right?

torque first then release.... cause I need to seat the spindle on the taper before the spring pressure acts against it.
http://www.camaro327.com/000/4s.JPG

I dont think it would make much difference, but seems like itd probably be better to do it before.

Just take your floor jack and raise the car from under the lower control arm. You can then snug the nut by hand.

Gary, I dont that will work on a bare subframe. :)

I've always torqued them down first, so I dont know how difficult it will be, if at all. If you have to, use the spring compressor to compress the spring enough to ease the pressure off the ball joint.

well i just torqued them down to 50 and 65 ft*lbs with the springs as they are.
Now i'll compress the springs and see if they will continue to spin to achieve the 50 ft*lb Upper and 65 ft*lb Lower, then we'll know it the springs had an effect.

Good thinkin, Jim. Im curious to see if theres much difference.

Ok, I compressed the spring so it was loose in the lower pocket, left the torque wrench in at 65 ft*lbs and tried to tighten the lower castle nut and it did NOT spin enough to make any remarkable difference (ie. the pin hole stayed in the same castle nut opening...)
problem solved....

Yayyy! Thats the first time Ive been right all day :thumbsup: Thanks for the info, Jim.

My engineeing brain thought that there would be a difference since there's so much force from that spring acting on the system.... maybe the taper of the kingpin has something to doo with it.... like the wedge force from the taper is so much greater than the spring force.
one of these days i'm sure i'll get real bored and draw up some calculations.

Yayyy! Thats the first time Ive been right all day :thumbsup: Thanks for the info, Jim.

good job:thumbsup:

I wasn't doubting your opinion, I just had to do the experiment for my own curious mind. i'm a mechanical engineer and damned to think about the endless possiblities of this crap :clonk::clonk::clonk:

LOL Im the same way, Jim...I learn best by experimenting, but am constantly trying to predict/foresee all possible results of any process that Im doing or, in this case, that you were doing lol.

ok.... 1am here on the east coase.. time foe bed, thanks for thinking with me tonight. join my camaros.net picture page if ya want..
http://www.camaro327.com/camaros.net/