MX6.com - View Single Post - 2nd gen Illumina to 1st gen conversion(and other things) HOW-TO

**gavin** · 7-2-05, 3:23

For those of you who are planning to use coilovers we will continue.

Get a set of coilovers of your choice. R-Sports, WeaponR, Dropzones...This ill leave up to you. I chose ground control.

A couple quick notes about coilovers..

The lower the car will be, the stiffer(and shorter) the springs will need to be and the lesser the degree of comfort.
For more comfort youll want the springs to be the softer (and longer).
The stiffer the spring the stronger the strut will need to be(in terms of damping ability) or the strut will get overworked by the spring.
I wont get in to this too much here as this is supposed to be a tutorial about fitting illuminas on the 1st gen and not everthing coilovers, but that’s the basics.

Ok so a few more things that will help the coilover installation onto the illuminas

Cutting the spring perches.

I used a 4" cutting wheel. A high speed dremmel willl also work well. Be careful not to go too deep or else youll wind up with a 150$ paperweight. You just want to remove the perches. Note the rag to cover the shaft and shaft seals from debris.

Only remove the spring perches if you are sure you wont be going back to regular springs. Youll get extra range of height adjustment removing the perch and youll also get extra clearance for different tire/wheel combinations.

Grind/mill down the endcap seal of the strut.

Depending on the coilover you purchace youll need to do this to get the sleeves over the endcap. Only take away whats necessary and nothing more. Take care to not scratch the strut shaft while doing this and make sure the metal shavings don’t find their way to the seals. A bit of tape is useful for this.(theres nothing in this photo because it was taken after the fact..yep it was staged)

Youll wind up with something that looks like this

Depending on the clearance you have, you may or may not have to remove the rear brake line mounts(which wont work for you anyway). What to use instead to hold the stock lines?

Zip-ties.

Another quick note.....Illuminas will have a limited lifetime warrantee. Both of these procedures will render this warrantee void. Keep this in mind. You buy a set of illuminas…cut the perches to install coilovers and the first day out they implode/lightning strikes them/alien abduction….you are SOL with the warrantee. Thems the breaks.

Onward

The front struts will need a bit of attention.

Youll need to reassemble the upper spring perch from the coilovers and the stock strut bearing/strut mount assembly.

(strut mount and bearing from a GT)

This may take a bit of work as there are 2 different strut mounts/bearings that may or may not need to be modified to fit the illuminas.

Here are the 2 different strut bearings for the 1st gen.

(the two to the left)

There is a metal bearing(which I have found mainly on the GTs) and a plastic bearing(Ive found mainly on the non-GTs). The bearing to the far right is from a 2nd gen. Ill explain its significance in a short while.

If you have the metal bearings you will have no issue, just reassemble as normal since the bearing seats in the upper strut mount and the coilovers spring perch will be resting on the bearings main seat.

Like so.

If you have the plastic bearing, you will find that its internal diameter is too small for the illuminas shaft.

You can see here the differences between the 1st gen strut shaft and the 2nd gen illumina shaft and where the difference in diameters lie.

1st gen strut shaft to the left...2nd gen illumina to the right. You can see the step down on the diameter of the 1st gen shaft.

Now, the plastic bearing doesn’t seat in the upper strut mount like the metal bearing does, it seats in the upper spring perch. The new coilover upper spring perch will have a recess for the bearing as well. However mostly I have found that this recess is for the 2nd gens bearing which is naturally wider than the 1st gen plastic bearing.

Your choices then with the 1st gen plastic bearing is to ream it out a bit so it can fit over the shaft of the illuminas…or purchace/find/scrounge some 2nd gen plastic strut bearings and use that instead. For all 3 options remember to clean and regrease the strut bearings so they have a long life.

Reassemble the upper strut mounts with whatever strut bearing combination you find works for you. You should have a selection of parts that looks like this..

strut, coilover sleeve with lower spring perch, spring, o-ring(this is a GC specific item to fasten the sleeve on the strut. Some other coilovers use other methods like setscrews), upper spring perch, upper strut mount, strut bearing, bumpstop(trimmed), top nut.

To be assembled in this order..

and finally the finished product.

If if illuminas and coilovers are all you wish to have. You can stop here. If not theres one final thing that can be done.

7-2-05, 3:23	#4 (permalink)
gavin Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: santa cruz.ca iTrader: (1)	Illuminas with coilovers For those of you who are planning to use coilovers we will continue. Get a set of coilovers of your choice. R-Sports, WeaponR, Dropzones...This ill leave up to you. I chose ground control. A couple quick notes about coilovers.. The lower the car will be, the stiffer(and shorter) the springs will need to be and the lesser the degree of comfort. For more comfort youll want the springs to be the softer (and longer). The stiffer the spring the stronger the strut will need to be(in terms of damping ability) or the strut will get overworked by the spring. I wont get in to this too much here as this is supposed to be a tutorial about fitting illuminas on the 1st gen and not everthing coilovers, but that’s the basics. Ok so a few more things that will help the coilover installation onto the illuminas Cutting the spring perches. I used a 4" cutting wheel. A high speed dremmel willl also work well. Be careful not to go too deep or else youll wind up with a 150$ paperweight. You just want to remove the perches. Note the rag to cover the shaft and shaft seals from debris. Only remove the spring perches if you are sure you wont be going back to regular springs. Youll get extra range of height adjustment removing the perch and youll also get extra clearance for different tire/wheel combinations. Grind/mill down the endcap seal of the strut. Depending on the coilover you purchace youll need to do this to get the sleeves over the endcap. Only take away whats necessary and nothing more. Take care to not scratch the strut shaft while doing this and make sure the metal shavings don’t find their way to the seals. A bit of tape is useful for this.(theres nothing in this photo because it was taken after the fact..yep it was staged) Youll wind up with something that looks like this Depending on the clearance you have, you may or may not have to remove the rear brake line mounts(which wont work for you anyway). What to use instead to hold the stock lines? Zip-ties. Another quick note.....Illuminas will have a limited lifetime warrantee. Both of these procedures will render this warrantee void. Keep this in mind. You buy a set of illuminas…cut the perches to install coilovers and the first day out they implode/lightning strikes them/alien abduction….you are SOL with the warrantee. Thems the breaks. Onward The front struts will need a bit of attention. Youll need to reassemble the upper spring perch from the coilovers and the stock strut bearing/strut mount assembly. (strut mount and bearing from a GT) This may take a bit of work as there are 2 different strut mounts/bearings that may or may not need to be modified to fit the illuminas. Here are the 2 different strut bearings for the 1st gen. (the two to the left) There is a metal bearing(which I have found mainly on the GTs) and a plastic bearing(Ive found mainly on the non-GTs). The bearing to the far right is from a 2nd gen. Ill explain its significance in a short while. If you have the metal bearings you will have no issue, just reassemble as normal since the bearing seats in the upper strut mount and the coilovers spring perch will be resting on the bearings main seat. Like so. If you have the plastic bearing, you will find that its internal diameter is too small for the illuminas shaft. You can see here the differences between the 1st gen strut shaft and the 2nd gen illumina shaft and where the difference in diameters lie. 1st gen strut shaft to the left...2nd gen illumina to the right. You can see the step down on the diameter of the 1st gen shaft. Now, the plastic bearing doesn’t seat in the upper strut mount like the metal bearing does, it seats in the upper spring perch. The new coilover upper spring perch will have a recess for the bearing as well. However mostly I have found that this recess is for the 2nd gens bearing which is naturally wider than the 1st gen plastic bearing. Your choices then with the 1st gen plastic bearing is to ream it out a bit so it can fit over the shaft of the illuminas…or purchace/find/scrounge some 2nd gen plastic strut bearings and use that instead. For all 3 options remember to clean and regrease the strut bearings so they have a long life. Reassemble the upper strut mounts with whatever strut bearing combination you find works for you. You should have a selection of parts that looks like this.. strut, coilover sleeve with lower spring perch, spring, o-ring(this is a GC specific item to fasten the sleeve on the strut. Some other coilovers use other methods like setscrews), upper spring perch, upper strut mount, strut bearing, bumpstop(trimmed), top nut. To be assembled in this order.. and finally the finished product. If if illuminas and coilovers are all you wish to have. You can stop here. If not theres one final thing that can be done. Last edited by gavin : 7-8-05 at 0:53.