Well I hate to admit it, but this day didn't turn out like it was supposed to.

The AMR coilovers arrived this week, and the TL sway bar and new links were waiting for a month already. All this was going to happen today, so that I could get my new Potenzas mounted, and everything aligned. My old SO3 Pole Positions are getting slippery, since the sticky rubber wore off a looooong time ago.

So onto the jackstands the car goes, and all four wheels come off.

My first major obstacle was expected: the rusted nuts on the sway bar links. Whoever came up w/ the idea of the allen wrench bolt was a real Einstein. The locknut would back off part ways, but as soon as the whole nut was over the rusted threads, forget it. An hour later, it dawned on me to break out the sawzall w/ a metal cutting blade. Finally the new sway bar is on! Looks like there was plenty of clearance on the exhaust hanger too. Phew!

So now it's on to taking the rear struts off. My Honda service manual had just a handful of steps. What could be easier? Not! Step one; take off rear bulkhead. The plastic part snaps off. Step two; take the two flange nuts off the top of the strut. O.K. Step three; remove flange bolt that hold the strut onto the knuckle, and remove the end link from the stabilizer bar. Didn't have to remove it, the new links weren't attached yet. Step four; lower suspension, and remove strut. This is where I'm stumped.

The suspension wouldn't drop down enough to let the strut drop down out of its bulkhead holes. If I put my weight on rotor/wheel studs, it would drop down a half inch, but would just spring back up.

Are some of the arms attached to the knuckle supposed to get taken off first, to allow the suspension to drop? That's the only thing I can think of, but there's four arms, leading, trailing, upper, and lower, and I wasn't in the mood to start guessing and taking that stuff off, especially since I didn't know it would help. Being close to 90° with a tropical dewpoint wasn't helping either.

So I get to drive for a week w/ the TL sway bar installed, and evaluate the improvements that's making by itself. If I have to, I'll take the car into a shop. Three years ago I put some Tokico's in the front when the original front left strut was leaking. That wasn't a bad job, so it's a good bet that the fronts will go in fine. Maybe, since the cars going in for tire-mounting, and an alignment, I'll just wuss-out, and let them do the rears.

I'm mad at myself for not getting all this done today. I was sooo looking forward to seeing my baby dropped, and ready to nail some hard corners. Sooner or later, though.

So I scored one run w/ the sway bar, but the car scored four runs 'cuz it still has the four old struts on.

Any ideas on getting the back struts out? Thanks a ton!

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