Just finished a job that was admittedly over my head. Finally got my longer ARP wheel studs (aka the “ankle biters”) installed on all fours. Rears were as easy as everyone said thanks to the drum brakes. Fronts were a cascading avalanche of suck.

Two weeks ago I started to take stuff apart. I spent a couple of nights figuring things out and renting tools from autozone. Tore the boots due to stupidity (lower control arms and steering.) Then couldn’t get the passenger side axle out for anything. Rubber mallet. Axle puller tool. Heat (wife’s crème brulee flame). Pbblaster. Regular hammer (oops). Nothing. Finally said eff it and learned how to pull it out from the transmission. Out comes the fluid. Have to change that now too.

Ordered new boots, axle nuts, and other misc stuff form the dealership and dropped off my hubs (one complete with stuck axle) at a local machine shop. Learned that I will also need new wheel bearings when they press the hubs apart. Waited a week for one wheel bearing to arrive at my local dealer. Then it was thanksgiving and the machine shop was closed till this Monday.

In the meantime I pulled the driver axle and had to dremel the boot off to get it all back together (came apart). When I got the passenger one back from the machine shop after they pressed it out, I had to do the same thing. I then installed some massive 250-lb zip ties that were the exact same width as the standard metal clamps—hopefully they’ll hold up. Axles are an extremely messy greasy job. Oh, and then I dremeled off my stupidity (mushroomed axle from metal hammer), drove all around town to find a thread file, fixed the threads, and was ready for the next step.

Finally got the new studs in the axles back form the machine shop and spent this afternoon putting it all back together. I never could get the new lower control arm and steering boots to seal like the originals. Mine have no c-clip like everything else I’ve ever seen online. The originals feel like they were somehow bonded to the ball joints. The new ones, not at all. Grease leaking out of the top/bottom of the boots. (ill keep it clean and deal with that later). Drained and filled with new tranny fluid (another pita).

And then, the test drive. So far, so good. One minor rubbing sound that ill have to track down later on (maybe my big-azz zip tie rubbing on something nearby), but overall happy everything works. The brakes squeal a bit now, too, but that’s probably from my greasy hands or something else that oozed out onto the pads/rotor over the two week hibernation. But overall, everything works.

Pics to come. BBS wheels with new tires to come later. I spent my tire money on this whole debacle. And to think, the whole reason I needed longer studs in the first place is to fit my “budget” bbs rz rims that I got off craigslist for a steal. Shoulda bought something that fight right in the first place. Live and learn. And, watch your ankles.

 

shoulda notched your spindle like i did. work smart, not hard

 

beautiful caliper! spoon ftw. Wow, that small notch there was enough to poke a stud through? smart > hard> stock

 

for the stock studs, it was more than enough room to get them out. i used blox extended studs because they were longer than the arp ones and the back button is pretty big, so i just grinded down each button on one side until it slid in. i wasnt about to take apart my whole knuckle everytime i need a new lug stud.

 

+1 , I did the exact same thing with notching but i used arp

 

woah, how much longer are they, and why would you need longer than aarp which are at least 1 1/4 inches longer than stock. mad thick spacers? just curious, cause mine already look like big nips.

 

yea, i needed a 3mm spacer behind my rotor to center it in the caliper and a 10mm spacer on wheel for the mugen rnr's to clear my calipers. i think they are about 1/2-1" longer than the arp ones. my buddy had a set of arp's in his garage and they were pretty short compared to the blox.

 

Can you tell us about your front disc brakes? Who's discs did you install and which calipers are those? Thanx...

 

91--01 prelude 282mm rotors (tapered mounting screw hole redrilled. )
spoon twin block calipers
hawk HPS pads (for an integra type r)
3mm spacer behind the rotor.