5/01 - The car came with a stock suspension, which was composed of a front 22mm Swaybar, a rear 16mm Swaybar, Koni Struts on all 4 corners, 150lb front springs, and 120lb rear springs.
6/01 - Suspension Techniques Front Anti-Swaybar - Helps to reduce body roll while taking turns at high-speeds and divert cornering loads across the car to make the car more maneuverable. I would have installed the rear bar but since I added camber to the car it makes it extra difficult to put the rear anti-Swaybar on the car so for now I am currently running the front bar only and once I figure out how to fix the problem I will have a rear bar on there again.
8/01 - Koni Adjustable Struts & Mopar X- High Rate Autocrossing Springs - This the final phase in the suspension upgrade for now but the next step will be to work on the front and rear control arms to help increase the ability to adjust camber and toe more then .2 degrees of camber and zero toe in the front and .5 degrees of camber and zero toe in the back.
Front & Rear Strut Tower braces - Installed to stiffen up the body and reduce strut tower deflection during turns.
12/02 - Mopar Control Arms w/ Spherical Bushings - I found a nice day in December and decided to install my control arms so I could have a spare set to have refurbished for GT's which were in need of replacement. I got the car out and drug all of my tools out thinking that it was going to be a snap and I would be done in just a few hours. Being as that I have never attempted to remove the control arm from a Neon before I figured it would still be easy since I have removed the axles before which got me with-in two bolts of removing the entire control arm. I got to the point where it was time to remove the last two bolts so I proceeded to attempt to remove the bolt that goes through the back of the control arm through the k-frame and into the sub frame. I started out with the 1/2" drive ratchet but after a few turns I ran into some resistance (Thinking back on this moment I should have stopped here and rethought my situation). So the next step I went to the 1/2" breaker bar and everything was going good for a few turns and I began to hit some resistance. Finally I put a 1' cheater bar on it and it started to turn again. What happened next about made me crap myself. If anyone has ever shot a gun before they know the loud bang that comes the second you pull the trigger well I got to hear that sound first hand when the bolt finally yielded. After I figured out what happened I began to rethink my future of working on cars so I dropped the car to the ground and pushed it back into it's parking spot. I made an attempt to sell the car to Dennis the day that I broke the bolt since I was pretty pissed off and fed up with working on cars at that moment in time.
2/03 - After almost 2 months of not working on the car and having time to cool down and think things through I have again attacked the car with reinforcements. I spent about 2 hours battling with the front nut and bolt on the control arm which I had finally determined was completely rusted to the rubber bushing and steel insert. So I called up Richey (My future brother in-law) who came over with his air tools and we began to work on it to remove the nut and bolt. 1-1/2 hours more of pounding away at it with big hammers and impact tools I decided to sacrifice the nut, bolt, and bushings to the car gods. Richey promptly returned from his house with a tank of Map gas and Oxygen and he proceeded to roast the rubber bushing out of the control arm. After it was toasted and all that was left of the bushing was the steel insert we pounded on it some more and it finally broke free from the insert. When looking at the bolt you can see exactly were it rusted itself to the insert. With that out of the way we removed the control arm and I went to work on the broken bolt with an easy out. Unfortunately for me the bolt was broken flush with the sub frame. After pounding on the bolt with a set punch the welds on receiving plate that was welded into the sub frame that had the holes for the bolt to go into broke. At about that time I called it quits and put away the toys for another day.
Richey got the required parts to repair the control arm and pressed in all new bushings. I only spent about 30 minutes working on the car to get the control arm back on the car, the axle back in, and all the bolts back on. Dropped the car to the ground and called it a day.
While doing some homework on how much it was going to cost to have a section of the frame cut and a new plate with threads welded back into the frame Dennis had me tell my stupid story on Neons.org. I got a tip from one of the guys that there was a TSB some time ago that fixed a very similar problem. So I went hunting and found the TSB number (23-47-97) and ordered the parts.
3/03 - The replacement parts came in a few weeks ago and I was dead set on getting the car fixed so I could drive it again. St. Louis was blessed with a nice sunny 70-degree day and I headed out to work on the car with a mission to get it fixed. The TSB required a 2-3/4" hole cut in the floorboard just below the brake pedal. I think I roasted a drill cutting through the floor but I did manage to get through the floorboard. Richey arrived just after I finished making the hole and attempting to mess with the cage nut. Richey took a look at the bracket which was welded to the inside of the sub frame and began to beat the piss out of it with one of my chisels, . After the bracket was removed I jacked up the car, took the wheel off, and had the control arm down and axle out in 5 minutes. We lined everything back up and used a generous amount of anti-seize on the bolt and proceeded to reinstall the bolt with an impact gun. Everything went well with the installation of the bolt and I was itching to get the car back out on the road but first I was going to have to give it an oil change.
7/03 - The car is in serious need of an alignment because the steering wheel needs to be at a 45 degree angle for me to be driving straight now. Oh well at least it is still drivable which is about all that really matters at this point in time.
5/04 - Once the issues get resolved and I can get back to Autocrossing I will be messing with the Swaybars again to find the best combo for Autocrossing. The car will also have a proper alignment done to it to take full advantage of the full range of camber adjustment that the Konis have if adjusted properly. Apparently the guys that I took it to initially had no clue how to adjust the camber in the car which gave me the really goofy camber and toe settings of .2 degrees of camber and zero toe in the front and .5 degrees of camber and zero toe in the back (that still boggles my mind to this day how they came up with those adjustments).
7/04 - My first step in working with the Swaybars I installed the smaller of the Swaybars that I had laying around which was a 16mm bar from GT. The next thing I will have done is have the alignment fixed once the car is running of course.