Installing ROW-M030

[blue2000s]

Wayne's instructions in Pelican's book and on their site is great. The rear instructions are a little more brief than I'd have liked though.

[jacabean]

i have been looking over the pelican directions. they seem to be straight to the point . i picked up a spring compressor and pneumatic impact driver from harbor freight . i will order the comp ring . i did hear mention of that somewhere . i would like that extra 3 mm of drop too.

[jacabean]

will you guys be keeping your existing drop links if they are in good condition
?

[mmontfort]

Don't take any short cuts and just disconnect everything except the brake lines and it makes it a whole lot easier.

[brp987]

From the front lines...

Calling it a day. This is day 2 in the M030 battle. Currently 3 corners are complete. The remaining rear strut is removed and in mounted in my bench vise ready for tear down.

The first problem was that the ball joint separator I got off amazon needed dremeling to get it wide enough, deep enough, and thin enough to use for a boxster.

The next problem is these "compensating rings" - spacers at the top of the strut. A renntech thread mentioned a 986 part # that is to be used. However, when I finally received them, the part had been superseded by a 987 part that was not 3mm, but 13mm! This in addition to the orange mark on the top of the front row m030 spring which is not of this world as far as my Bentley manual is concerned. A call to Sunset was not very helpful. They will order row m030 kits, but they do not install them and could not provide specs. Needing to finish this, I decided to just use my existing F/R 6mm spacers.

The next was my mistake. After assembling a rear strut I realized the top mount and bottom are clocked a certain way. It is futile to try to rectify this w/o taking apart the strut and aligning the center mount stud with the strut clamp seam. If you have el cheapo spring compressors this results in

The next concerns the rear struts. The Bentley manual calls for more disassembly than is required, and the "101 Projects" description for the rear only amounts to a caption in one photo. But the rear is much more involved than the front.

You need alot of tools to do this job efficiently. And it would be nice to know if a row m030 kit really contains all you need or not.

[jacabean]

Holy crap ! I am waiting for those 3mm rings to get started, on my kit. Not as straight forward as you would think. was it difficult to separate the ball joints ! Did you need to replace any other parts or damage anything ?

[brp987]

For my separator I needed to jack up the suspension although the car is already in the air. This I believe allows a little extra room to insert the tool. My T40 bit just flew off into space so I'll need another. But, you need a low profile one to fit under the control arm. Might need to hack off one and hold its shank with a small crecent wrench. My front joints popped off with a bang, but the rears came apart easily, probably cuz they had been removed before to install a lowering kit by previous owner. Lube the bottom of the separator fork before you whack the separator into position with a rubber mallet so that it won't tear the boot. If I had it to do again (and I don't think I would) I'd get new strut/chassis seals.

You'll be needing 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 21mm wrenches and sockets, adaptors, extensions, torque wrench. 8mm and 10mm hex key sockets. Blue loctite. Hollow jack handle to use as cheater bar. Somehow the strut is not metric - need 1/4" hex key and 13/16 wrench. Thick wire to hang the caliper. Assorted chunks o' wood and boxes to support carrier/axle. My car is 2 feet in the air on a scissor lift - can't let the hub/axle hang by the emergency brake cable. I used a 1/2" electric impact wrench to undo the strut clamp cuz you sort of need 1 hand to counter hold a wrench, 1 to hold the impact and 1 or 2 more to handle the carrier/axle.

Good luck