| Since it's a lazy Sunday afternoon, I finally found time to post some pics of my GCCO install. After a lot of searching on tt.net for a suspension setup I liked, I settled for the GCCO kit for several reasons: because I wanted to 1) keep my stock shocks since they were still running in very good condition, 2) keep my stock in-cockpit damping control since the TEIN shocks and EDFC were way too expensive, 3) liked the adjustable feature of the GCCO kit over drop-in springs since I can adjust the ride height to my liking and clearance, and 4) liked the Eibach Racing Springs since I can swap them out with different spring rates if needed. So this GCCO kit was perfect for me. Here is the kit. The springs are 2.5"x7", 350lb/in for the fronts, and 2.5"x8", 250lb/in for the rears.
First I removed the front shock absorber actuators.
Then I cracked the the piston rod lock nut loose. (I'm glad I bought that impact wrench to do that! The manual says to use a "suitable bar". What are they smoking?!?!) I also loosened the two fixing nuts from the hoodledge.
Then I jacked up the front right side and removed the wheel. I loosened the brake line bracket and lower fixing nut. And as everyone knows, man that lower fixing nut is a b---h to remove! I couldn't fit my impact wrench in there and didn't have a pry bar that fit, so I had to use conventional wrenches. I had to presoak the nut with PB Blaster for 2 days before I could wrench that thing off !
With the 2 upper and 1 lower fixing nut removed, I tried to remove shock but couldn't get the control arms to sag down far enough. So I jacked up the other side of the car so the anti-roll bar wouldn't be fighting me on this. Still not enough clearance! So I had to manually force the suspension arms down till I could get the shock absorber removed.
Here is a closeup of the shock removed.
I mounted the shock assembly in a vice and mounted the spring compressors that I just bought from Harbor Freight (cheap!).
My "Earthquake" impact wrench kicked ass in compressing the spring compressors. Here is the spring compressed and removed.
Then, as stated in the Ground Control instructions, I had to grind down the welds on the shock body just enough for the adjustable perch tubes to fit over them.
I also had to cut the top hat and bump stop. The GCCO instructions said to "grind" the flange on the top hat down. Screw that! That would've taken me forever! So I decided to cut it off with a hacksaw instead. Helluva lot easier and faster!
Then I assembled the shock absorber back together with the GCCO kit inside. The rubber o-ring and top spring seat that came with the kit was a really tight fit, even with the top hat flange hacksawed off.
Here is my finished unit. As you can see, I cleaned up the assembly (typical Ricky), and also added some new red dust boot covers that I had special ordered from a dirtbike shop near my house, just because I didn't like the fact of having my highly polished shock shafts being exposed to the elements. I cut the covers to the length I needed and they fit perfectly!
Here is the shock assembly installed in the wheel well. Getting it back in was almost as tough as wrestling it out. Then I installed the actuators (making sure the shock tab lined up with actuator slot!) and nuts and torqued all the nuts to the specs in the manual. But I couldn't get the torque wrench head to fit near the lower fixing nut. So the best I could do was to use a wobbly extension.
After finishing the fronts, I started to work on the rears. As everyone knows, one time consuming task is to remove all the rear interior panels in order to access the rear strut towers.
Removing the actuator was just the same as the front.
The lower fixing nut was just as bad to remove as the fronts, if not worse. I could get my impact wrench in here, but even at the maximum setting of 625ft-lbs @ 90 psi, I still couldn't crack it loose. So I had to the same thing as the fronts. Presoak with PB Blaster. God bless this miraculous lubricant !
Here is the rear shock assembly. My original dust boot is obliterated! Glad I got replacements!
But removing the rear shock was worse than the fronts, even with the whole rear raised! So I disconnected the anti-roll bar completely from the control arm. Still couldn't get the arms to sag down enough! I had to use a pry bar this time to force the control arms downward. Finally I got the shock out.
Here is the rear shock after I had compressed the spring and disassembled it.
Same as the front, I had to hacksaw the top hat flange off so the top spring seat (which is aluminum for the rear) that came with the kit will fit onto the top hat. I also had to cut the bump stop to the length stated in the GCCO instructions.
Here is the assembled rear, all cleaned up with the kit and dust boot cover installed.
Then the assembly was reinstalled, the perches not yet set.
Then I put the roll bar back, torqued all nuts to the specs in the manual, and reinstalled the actuators and interior body panels.
I lowered her back to earth and adjusted the ride height. Oh my gosh the ride is amazing! Feels so much tighter in cornering, accelerating, and braking to a stop. One of the best upgrades I've done. Here's a pic of the new ride height, taken while on display at Stillen yesterday.
I'll show more pics when I post about Stillen Day in a few minutes. Thanks for staying awake on this insanely long post!
=Ricky= P.S. My sig was taken at the original ride height.
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Pics of my Ground Control kit install. (Pic-whore galore!!!) - 
