Changing front coils: tips/safety? SPROING!!!!

jethro · May 21, 2004

Hey, I have a 67 Camaro standard coupe with a v-8 now vice original 6 cylinder. The coils are completely shot. Chilton's says to just unbolt the lower A-arm at the frame, not the lower ball joint, chain the coil to a-arm? and lower carefully on hydraulic jack... I'll bet carefully. Has anyone done this? Where EXACTLY do you chain the coil... and has anyone used a spring compressor that would allow you to get enough compression to remove the spring entirely without removing ball joint or other attaching points (this CAN be done on some cars...).
I'm obviously new at some of this with first gen's... patience pls.

I have the coils ordered btw... 82 bucks! Good deal, huh? And a spring compressor, and jackstands and hyd jack, LOTS of penetrating oil, only missing a chain and a one armed paper hanger... and maybe a monkey.

HwyStarJoe · May 21, 2004

DEFINITELY chain the spring to one of the arms!
It's an easy safety measure just in case.

I dropped mine at the ball joints though. I held the arm up with a hyd. jack under the lower shock hole, loosened the spindle nuts almost all the way off, then lowered the jack to unseat the ball joint shafts. Once the spindle was loose, I just kept lowering the jack until I could get it out. The chain held the spring but the arm didn't drop low enough to just remove the spring if I remember correctly. I had to fish it out. But you can just remove the jack at this point and then take the bushing bolts out and totally drop the arms. There's no spring pressure on them once you drop the arms at the ball joints.

I thought about jacking the lower arms at the bushing pivot point like the manual says to, but I thought that the whole assembly would be too unstable side-to-side while lowering. Everything would be able to pivot on the two ball joints and if the jack moved or the pressure was too great, I didn't want to see the whole arm and everything swing around.

It's 6 of one, a half dozen of the other. Either way works.
Just be careful.

choptop · May 21, 2004

Do it the way Joe suggests...that is the same way I removed my springs!

PDQUICK · May 21, 2004

For really long coil springs, like the factory style units, I prefer to unbolt the control arm to frame bolts. If you remove the ball joint, when you try to get the new spring in, it tends to fall out of the control arm or subframe pocket b/c of the weird angle created by the control arm being dropped so low on the outside. Very frustrating this way IMO.

I like to book method, and if you can get a good internal coil spring compressor, so much the better!

Of course, if you use 600lb lowering springs you can do it any way you like!! They're so short you can pretty much throw 'em at the car and they'll go in!!

HwyStarJoe · May 21, 2004

Originally posted by PDQUICK:
Of course, if you use 600lb lowering springs you can do it any way you like!! They're so short you can pretty much throw 'em at the car and they'll go in!!

LOL! Paul, I'm counting on that when I pull the Hotchkis' out of the box soon.

PDQUICK · May 21, 2004

Yup, that's no exageration. You don't really have to compress them at all and it's a good thing. They are so stiff that the suspension barely deflects from the time the tires hit the ground. Don't forget to install the new lower bump stops that they include with the springs!!

Careful with the ride height, I have 245-45-16's all 'round on mine and I have a hard time getting a jack under the front end now!! Handles like it's on rails and actually has adequate ground clearance for most day to day stuff but, I occasionally have to be afraid of a speed bump!!

Paul D.

HwyStarJoe · May 22, 2004

I'll have to look in the box again but I never noticed the new bump stops that everyone keeps mentioning. If not, I'll have Hotchkis send me some.

Speed bumps? They're a rare sight around here! You can pretty much go balls-to-the-walls on any street ya want.

Drives me nuts. It's the transitions across bridges that need some serious attention around here. Especially on the expressways. Some of them nearly launch my pickup they're so brutal.

jethro · May 22, 2004

HELP... got the coils out... . Used the safety chain...

NOW... I CAN NOT GET THOSE *&/*%ing COILS BACK IN!!!

I ordered the stock, factory springs... they are pretty long, and I have tried BOTH methods of fitting them...

1. Disconnect the ball joint, and mount the two ends of the lower arm to the frame... this has a HUGE angle between the lower a-arm and the bottom of the coil spring, and in fact the bottom of the coil spring won't even reach into the lower a-arm pocket.

2. Disconnect the two lower a-arm attaching points at the frame and leave the lower ball joint attached. Spring fits this way, and you can compress it, but trying to get the two attaching points from the lower a-arm to re-align into those frame attaching points and align the holes is impossible, even using two jacks.

Now, in response to what I know you might say, I did try to using a spring compressor (internal), but if you are familiar with the stock springs, they have ten coils and are very tight in spacing between coils. I can't get the dam spring compressor pieces BACK OUT of the coil once it is in place. LOL.

Come on, SOMEONE has done this successfully, tell me what I am screwing up, or where to find the right spring compressor... you might even be able to sell me one right now for about 300 dollars... I'm pretty frustrated. ALL DAY AFFAIR.

BTW... are these the Hotchkis springs you are suggesting...

http://www.hotchkis.net/cgi-bin/EDCstore.pl?user_action=detail&catalogno=1907F

they lower two inches and are rated at 600lbs... would they go in by method 1 I listed above?

[ 05-22-2004, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: jethro ]

Run269 · May 23, 2004

o.k. i put in stock height springs about 6 weeks ago. it can be done and you don't need a $300 spring compressor.

here's how i did it:

you need an internal sp. compresser. i got mine from eastwood
some kind of pry bar, i used my breaker bar, and a ratchet to fit the compresser.
lower arm pivoting on the bushings but way back out of the way.

1)you will only need one set of fingers and their block.
2)grease up the threads
3)slide the threaded rod with washers, down thru the upper shock mount hole.(using an extra washer and grease on the washers makes cranking them down easier)
4)install fingers on 3rd or 4th coil up(grab as much spring as you safely can with you comp., leave the 2 finger bolts in the block only finger tight(this will make it easier to dismantle the fingers inside the compressed spring and remove them).
5)line top end of spring up with small hole in upper spring pocket.
6)crank and crank and crank
7) when the coils are almost compressd solid i took my breaker bar and sort of forced it into the lower spring pocket. it kind of snapped in.
8) keep cranking until you can engage the lower ball joint fully. don't use the ball joint stud to pull everything together.
9)go ahead and torque and pin the ball joint
10) release the sp. comp and pull the threaded rod out and dismantle the fingers and block and they should drop out the bottom. that's the trick,

to leave those screws only finger tight not wrench tight.

i was able to do this with the upper control arm flipped clear over toward the engine side. it flipped right back over the top of the comp. but it can be done either way. mine was a ground up rebuild so i didn't have rotors or brakes of any kind yet, just the spindle.

torque the arm bushings, upper and lower after full vehicle weight is back on the tires, not while it's hanging.

it can be done with full height springs. play it safe. all in all i think it took 10 minutes per side. 90% of that was cranking.

jethro · May 23, 2004

Run 269... thanks for the advice... I found the spring compressor you mentioned, then rented it (free) from PEP boys. God, finally got those bears in there... pain in the you know what.

Thanks...

Run269 · May 24, 2004

glad i could help.

rando · May 24, 2004

Hey Run269, you mentioned you cranked the coils all the way down? Do you mean you were "closed coil" (all coils touching)? Did you use a chain? That is a significant load if you did, and I would be afraid to work with it unless it was chained or somehow contained from getting loose from the car. I just removed mine and used a chain wrapped around the frame ahead of the upper control arm and thru one coil of the spring. The spring setting in the frame spring pocket and chained seemed to be the way to go. Now I am trying to get a warm fuzzy feeling that I can reassemble without any accident or problem. I want to powdercoat my a-arms and am thinking that they will get scratched up etc. on the reassembly. Anyone have a feel for what I am talking about here? Thanks and BE SAFE!!

Run269 · May 24, 2004

rando,

no the spring coils weren't touching, just close enough not to get a finger all the way in. YES!! use a chain!! i used a real heavy bicycle cable and lock i had laying around.

all my stuff was fresh paint and i didn't scratch anything. you got to crank it far enough to use the prybar and lightly, gently "pop" it into the lower control arm, because it's not a straight shot with the arm swinging by the bushing bolts. but once you're in, you're in.

once i had the spring in the lower pocket i still had to crank it a little more to get the ball joint and spindle to mate up without using the ball joint stud. then i tightened and torqued and cotter pinned it and slowly let the tension off. the spring will center itself into the pocket as you let the tension down.

JUST A PRECATIONARY NOTE:

NEVER USE ANY POWER DRIVEN DEVICES TO COMPRESS THE SPRING I.E. IMPACT WRENCH ETC. use a ratchet and your muscles. that way you can feel for any binding or whatever. an impact mixed with all the friction just might melt the threads on your compresser, or strip them. that's also why i said grease everything, to make cranking it easier, saves the thread wear too. ALWAYS inspect your threads before loading a spring up, especially if it's one your rented, borrowed or stole.

HwyStarJoe · Jun 20, 2004

Originally posted by PDQUICK:
Don't forget to install the new lower bump stops that they include with the springs!!
Paul D.

What's the reasoning behind the supplied bumpers? They're barely an eighth of an inch shorter than the originals. They might look better than the 'house' shaped originals is all I can figure.

Blueshwk · Oct 27, 2009

I have changed coil springs in the past and each event is different. I always use chains for safety and have never had any real issues with removing or re-installing.

Currently changing out springs in a 67 RS and what a nightmare it is!!....Was attempting to use a "POWERBUILT" internal coil spring compressor today for...oh several hours... (what a piece of sh*t these things are.) The threaded rod is too large to go in from the top and going in from the underside is a bitch. The instructions are zero help. In past projects I had the weight of the car and engine to simplify the process but this one has no engine yet.
Any suggestions are most appreciated.

Guest174 · Oct 27, 2009

joel, for future reference, check the date of the post you attach to; just above your name Blueshwk, you'll see the last post is from 2004.
anyway, you are trying to install the springs correct? we used a standard internal spring compressor, came down thru the upper shock hole and compressed the spring from the bottom only, upwards. this was on an engineless subframe and it worked well.

Changing front coils: tips/safety? SPROING!!!!

jethro

HwyStarJoe

choptop

PDQUICK

HwyStarJoe

PDQUICK

HwyStarJoe

jethro

Run269

jethro

Run269

rando

Run269

HwyStarJoe

Blueshwk

Guest174

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