yeah i heard they were worth it i bought the j's racing ones off a memeber here for 150 bucks and i'm slammed so i'll put up a review sometime when i get the same suspension as the OP!!!

 

The DIY for the cup swap is useful. You'll only need to use MAYBE half of it though.

-Get the car up on jack stands
-take out the 6 bolts on each CV (the ones that hold the cv to the diff)
-Assuming you got the 2 piece, you should be able to move the halfshaft out enough to install them. If you can't, all you have to do is pop the ball joint (will need a ball joint seperator). Once it's popped you can easily push the halfshaft out for plenty of room. If you bought the 1 piece spacers, you'll have to pop the ball joint.

It's actually not too difficult. The only tricky part is getting to the passenger side CV bolts. The exhaust can get in the way. I took out the "Y" pipe in my aftermarket exhaust which made the passenger side easy. I will say that the bolts are on there pretty tight.

 

Where did you get that number?? No offense, but that DOES sound like snake oil.

There have to be at least a dozen threads on this in s2ki by now. And a HUGE one in Under the Hood that ran for 10+ pages. In that thread some very respected s2k mechanics took a very close look at the spacer controversy including Billman and Spitfire5. After looking at it from every direction with animated cad drawings to scale for the s2k, the final answer is that there are less expensive ways to solve the vibration and that single piece spacers are worthless (unless you cut them in half) since they take as much time to install as it takes to swap the cv buckets. Two piece can save time since you don't have to remove the axle to install them.

NFRs2000NYC...ask Billman for his opinion...he posted heavily in the UTH thread to figure out the "answer".

Here are some of the more recent threads on the subject...maybe one day we can have a sticky since the question comes up so much:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=585393

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=589724

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=561650

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=485734

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=542026

NFRs2000NYC...maybe you can post on the Mods forum and ask someone to make a sticky for this question pointing to the very detailed thread started by RedMX5 in UTH:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=490050

 

Well I did the CV bucket swap which obviously needed new grease. However, with the spacers, they just fit in between the flanges (on the bucket and on the diff). No lube needed as far as I know.

 

Yeah, I didn't know where he got 400% but since this whole thing with the spacers have been hashed and rehashed so many times, I decided not to say anything. Just wanted to help the guy installing them....

My opinion, the spacers might be a decent solution to help with the "shakes", but it's not going to prevent CV joint wear. Swapping the CV joints is the cheapest route and not much more difficult then the 1 piece spacers. Either way, you don't HAVE to have the spacers if you lower the car. As stated, they just help with the shakes...

 

From reading all the threads, including the one posted by REDMX, I have concluded they they are technically, NOT snake oil. Why they do NOT eliminate the problem they claim to eliminate, they do indeed prolong the life of the boots. By installing them, you start to wear them in a different spot. After they have worn WITH the spacers installed, you can swap them side to side, and wear them in a new spot yet again.

So, while they don't technically save your boots, they prolong their life, and for $150 bucks, I think it's a worthwhile investment. I have also concluded that they don't do anything NEGATIVE.

 

Yes, those bolts can be tough. I had to use a breakerbar but the one I had was too long. I found a pair of aluminum crutches in my garage. took the leg part of it off which made a PERFECT extension to my ratchet for some extra TQ.

NFRs2000NYC -- The spacers are snake oil in the sense that they PREVENT wear on the CV joint. You obviously realize that but not everyone does. I had the shakes really bad when I lowered the car (eibach) because the car had 73k miles on it and the pits were WELL developed. I did the bucket swap simply because I enjoy ripping the car apart and its cheaper. I also wanted to put in fresh/better CV grease into the bucket. If/when the shakes come back, I'll buy the 2 piece spacers in a heart beat. In the end, both ways work for what they are inteded to do, keep the shakes away.

 

Definitely your call...but the boots cost $20ea. So the spacers cost $150 to prolong the life of a $20 part...and even if you buy all 4 boots, your bank account is negative by $70.

 

cv buckets cost $20 each? what?

 

Well they both said "boots" so i'm not sure if they actually mean "buckets". I didn't think you could only buy the buckets as they are a part of the halfshaft assembly. Unless of course you can get them used.

The Redline CV-2 grease used to pack both the buckets cost me under $20 bucks and the rental of the ball joint separator was free (pay an $85 depost but get it all back upon return)...I feel better having better grease in the bucket then the old crappy honda stuff. The the bucket swap ends up being cheaper and you get better lubrication at the cost of a little bit more sweat.