I'm trying to remove my suspension the install the new one but something is going wrong in the front.

I loosed the 17mm of the shock without removing it. Removed the 2 14mm that hold the shock mount. Now I removed the nut of the lower shock bolt but I can't get the bolt off. I'm just able to turn it about a 1/16 of turn. I removed the sway bar too. Now everywhere I read about the suspension removal says that once you removed the 2 14mm nuts and end links that the suspension if supposed to drop by itself? Mine stay well in the air. When I try to drop it, I'm juste able to get the shock mount off his hole but it just go back in there when I get my weight off. Someone has a clue?

 

Remove the ball joint from the lower a-arm. Its not going to drop, the bushings are all seized up.
Then pry both a-arms down by standing on teh lower one and prying on the other with a long bar or w/e you have to do to make it happen and tip the shock out.
It sucks. Go buy some beer before you lose your mind.

 

There is enough grip in the bushings, or the old bushings are siezed that it will seem like the control arm is "spring loaded" so when you push it down the bushings twist like a coil spring. When released it wants to spring back. Pretty normal on a car that hasn't been apart much, if ever.

Picture tutorial here: http://www.miata.net/garage/miatafrontsuspension.html

Another writeup here: http://www.miata.net/garage/shocks.html

 

Damn... And that is all glued by antirust oil..... At least I have 6 month to do it....

 

I think I did the other method on mine, where you remove the long bolt that goes through the upper control arm. It was still somewhat of a pain, but the end result was well worth it.

 

I recently installed my Tein Flex setup using the technique on CR, it makes the job pretty quick and easy. Don't bother messing with the ball joints thats more of a hassle.

Here is what you need to do to remove the front shocks:



The rest of the pics are on the how to thread: ClubRoadster.net • View topic - How do I suspension swap? Step by Step How-To and more! [ Guest ]

 

Pretty sure thats a ball joint and exactly what I was talking about paNX2.

 

Oh ok, I thought you were talking about pulling the lca/ball joint assembly out of the knuckle before. I re-read the post and yes you were talking about doing what I posted too.

 

I tried, ok for the bolt and nut, but after the bolt is out, nothing wants to move... I tried to remove the upper control arm but the nut and bolt are stuck... It's been a week I soak them each day with pb blaster.. I really dont know what to do now... Sucks.

Anyone knows a product that would "eat" the bushings? I don't really want to use the torch and put heat on the control arms and bolts

 

I have an alternative method that I used without needing to remove the ball joints. I used a set of the small claw-type coil spring compressors I borrowed for free from Auto Zone. The compressors will fit, tightly, on the springs with the shocks still in the car.

Compress the spring in the car as far as you possibly can.
Push down on the top of the shock to compress it fully.
Remove the top shock mount assembly from the shock rod.
Remove the spring. Be really careful and keep an eye on the spring compressor for slippage.
Remove the shock.

The idea is by removing the spring and collapsing the shock it is short enough to remove without removing the lower ball joint. I prefer this method. I still had to step on the lower arm if I remember correctly but it was no big deal.

 

I own a 95 m edition, the same as my brother. We both changed our suspension setup (all four) last week and tried a way that was way easier than the long bolt or the other method.
Here is what we did:
if your shock is blown it is way easier with this method, if it is not like mine, it gets a bit harder. the rear is way simpler than the front which you can watch a video on YouTube and it is not cumbersome to swap it. this way works for the front primarily.
after loosening the bottom 17 mm, shock bolt. open the two top hat bolts and open the top hat shock mount bolt, yes open all three
if your shock is blown, with a help of a long screwdriver, push the inner rod of the shock from the top of the top hat, for blown shocks after pushing it down, either it never comes back up or it very slowly comes back up.
1. if it goes down and stays down, voila, you push the arm down, or step on the brake rotor to push it down and top hat is loose and take it out, and then take the coil spring out, because the inner rod is down and there is way too much space to remove the coil spring. then you can open the 17mm bottom shock bolt and take the shock out. I struggled with long bolt method and gave up on it because i did not have any leverage to open the nut on that bolt. i was doing it in the parking and did not have anybody to help me push the rotor down to take the shock out with the other method so this worked beautifully, the same thing happened to my brother and the next day he changed the fronts exactly same way.

2. if your shock is not blown, after pushing the rod down, you need a needle nose plier or vice grip to slide it between the coils and grab the rod to be able to take the top hat out.
if you have spring compressor, it can make it even easier to compress the coil springs and give you more room. again pushing the inner rod of the shock with a long screwdriver into the shock from the top is the key. my shocks were 29 years old but they were still fine, car has 41k miles on it.
i hope this helps somebody down the road, it kicked my **** to eventually figured it this way.
Btw, i lowered it with KYB AGX shocks, damping adjustable, bought them from rock auto for 94$, and set of lowering springs from FM, set of 4 top hats from RACELAND and car sits 13 inch even on all corner, center of the cap to bottom of fender lip.