romoranger

before i started installing my hal qa'1 i read a lot about them and how people and commented doing them on these vehicles was difficult. i found otherwise and figured i would post about it, and post my tips on doing it easily.
For the fronts i used the r series shocks. the build quality seemed very good. my only vice with them is the way that the lower mounting brackets had the holes too small for the stock bolts. a couple drill bits and a rotary tool later i solved that problem. on to the installation
i started by taking off the bolts on top of the shock off except for one of the nuts. i left that on loosely. on the bottom of the car i took the front sway bar off completely. my car is only used for drag racing so i don't really need it anyway. i then moved the abs sensor out of the way. took off the lower mounting bracket and put a jack under the lower a-arm. then i finally took the nut off the top. i undid the jack and held it with my hand and manuvered the shock/spring combo down towards the front of the car and inbetween the brake line and lower a-arm. i then got a hammer and pounded the shock off its little holder friend thingie on the top, grabbed speaker wire and tied the upper a-arm up thorugh the holes the shock was bolted to on the top.

there, that is my trick. only other thing i have to say about the qa'1 is that the spanner wrenches leave some to be desired. i also did not use the dust cover/bump guards. i grinded the heck out of them but they just would not fit in the bottom of the hal spring. i also did not use a washer on the top. i used the two nuts it was supplied with and did them both on the top to lock them in place.

let me know if any of this helps you or saves you some time, seperating the ball joints seems scary, and i deem it rather unnecassary. any questions, comments, or think i just plain suck and wasted web space please let me know