On to the rear...
 

The Tokiko Blue lowering kit I purchased only came with strut inserts & springs for the front and everything but the top spring perch for the rear. I assume they expect you to reuse the stock top "spring perch." My concern is that the stock perch was designed to work with the stock spring which is ground flat on the top, where as the Tokico spring is not. Is it OK to use the stock mount with the new springs?


Comparing the stock shock/spring assembly with the Tokico Blues
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The top "spring perch"
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Yeah, I don't think so (read the underlined text)
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well, unless tokico offers you a perch, id have to say yes, they do expect you to use stock. also if youve ever seen people cut springs youll notice there springs arent flat anymore either, so..... yeah....

Well, that is why cutting your stock springs is not always advisable :slywink:

Here's another area of concern... the sway bar end-links from ES. There is quite a difference in size as compared with the stock piece. Should I add some spacers to make the new ones as tall as stock or will they be fine if I install them as is?
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BTW, I had a similar problem with the end-links in the front, except that on the front the new ones were way too tall so I reused the stock center spacers... they were still taller than stock (due to the thicker bushings) but they seemed to line up fine.

I bought the poly bushings and stuff from energy suspension and i believe mine were different too but i used them anyway didn't seem to hurt the car any...

yes i just installed a set of these on my friends neon and it reuses the same top hat assembly

007max... could you swap the new bushings onto the old link rod? I remember when I did mine (I just got the bushings from MSA) that it was a tight fit. With those shorter links, the sway bar will need to be stressed and sit closer to the control arm... I don't know if that would be too healthy for the sway bar.

If I used the new bushings on the stock link rod then the entire assembly would be much too long because the new bushings are so much thicker than the old ones. I actually finished up the rear today, and I had enough of a problem getting the new endlink to bolt up because there is barely enough threaded bolt there once you put them on. You can see in the picture that the new bolt doesn't have any open "gaps" with the nut barely tightened down on top.

Another question, when replacing the front strut cartridges, what kind of oil are you supposed to pour in there? The instructions say "light" oil, but light is a relative term.

You don't use any oil... the new cartridges should be sealed.

The cartridges themselves are sealed, but read step #4

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ooooo like that, lol, thats different, ummmm.... just use a light cheap oil, its just for heat transfer when its bouncing up and down, not even necessary, so use a light weight, normal oil, motor oil im sure they are reffering to.

I installed those on my '78. You definitely want to use some sort of oil in there for the heat transfer (keeping the temps down in the cartridge will really help extend their service life). I used some 7W motorcycle fork oil, as that's exactly the sort of use it's intended for (heat transfer and seal-friendly). Also, it was free and sitting in my garage and I had no other use for it (no motorcycle, I just occasionally need a few cc's for various mountain bike suspension setups). But I've seen people use ATF fluid with great results, too, and I bet snow's motor oil idea would work just fine.

For your endlinks, if you're lowered by the same amount that the links are shorter than the stock ones, then the geometry should match up perfectly. At least, that would be true on the S30s. I think it should be true on the S130s as well, too.
Dave