I need suspension help!
 

Hey everyone, I recently got some FM Vmaxx Xtreme coilovers and I had no problems putting on the fronts, but I am having a ton of trouble on the rears.
The biggest problem is the 4 14mm tophat nuts. I stripped the passenger side rear one really badly, but the front passenger side came off with basically no resistance. The two driver side nuts absolutely will not budge at all. I have soaked them all in liquid wrench several times now. I only have basic hand tools, so I need suggestions on how to get the nut off and where to find some replacements. I have to have this stuff done by Wednesday night to get an alignment on Thursday, so I can make my track day on Saturday (Friday will be the day of travel).

I also cannot get my rear passenger side swaybar endlink bolts to budge. I used an 18 inch breaker and they didn't move! I am trying to remove the swaybars because I have FM swaybars coming in Wednesday.

This is all on a 2001.

You should be able to cut the endlinks with a sawsall.

I need the endlinks, as I don't have new ones.

14mm wrench, hit it with a small sledge hammer.

I tried that with no luck. The endlink ended up snapping in half and the nut still has not budged. After getting angry, I pulled the swaybar off of the car, put my full weight on the swaybar and cranked on that nut with an 18 inch breaker. Still no movement. That is the most seized thing I have ever seen.

So, now I get to buy endlinks! What should I get? I have an alignment Thursday morning, but will a lack of swaybars installed affect getting an alignment? As in could I install the swaybars after the alignment with no ill effects?

Also, where should I get replacement nuts for the tophats? Are they just generic nuts or do I need to get Mazda ones?

The driver side rear tophat nuts still will not budge after soaking for 8+ hours in liquid wrench. I need suggestions!

Wow. Never would have expected this on a NM car.

Best endlinks are probably 949's adjustables.

Swaybars connected/disconnected should not affect an alignment (unless the bar is really out of whack). If you corner weight you should disconnect them because their function is to shift weight between the left and right sides. If you then reconnect with adjustable end links, you can setup the sway bar perfectly neutral or you can adjust lengths to preload one side or the other. If you go with factory, fixed-length endlinks, you won't have this options and may end up with a bit of preload that you can't get rid of.

BTW, a lot of people with higher powered cars disconnect the rear sway altogether. Otherwise, you'll find the car to be "loose" (oversteering) due to excessive stiffness in the rear suspension (a sway bar adds spring rate to the loaded wheel).

I run RB tubular in front and stock in back. I've got RB's adjustable end links, but they are a PITA. They use the same direction threads on both ends, so they have to be disconnected to be adjusted. That's not the right way to do it. 949's have opposite direction threads and operate like a turnbuckle so you can finely adjust them on the scales. I wish I had those.

Well, I am now $210 poorer. I couldn 't get emilio to answer his phone, so I bought the PITA Racing Beats from FM with 2nd day air. My area always gets deliveries late in the day, so I will be getting an alignment without them.

Okay, so that is one problem solved, but I still need help on the others! Where should I get replacement nuts and how the hell do I get the seized and rounded nuts off in the first place?

Since you have to replace the nuts anyway . . . try a nutsplitter or hit it with a bit of dremel and then a cold chisel.

Didn't the new shocks/tophats come with new nuts? If not, grade 8.8 flange nuts should do the trick -- or get OEMs used or from Mazda if you have time.

Get a one size smaller star socket and hammer it on to the stripped one. Heat the nut up with a butane torch or similar and then crank on it. Just be careful about the fuel stuff if it's on the drivers side.

Ok, I got a impact lined up to borrow, but I won 't get it until tomorrow. I am going to go ahead and go find new replacement nuts and see if there is any place that will let me rent a dremel or something similar to cut those old nuts off.

There was no new hardware with what I got. I have to reuse my stock tophats and hardware.

I went and got some vicegrips on some advice from a NAPA guy to get the nuts off. Was that smart?

I also went to 4 different places and no one had flanged nuts in metric. I got some regular nuts with washers for free to try, though. Will that work?

Don't ask me how I know this, but the 3' handle from a Harbor Freight floor jack slips neatly over a breaker bar handle.

I don't see how you will fit vicegrips down into the holes for the nuts in the rear.

Regular nuts with lock washer + flat washer -- or perhaps nylon locknuts + flat washer would be OK.

I forgot about the rear nuts being in a recess. What a PITA.

I am a true noob. I have regular nuts and flat washers. So I need to go back down to the hardware store and get some lock washers that will fit in there?

You definitely want a self-locking feature on these nuts -- don't want them coming loose you know. Flange nuts provide this on the cheap because their large contact surface adds a bit of turning resistance in addition to spreading the clamp load. I think you've already discovered the turning resistance part. ;)

Or just double nut it, you don't need your sways on for the alignment but you do for your track day. Running no rear sway is autox fail boat tech or a horrible loose car.

Ok, the nearest Mazda dealer is 100 miles away and I got some of the right nuts coming. I will go get them Friday morning. I am going to move my alignment to Friday morning. Since I have the right nuts coming and the alignment shop is about 3 miles away, I will just use what nuts and washers I have on hand to get it there and then swap them out with the right stuff when I get back on Friday. Then after the alignment is complete, I will swap the right tophat nuts on and reassemble the car. Then I have to drive 5 hours that night to get to the track day location. The timing on all of this is going to be very tight.

Now to get those damn nuts off... I borrowed an impact, so wish me luck!

Sorry we weren't in when you called. Our website works just fine. Ordered yesterday Tuesday Nov 12, you would have links in NM Thursday for $5.60 shipping via USPS.

Lol really? I hate my life. I knew your links were in stock and better than the Racing Beats but I really needed to talk to a human to see how fast I could get them. No matter what a website says, I very rarely get anything when they say I should.

Ok, I have some good news. I got the two driver side tophat nuts off. I completely disassembled the gas lid and gas filler assembly to get them out of the way and I went and bought an extension for my breaker bar and I finally got them out. The bad news is that the impact wasn't even close to fitting in there and I still need to get that passenger side rear nut that is totally stripped out. I am going to borrow a dremel tomorrow and attempt to cut it off.

Don't know if you can get a good angle on it,but if you can use the dremel to cut a good notch in it, you should try fitting a cold chisel into that notch and smacking the hell out of it at such an angle that would loosen the nut.

Now wait just a damn second. Do I even need to get the those nuts off? I watched a "long bolt method" video on youtube and it appears that the guy just took off the lower shock bolt and the shaft nuts, while supporting it with a jack underneath, and then letting the jack down, decompressing the spring safely and letting the shock down. Thinking about the Vmaxx coilovers sitting at my house (I am at work) they just have the shaft to secure into the tophat. If I just left the tophat nuts on and removed the shaft nuts and the lower shock bolt, wouldn't the old shock and spring come out and I could just substitute the new stuff?

It is not necessary to take the rear tophat nuts off to do any suspension work, unless you are replacing the tophats thrmselves.

How do I torque the rear upper control arm bolt when the car is on the ground?

What is the torque spec for the rear upper control arm bolt?

It's not real tight, 40-56 ft/lbs.

At least with the NA, because you had the D shaped shaft to hold the shaft from spinning. With NB tophats you have to use an impact gun to take the shaft nut off so the shaft doesnt spin.

You definitely do not need to use an impact. Nothing ever spun on me. This is all applicable to my stock suspension 2001, I do not know what would work on a different specification car.

In the front:

1. Take off 14mm locknut on top of the 17mm tophat nut while the car is on the ground and loosen the 17mm tophat nut. The car being on the ground will prevent the shaft from spinning and allow you to get that nut loose.

2. Get the car in the air and on jackstands and then remove the wheels.

3. Remove the lower shock bolt

4. Remove the "long bolt" which is the front upper control arm bolt.

5. Jack up the control arm and support it.

6. Remove the 17mm tophat nut that you loosened earlier.

7. Slowly let the jack down and everything will decompress nice and safe.

8. Substitute all your new stuff and reassemble.

9. Make sure and torque the lower shock bolt and long bolt with the floor jack supporting the control arm at a normal ride height.

Tophats DO NOT need to be removed unless you are replacing them. If you need to replace them, then add in that step after #7.

In the rear:

1. Take off the 14mm locknut on the rear tophat

2. Loosen the 17mm tophat nut

3. Get the car in the air, on jackstands, and remove wheels.

4. Remove the lower shock bolt

5. Remove rear upper control arm bolt

6. Jack up the control arm and support it

7. Take off the 17mm tophat nut.

8. Slowly let the jack down and everything will be decompressed and fall out easily.

9. Put in your new stuff and reassemble.

10. Make sure and torque the lower shock bolt and rear upper control arm bolt with the jack supporting the control arm where it would be at normal ride height.

Same thing with the tophats as in the front. As long as you don't loosen those 14mm nuts on either side, then the tophats will stay right where they are just fine.

I wasnt aware that the stock suspension used a jam nut rather than a nyloc like the xidas.

I really am not familiar with mechanical things, so what does that change? The factory uses a jam nut (which I called a locknut above) and the XIDA's use a nyloc? Does nyloc secure way better than a jamnut or something?

No the nyloc just creates more friction between the nut and threads, so even when its not tight down to the mount it'll still spin the shock shaft.