"How hard is it to install springs?"

[ebmiller88]

Again, asked almost weekly. It's not a hard job but time consuming, and you MUST have the right tools or you'll be fighting with the parts all day. Also, if your car is a northern rust bucket you'll need to soak the hell out of all the bolts with penetrant if you hope to get them loose.

First off, be safe and use jackstands. Second, most of us don't have the tools that will be needed to do the job, but Auto Zone rents them for free (you leave a refundable deposit).

Here's a short rundown of what you'll need:

Jack and jackstands
Spring compressor
Pickle forks for tie rods and center link
Small 3-5# sledge hammer
Decent Metric socket set, with sizes up to 24mm (strut bolts)

More info can be found by searching the Suspension forum for "suspension rebuild" and "spring install".


For a step by step pictorial of what you're getting into, click the links below. The first is a complete front end rebuild and the second is the rearend rebuild/upgrade. The spring removal and replacement is covered in both. Here's a couple pointers that you will need to know:

1. Make SURE the front spings are indexed correctly or the front end will sit like a 4x4. The lower end of the spring coil must be placed betweend the 2 drain holes in the LCA.
2. I suggest replacing the front spring isolators while you do this. They are cheap from GM but Energy Suspension should have the poly replacements available by now. I don't recommend replacing the rear isolators with new ones though. They are made for the 4th gen cars, are all rubber, and when installed will make the rear end of the car sit 1-1.5" higher than it did. Reuse the old stock rear isolators. These are reinforced with steel and don't show much signs of wear.


Good luck with your spring replacement!

Front springs:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tarami...er72/my_photos

Rear springs:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tarami...er72/my_photos


Ed

[firehawkslplus]

THe links no longer lead to a working site.

[ebmiller88]

Then just click the link in my sig above, it works fine.

EDIT: I also fixed the two links above, try them again..

Ed

[ShiftyCapone]

It is about time you did this Eb I was getting tired of refering people to your site. I would PM the mods in the suspension board and make this a sticky.

[di11avou]

You should never use a pickle fork on any part you are going to reuse. It can easily damage components. Use a puller and do it right.

[REDBOWTIE67]

VERY VERY INFORMATIVE, THANK YOU A LOT THIS WILL HELP ME WITH MY 92 RS

[vinceanity92]

Thanx a bunch for the info on coil spring i really appriciate the fact that almost any problem ive ever had with my 1992 RS has been fixed thanx to the people at thirdgen.org i had the out side style spring compressors i thought they were the only ones that existed but then i got the internal ones from autozone made a job that took all weekend for one side turn into 20 mins for the other thanx again for all the info and pics