helps in the process.
- Install the bottom mount of the coil-overs on each lower control arm using the same bolt you had before. Don=t tighten the bolt at this time.
- Put the jack under the control arm and gently raise the lower control arm to bring the upper end of the coil-over into the upper mount. You may need to rotate the coil-over upper plate to properly align it with the mounting point. Put the original bolts in making sure you start them by hand to prevent cross threading. Tighten securely.
- Make sure all the washers/spacers are in their proper place on the upper control arm attachment and push the control arm against the frame. Start the bolts by hand one at a time. You will note that the two inside bolts have a stamped steel bracket that apply side load towards the upper control arm bushing. Make sure these have NOT rotated the other way when you took them off. The flanges are towards the bushing, not against the shock mount. Tighten the upper control arm attachment and torque down to 48 lb/ft.
- Tighten the lower shock mount.
- Repeat for the other side.
- Re-install the rear sway bar in reverse order that you took it off. Be sure to run the link bolt thru the end of the sway bar before you attach the rear sway bar attachment bolts/nuts. Torque down and recheck all the bolts for the rear suspension.
- Re-install the rear brake calipers. You may need to compress the pistons on the last brake caliper since the first one may have moved the pistons out a bit too much to clear the rotor.
08-08-2008, 10:18 AM
#2
Safety Car
08-08-2008, 11:23 AM
#3
Racer
Thread Starter
With pictures:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ighlight=pfadt
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ighlight=pfadt
The only thing I see different is you took the lower control arm off on the rear suspension. I took the upper control arm off and it was a piece of cake. Pfadt's instructions said to take the lower control arm off for the C5, upper for the C6. The advantage of taking the upper control arm off is you don't have to worry about changing the camber. Great pictures !!
