What you will need:

• 17mm combination wrench
• 17mm deep socket with 1/2"drive
• 9/16" combination wrench or deep socket
• 1/2" drive breaker bar
• 10mm deep socket
• vise grips
• flat head screw driver
• pliers
• One set of lowering springs, either Intrax, SST, Eibach, or Progress
• An extra set of hands, a body to go along with it helps a little bit more
• Floor jack as well as the stock jack
• Jack stands

Ok if you have everything that is listed above then you are ready to get started working on installing your springs.

Front suspension

First thing you need to do is pop the hood and loosen (do not remove yet) the four 9/16" gold bolts on the top of the strut tower. After you have loosened these bolts your next step would be to loosen the bolt that is on the inside of the strut top. It is a 17mm and requires the use of a deep socket. I suggest loosening this to the point where it is about three turns from being completely off. After this has been done jack up the car and place the jack stands underneath the car. Remove the wheel and locate the sway bar. On top of the sway bar there is a 10mm bolt. Underneath the bolt there is a stud which you can clamp the Vise Grips onto. Once that is held in place remove the 10mm bolt. Now on the bottom of the strut there are two bolts that connect it to the control arm. These can easily be removed with a 17mm combination wrench and a 17mm socket and breaker bar. Once you have removed the bolt do not remove the stud. The next step would be to disconnect the clip that holds the brake line in place. This simply comes off by prying the metal clips away with a flat head screwdriver. Now that the clip is removed completely remove the four gold bolts on the top of strut tower. Next step is to completely remove the two studs that hold the bottom of the strut tower on and pull the strut out. After this is removed it gets kinda dangerous but still if you follow my directions everything will be fine. Lay the strut on the ground with the bottom of the strut facing away from you. Place your foot on the spring itself and begin taking off the center bolt that is inside the black strut top. Now when this completely comes off the strut will shoot out about three to four feet so make sure nothing is in the way. After the spring is loose from the strut you are ready to install the lowering spring. Place the lower boot on the strut and align the spring up. Then place the top boot on and then the strut top plate. Screw on the top bolt and you are ready to align the strut back in. This is where a friend is needed. Insert the strut back into the four bolts on the top strut tower. While you are holding it in place have a friend hand tighten the four 9/16" bolts. After these are tightened, align the lower control arm with the bottom strut mount and tighten the two 17mm rods and bolts. After this is done use the floor jack to raise the sway bar until it aligns with the control arm. Once aligned simply tighten the sway bar down double check all your bolts, replace the tire and lower the car. When the car is lowered use the breaker bar and the 9/16" ratchets to completely tighten the bolts on the top of the strut tower and the strut top.

Rear Suspension

For the rear section it does require removing the rear deck panel. This is accomplished by removing the rear third brake light. After removing the third brake light lower the rear seats and remove the plastic push pins that hold the rear deck and the black cover piece in place. Once these are remove you will see the top of the struts. Now on these struts there is a dust cover you can remove. It has no affect on the performance of the strut so you may discard if you like. You will see a gold bolt on top of the strut, it is a 17mm so go ahead and loosen(not remove) it at this time. While you are at it loosen the 2 9/16th" bolts to the sides of the strut. When you have these loosened I suggest removing the small tab located on the inside part on top of the strut. It is a small tab that is desgned to catcht he strut when it is being lowered and if not removed you will need someone inside the car to push that tab in. It is simply a small piece of metal that that is like a hook. It can easily break off by using a pair of pliers and bending it back up. Removal of the spring is the same however in the rear section you will see that there is a brake line going into the rear drums that will need to be bent out of the way. Be careful with this line as it will brake if creased too much. It is ok to slowely move this line out of the way if neccessary. In the rear section you will also see that there is no sway bar to bother you in the rear seciton so needless to say it is a little bit easier. Simply everse the proces you went about removing the springs, double check the tightness of the bolts and your done.

For those of you who like to SLAM your ride I suggest removing the springs completely. This will cause an extremely rough ride quality however I can tell you from experience that it looks awesome. If you really want to go low yo can even remove the bumstops. Those are located on the strut under neath the plastic cover around the center shaft. Be prepared to have trouble removing your jack if you remove your springs completely though. I went through the entire procedure of removing the bumpstops and I found out the hard way that it was too low. I will eventually have instructions on how to install hydraulics on a ZX2 soon as I will be doing so on my ZX2

I hope you enjoyed and I have to warn you that installing springs can be dangerous but by taking precautions you will not be hurt. Always use the proper tools and please wear protective eyegear, gloves, and jack stands when working on your ride