Well here's my crack at a write-up.....how to install an ALK. Ignore how dirty the car is and the mess I made with the grease. It was 38 degrees and 11:00PM outside while I was doing this and I cleaned up after it was all said and done. First off sorry for the sub par pics but hopefully someone will get some use out of it. If anyone can make suggestions or whatever feel free to reply. Total time spent installing was 3 hrs and that was with me taking my sweet time and snapping pics. Needed tools: 4 jackstands (2 would work but I got more room with all 4 corners up) 1 jack Decent flat head screwdriver 17mm heavy duty socket 19mm heavy duty socket Cheater bar - gotta love those Rachet 22mm wrench with open and closed ends Small mallet/hammer Torque wrench Good Synthetic Red Grease (like for wheel bearings) Two cement blocks or blocks of wood or decent ramps to load the front of the car while still being able to crawl under it. 1)Loosen up your lugnuts for only the front tires. 2)Put the car on jack stands at all 4 corners. For the front corners you can't use any part of the control arm. I used the main square chassic frame rail Front jack stand 3) Remove the front wheels when all 4 jackstands are in place and secured. MAKE SURE CAR IS STABLE AS YOU WILL BE YANKING AND PULL A BIT!
4) Now get under the car and locate the middle hinge bolt pictured below. Loosen the nut with a 17mm socket. Don't remove it. It just needs to be backed off so we can rotated the control arm a little. 5) Now loosen the ALK bolts with a 19mm. 6) Now remove the 22mm end nut and slide off the metal bushing. Don't get dirt in them. 7) If you look you will see where the ALK will hit the tranny crossmember if you tried to slide it out. Wedge the flat head screwdriver under it and pry down. The control arm will move and allow for you to get the ALK over that cross member. You can then take the mallet or hammer and gently tap the ALK off the bolt. You will see what I mean once you are under the car. You can see what I am talking about in the pic.
8) Now that I have the Perrin ALK off lets compare it to the GTSPec. You can see that the GTSpec will bring the ALK down lower than the Perrin which equals more caster. 9) Grease up the insides of the ALK well. The more the better. 10)Clean and grease up the bolt end of the control arm. Again the more the better. You'll make a mess.... 11) Clean and grease the inside of the end washer. 12)Reinstall is the reverse of the removal. Just DO NOT TIGHTEN THE BOLTS. LEAVE THEM LOOSE BUT THREADED IN!!!!!!!! 13) Do the opposite side. 14) Now the ALK should be on the car but the 22mm 19mm and 17mm bolts should still be loose. IF NOT LOOSEN THEM NOW!
15) I jacked up the rear and removed the jack stands and set the rear wheels back on the ground. Then I jacked up the front and replaced the wheels. Then I lowered the car on the cinder blocks. 16) Now the car's suspension should be loaded and up in the air. I popped the hood and bounced up and down on the strut towers to loaded up the suspension and get rid of any play. 17) Now tighten the 17mm hinge nut back onto it's bolt. Tighten nice and tight. 18) Now tighten the 22mm end nut to 140 ft/lb. I just tightend the crap out of it since my torque wrench wouldn't fit. 19) Do the FREE CASTOR mod. PULL the control arm as tight as you can toward the outside/door of the side you are working on and tighten the 19mm bolts to 180 ft/lb. Pulling the control arms gives you some more added castor. 20) Double and triple check all bolts. 21) Jack up the car and remove blocks. 22) You're done. Take it for a drive and make sure there aren't any clunks or groans.
Oh and guys don't use jack stands on dirt! I did here but it's not advised....they sink and can make the car fall! This was done at my old house which had nothign but dirt to work on. Now I have a cement flat at my disposal!
Nice write up. I was about to say something about the jackstand dirt combo. hnoes: That is just as scary as putting a car on a cinder block. Its one thing when you are stealing wheels to put a car on blocks but a whole different thing to actually get under the car and work on it.
Yeah only reason I did it was under that dirt is actually asphalt in my case. Found out my old yard 'used' to be a parking lot.....weird eh? It would sink in the dirt and then you heard a 'clink' from the stands hitting the asphalt. It's amazing how grass and dirt grew over asphalt.