HR front upgrade

[Dave_EH]

Hi,

I'm after a few tips concerning an HR front end.

I have bought new shocks, upper and lower ball joints, new lowered springs and nolethane bushes for the upper shock support.

I plan to order a larger (22mm) diameter sway bar and corresponding bushes at a later date.  Are there any other rubbers/bushes I should replace while I am upgrading my front end? (bump stops look ok).

Once i have jacked up the front end and supported it should I put a bottle jack under the lower control arm when I crack the upper ball joint - then let it down slowly with the jack?

Do I need a special tool to remove the lower balljoint?

Is a wheel alignment necessary?

Any other tips?

Regards
Dave

[nicko]

dont know about other work but you will surely need to get front end alignment when all is done.

[sgo]

Keep track of the number of shims at each point at the top a-arms and put the same ones back when you assemble it all.
This might keep the alignment somewhere as it should be / was?
When it's all back on the wheels you can use a spirit level to set the camber to zero, and a tape measure to set the toe-in to a couple of mm.
To adjust camber use equal shims as required to front and rear bolts.
Take it for a test drive and if it pulls to one side it will be the side with less positive caster.
Increase the caster on that side, but adjust both bolts to keep camber the same.
for eg. if you add a shim to the rear bolt you will have to delete a shim from the front bolt to keep camber at what it was.
That should take care of a Sat. afternoon