So if I tighten the piston rod lock nut to specs (44 ft/lbs) the spring and everything else should be settled properly with in the entire strut? and I notice a lot of ppl saying to align the top hat as it was before. shouldn't you be able to move the the strut around to position it even when the top hat lock nut is in place?

Yes you can rotate the strut.

Thanks bro... I will be installing swifts, wheels spacers, and camber arms. I have the camber bolts but I'm not sure I will need them, i really don't want to make the stock camber bolt-hole bigger unless i really need to.

Sweet!

Whats the drop on the car now?

I'm assuming you're talking about the TOE bolts. The rear camber install requires no modification of the vehicle. And if you use the camber kit it doesn't hurt to use the toe bolts. Enlarging that hole really isn't an issue.

How can you rotate the strut once it is assembled with the spring & top hat nut in place? Mine won't budge and the shock isnt lining up correctly on the lower control arm

you have to compress it. I took a pic of it before so I could align it properly.

I know that, thought you mean't you could rotate the strut once it's already assembled without the compressor, then I got confused :icon14:

If the spring isn't aligned with the top it's a PAIN to fix. You'll have to compress it and loosen it.

true

^This lol

I placed the spring and top hat in the position where the stock spring met the top hat, bad idea. I had to use a crowbar to twist the strut to make the bolt fit in. Haven't had any issues whatsoever and I play hard. I would highly suggest compressing the spring again and aligning the top hat so that the bolts fit properly. My strut was off by probably 30deg or so...:ugh2: Crowbar fixed that.

Wow! that is a lot to be out and adjust by 'crowbar'! I was out a couple degrees maybe..

Can you send a link? I'm very interested

Great DIY.

I'm planning on doing this + rear camber arms sometime over the next couple of weeks. For a newbie DIYer like myself, this is pretty daunting, but the shop I contacted today quoted me over $800 for install of springs, camber arms, and alignment. I promptly hung up after telling them it was too much, but it makes me doubt that I can find anywhere to install for less than $150. So DIY it is.