After 2 days of house painting I finally carved out some hours to install the B&G springs/struts and the BNE Select top adjustable mounts. We start with the requisite McPherson spring compressors roughed onto 3 coils of spring:
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Here is the front B&G progressive PN, fits 7/9 and 960s (early):
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Using my super-duper 3/8in Homer Depot air ratchet I collapse the 3 bottom most coils. Note the 1/2inch 300# pipe couplings as spacers on the spring compressors..... if you don't use
something here the top ends of the acme threads will be pushing against your strut towers. These are dirt cheap at HD/Lowes, and get it done:
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Since Ben Kaplan refuses to create/provide installation instruction (boxfullofparts.BNE.com) I shot him an email, and he informed me this is the proper orientation of the washer (with tapered bore to match the strut shaft) and the sleeve which spins inside his top mount spherical bearing.
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After a first attempt which wasn't going well, I decided to revise the tactic I've always used. Pulled the BNE mount back out and PRE-assembled into position (with the spring compressed). This turned out to be easier than trying to fit the spring top plate/original bearing together while releasing the springs. Here the whole shebang is, ready to raise into place:
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Look close and you see the black & yellow top bearing from the original setup (this part sourced from IPD, the "better"). And SUCCESS!
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How sweet it is! I positioned the BNE Select mounts to the "maximum caster & camber" position by eyeball..... and torqued the carriage bolts he supplies to locate the top mount. Gsellstr swears by these parts, and convinced me to shell out the $200 for them. Aside from adjustment ability, the improved steering feel he found as the big improvements. It will be awhile before I finalize alignment numbers with my FASTRAX tool, but I'm looking forward to the benefits.
Fire in the hole!
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