Well I put my H&Rs on this weekend. I won't even say how long it took cause its ridiculous. All I will say is that I don't like how the endlink were designed in our cars.

Here are comparison shots of my car with my brother's, whose is stock.



the front


the rear


I also took a before and after shots of every wheel and alot of other pictures. They can be found at my imagestation album

Anyone else have a problem with the endlink bolt? This one:

 

What exactly was the problem with the endlink nut?

 

well i did....in Canada that thing rusts and siezes to ****.....i broke mine.....now i have to get new one!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Well when I would try and turn the nut, the whole screw would turn with it cause thats what it does. When I tried to put an allen key in the middle of screw and turn it while holding the nut with a wrench, it would destroy the inside of the screw until I had no grip left.

The only way I could unscrew the nut was by putting visegrip on the circular part on the other side of the strut and hope they wouldn't lose grip. It was a pain in the *** to do. I also managed to rip one of my seals so I will have to change that endlink. I am thinking of getting an AWR rear swaybar at the same time since it comes with replacement endlinks. Hopefully they are better engineered for removal in rust havens.

 

Wow, that endlink looks soo weak the way it's designed. It's just too long. However, I wouldn't know first hand.

Do they break often because of that length???

~A

 

I don`t know but I went to a garage to get my alignment done after installing my springs and the guy said that I should get the shorter ones available through mazda. He says that the longer ones(which I have) will probably end up bending.

I dont know if I should believe him, but either way I have to get new endlinks since I ripped the universal joint boot.

 

Well, the longer they are the less strength they will have.

~A

 

I know exactly what you mean , I was attempting to change the springs on Dave's 3rd gen and we ran into the same problem, on one side alone the nut would not come off for nothing ,,, it was crazy , and the third gens suspension is so diferent cause the 2nd gen front sway bar mounts to the A-arm .. and the 3rd gen sway bar mounts to the strut ,,, just ludacris if you ask me ....
Bruce

 

As Bruce said...

hehe, THAT is the reason my car isn't lowered! We couldn't undo that thing.

 

Actually I used some liquid wrench and put some vise grips behind the strut tab. On that little disk and then used brute force with a LARGE ratchet. I kept having to reinstall the vise grips but you should be able to do it.

I talked to my friend who works at a dealership and he told me that when they change struts on a protege, they use a blowtorch to get that little nut off.

 

I cut that damn nut off with a Dremel. Mine was rusted to **** too. I agree that it's a bad design. I stripped the hell out of that allen key hole on mine too.

 

you couldve heated it too.

 

Sounds like something to leave to the professionals. That way, if they brake it, they buy it.

 

They lowered from anywhere 1.5" to 1.25". I like it overall. I noticed you also put some springs on... which brand?


More pics on my imagestation album.

As for the heating thing.. thats true BUT I didnt want to burn off the protective rubber boot on the endlink joint. But Im sure its a good method.

IMPACT: What exactly did you break? the nut, the bolt, the rubber boot? If you havent replaced it yet, how about we get the awr rear swaybar while we are at it. It comes with brand spanking new endlinks. Different design.

 

I like what you've changed with the car since your original pictures. And by that I mean the no-chrome thing is good.