Adjustable Damper Kit Installation

So last week the car was scrapping on the ridge of the steep drive and from feedback on Blatchat and a review of the car it seems the drive needs sorting but so does the car.  The feedback was that the front clearance to the rear wishbone (measure to the underside of the chassis rail), needs to be 150mm.  I had 130mm.  The back should then be ~15mm above that and I had 170mm ish.  So during the week aswel as sorting out a new speedo from Caterham I ordered the adjustable damper kit.

During the week my spare throttle cable arrived.

The new throttle cable was tie wrapped to the existing one in the engine bay.  It is there should I need it one day.

A top tip from Peter and Paul at LADS is to fit the jack under the nose cone so as not to take up room in the boot.  Top Tip number 432 they have given me.

This is the adjustable damper kit. 

Got the first shock / damper off ok.  Now need to wrestle with the spring when I don't actually own a coil clamp.  

Not the safest thing I have ever done but I seemed to get there with only one clamp taking flight during the process.

The sleeves sit on a small circlip (amazing it takes the weight really).  When you put the adjustable sleeve on you need to move the circlip to suit the starting point of ride height you want. 

For the rears the ali discs need to be this way up, i.e. thick section at the top and thin section underneath.  For the fronts it is the other way around.

Rears done.

I now have 155mm at the front and 168mm at the back with me in it.  The car however has not been out of the garage since having the adjustable kit fitted so I think the car needs a drive so it can settle and then I should measure the heights.

The bonnet has rattled whilst driving and when I removed it today I have six marks similar to these.  It seems the bonnet needs more foam or a complete respray :) 

I probably spent about 4 hours doing the adjustable dampers.  The best advice on blatchat was to clamp the rear damper in a vice and heat the bush head to soften the threadlock.  Only when I heated the bush head was I able to remove it and slide the sleeve over.