T_P_S

Well, the front suspension is now ready to be put back together on a 1992 GTA. There is only one problem; I just cannot find a way to install the springs.

These are original "BZX" GM springs, they are a little over 14" long uncompressed. I have searched this forum and tried every method I can find and think of for the last three months with no success. I tried the jack method, but the spring is so long, the car jacks off of it's stands with the spring before the A-arm bolts can be inserted. A spring compressor didn't work, as the thread was too long. Cutting the shaft off the compressor also didn't work; the spring was too long and even though we compressed it to about eight inches, when we tried to jack the arm up and insert the bolts for the arm, the spring compressed more and the compressor slipped off, and the car was raised again. I also tried the three jack method, using one on each bushing, and one on the ball joint, with no success, as the bushings would not line up, and would slip inside the k-member and become wedged, making it almost impossible to safely remove the spring after.

At this point, I am out of ideas and am about to break down and hire a professional to install these, but the price to do so would be outrageous and I was hoping to have my original rims restored, but if need be I will spend the cash to actually have the car drivable again.

Is there anyone here that can offer any advice or tricks to the methods I have used, or maybe something new?

Thanks in advance.

MilehighBird

iTrader: (1)

I had a similar problem installing front springs. I ended up attaching the ball joint side of the a-arm first with the springs in place, and then jacking the inside(bushing side) up while my buddy was sitting on top of the fender to add some weight until the bolt holes lined up and I could slide the bolt through the a-arm bushings. Hope that made sense.

JamesC

iTrader: (5)

I used a four-inch piece of pipe over the threaded portion. Worked fine, twice.

JamesC

T_P_S

We did try both of those methods.....attaching the strut did nothing as the car would still start jacking up about an inch before the holes would line up, maybe with a 700 lb. guy crushing my fender it would work...

We did try an insert, ours was only about three inches long though, the other inch of the thread went into the hole in the top spring bucket in the k-member anyway. The only real difficulty was that the spring just did not like being compressed beyond eight inches. The force required to compress it by that point was immense and it was almost impossible to hold the spring hard enough to turn the thread to compress it any more, and the compressor slipped off at least half a dozen times beyond this point, it was exceedingly dangerous, and the black coating on the spring is all but gone now from the hooks slipping off it constantly...gives a nice burnt metal smell. The compressor we used just didn't seem made for that width of spring at all, the hooks never seated well at any angle or height, just looking at how they sat in the coils, it seemed obvious to me there was something wrong, it was a Snap-On compressor, perhaps someone has a brand name that they've used and were very satisfied with?

Thanks again.

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

I just did this last weekend and had the same problem but I cant remember how we did it...

On one side we removed the A-arm and put the spring in place, then jacked it up into the car. Soon as it got high enough we put one of the strut mount bolts through just to try to make it a little safter... We kept jacking it up and then it started lifting the car.

I think we used another jack, and jacked up the other side of the a-arm (right near the mounts) since it was held in place on one side by the jack and the strut, and it seemed to go up in place pretty nicely from what I can remember.

Legal Disaster

iTrader: (6)

i had similar problems at first when i was swapping springs/struts/a-arms/and tower tops. i ended up putting the strut and mounts on, attaching the arms into the k-member, then i used a spring compressor that i rented from autozone ( and forgot to return ) and used an air gun to compress the spring an insane amount, so that i could put it in, i think i still had to jack the ball joint side of the arm up some to connect the ball joint to the spindle, but it went in relatively easy from that point. just make sure to put the extra threaded bolt through the opening at the bottom of the a-arm before jacking it up, that will make for easier removal. don't ask about how to index at that point as i swapped in tubular spohn's so that was the easy part. just be very careful whenever you are near the compressed spring as it is Very dangerous. also make sure not to put the hooks on the compressor all the way at the bottom/top of the spring or you will go through tough **** getting them back out, ask me how i know.

good luck, let us know what process works for you.

MaNiAk86

iTrader: (2)

my situation maybe a little different cause i intalled an eibach prokit(1" shorter springs) but all i did was loosely bolt the a-arm to the kmember and insert the spring uncompressed top first and half of it grabbed the lower spring bucket and i just jacked it up from the balljoint. the car did come off the stand but i kept going till it came off both stands(then reset them for safety.) and then dropped on the spindle and threw bolts through the strut and nutted the ball joint.

went real easy acutally. good luck with yours.

JamesC

iTrader: (5)

Most springs compressors warn against using an air gun. I used a socket and ratchet and it scared the H out of me. From a safety point of view, I personally wouldn't recommended it--but that's just me.

JamesC

SDIF

Maybe I have just been lucky, but I have never had a problem changing springs.

I have done this a least a dozen times on 3 different 3rd gen cars.

I have always left the a arms attached to the k member. The trick was to get the car high in the air.

I ran a rope through the coils and tied the spring to the a arm through the hole in the bottom.

With strut in place, I put jack with a block of wood with hole drilled for the grease fitting in the ball joint and jacked the spring into place. The spring must be clocked properly.

I also do not use the washer that goes on the top of the strut. When the strut threads go through the strut tower I put the nut on, lower the car take the nut off add washer and put the nut back on.

This method even worked with the wrong springs 950 lbs 12 inch springs which made the car sit like a 4wd.

Good luck.

Legal Disaster

iTrader: (6)

Well my spring compressor came with no such warnings, so i went that route, just made sure to use it on the lowest setting. i also used a chain through the coils and the a-arm for alittle more safety. I understand how it scared you so bad, those front springs hold alot of built up pressure and tension when bound up. also try and stay as far away from the spring as possible. I don't know, worked for me, try whatever you want to but just be sure to do it SAFELY.

Corky

What Legal Disaster said above . I attached a picture of the spring compressor I got from AZ. I used an air wrench & zapped it up tight. Notice the chain around the spring - never point the spring towards your body. Work fast once its compressed & get it seated & bolted up. This method will work & get you back in business.
Good Luck,
Corky

studdmstr

I did the spring change thing a couple of months ago too. I rented the same compressor Corky posted but put a 4 inch piece of pipe over the threaded end and used a impact gun on the lowest setting to compress it slowly. They compressed real nice and the hooks are beefy and hold the spring coils secure. I then loosely bolted the control arm to the K member and then put the spring into place in the upper pocket (Tip: use electrical tape wrapped around the isolator and upper coil in a few places to hold the isolator in place on top of the spring.). Then jack up the control arm into place, while making sure the spring is indexed right. Once everything is bolted up securely release pressure on the spring compressor and pull it through the hole in the control arm.

J's T/A

iTrader: (2)

I never had this problem, but once again I have never replaced stock with stock..

FWIW though,

What I had to do was connect the a-arm have it on jackstands put some pressure on the arm with a jack and then with a 5 foot prybar under the side of the spring pop it into the pocket..

stage20

iTrader: (3)

its too complicated to explain.
ive got it down to a science.
it makes it really easy if you have multiple jacks and an extra hand to help you.
you MUST use the internal "4 hook" spring compessor, and tighten it up until youre about to cry. its scary for sure. the coils just about need to touch one another.
get a thread or two on the ball joint, keep the jack under it, then wiggle out the spring compessor.
you have to do it lower down on the coils.
if you try to hook the top and bottom coils it will hit the a arm and the top stud will be against the k member or body of the car.
trial and error.
the hard part is getting the compessor set on the right set of coils.
good luck!

Legal Disaster

iTrader: (6)

So did you ever put on your springs? how did you do it? hey stage It is hard to get the compressor set on the right coils, i had to do it a few times until i got the right set to compress the spring small enough to put it in. hey j, you and me both, why replace a stock component when i can go with a stronger aftermarket.

drperformance

iTrader: (5)

when I did mine I used two spring compressors, the syle that mount on the outside of the springs. I compressed them pretty far and then wrapped the coils with 1/8" wire rated pretty high in strength and making sure it was tied off good and released the compressors. I know I built a bomb and I am not suggesting anyone do this! Then I carefully placed the coils in the car and bolted up the strut and cut the wire.

I also put coils in a buddys car by placing a 2/4 piece of wood on his strut tower and wedged it against the I beam in his garage and then used a jack to jack up the A are into position to bolt up the strut.

kaptinkafeen

iTrader: (2)

I had similar problems a while back. I had my springs banded; do another quick search on here. Once the springs were banded, no problems afterwards. I attached pics too. Good luck.
-Andrew

T_P_S

Well, the solution was so simple I feel like a total fool.

When I asked a professional, I discovered that for certain cars and certain springs, the cars would be secured to the lift to prevent the car being raised during the installation, at a shop mind you.

That didn't help, as I couldn't exactly chain it to the floor, but then the idea of bracing it to the roof came to mind.

So after an hour of sawing and measuring, I had a large wooden brace, I slipped rubber with some soft cloth around the bottom ends, and braced them against the strut towers on the strut bearings, so not to mar any of the black coating, then a buddy held it while I slipped the springs into the control arm in the correct position, attached the strut to the spindle, and began to jack the arm itself up using a large floor jack. Sure enough, the spring started lifting the car, but it only raised it about an eighth of an inch before wood braced against the roof's support beams. Took all of thirty minutes, if that, after we had the car braced to have both bolts through the bushings on both arms and have everything installed smoothly. This was in a shop with the car on jackstands.

I thought this might be a useful idea to anyone with similar problems.

Much thanks to everyone here!

stage20

iTrader: (3)

thats gotta be about the most scary situation you could ever be in. that spring isnt in there all the way and the wood, or the jack slips, the spring can kill you if it got loose.

a spring compressor as i said, and you could have done it in 30 minutes as well.

glad you made it out safe.

T_P_S

I found the spring compressor to be much, much scarier, it slipped off several times as it did not seem to fit the spring just right, and it was a Snap-On brand, well-made, and we were very slow and cautious when using it. The braces I built were not going anywhere, unless the roof blew off or the jackstands all failed, as the top was deeply notched into the beam in the roof, and the bottom was cut and fitted against the strut bearing housings. We were using a 3-ton floor jack, as we could fit it onto the arm better, so it couldn't slip, plus the strut and spindle were attached, so the spring could not escape towards the jack operator. The car was lifted almost imperceptibly during this. The only scary part was inserting the bushing bolts, but that took only a few seconds on each. I felt this method was actually safer in my situation, as long as I had others there to help, and more effective goes without saying. You take a small chance no matter how careful you are and what tools you use, but if you use common sense, it's really not too bad.

Thanks again to everyone!

1BADRZ28

iTrader: (2)

here is the spring compressor you want to use. It will fall out the bottom of the a arm when you are done. I have done at least 30 front sets of springs and used this tool without fail. People with headers will not be able to open up the arm enough as it hits the headers(LT type).

T_P_S

1BADRZ28, thanks for the tip, we tried using that exact kind, with a lot of problems. First off, it did not seat right, no matter how careful we were, and because of this, it would slip off, even if we turned it with a hand ratchet. The second big problem came when we had managed to compress it about six inches, it became impossible to turn the ratchet by hand any more, as we could not hold the spring securely enough to turn the nut on the compressor. My springs are over 14" tall, and to fit them correctly into place would have required compressing them literally almost to when the coils were touching.

Could you maybe provide some more tips on this for the future, it would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

JamesC

iTrader: (5)

Which is probably why you had problems. I have replaced my IROC springs twice, but never had to compress more than a couple of inches or so. The above compress worked well.

JamesC

stage20

iTrader: (3)

oh yea, you have to get them down pretty good. an impach wrench makes it go a lil quicker and really helps out once the spring gets compressed. everyone says not to use an impact, but its loads easier, and you save about 30 minutes of ratcheting on each side.

i havent changed 30 sets of springs as mentioned above, but ive done this 5-6-7 times with the exact spring compressor and not a hicup. its all technique.

zracTA

yeah impact wrench does the job well, just keep your head away

JamesC

iTrader: (5)

My compressor specifically states not to use an impact--but people do what people do.

JamesC

T_P_S

As did mine, there was no way I could have used one, it was slippery enough going slow with a ratchet.

Perhaps this really was just an odd type of spring used in the last years of GTA's and Trans Ams, either way, it's together now.

Thanks again.

1BADRZ28

iTrader: (2)

I use an impact gun all the time. Just make sure you thoroughly lube the threads as they will gall ithemselves to hell if you don't. As you see, the arms are different lengths to compensate for the adjacent coil being further down. With out that, the coil would not compress evenly. You have to compress the spring pretty good to get them to fit.

AZZ28

So I have not read the whole post but here is how I installed my IROC-Z springs last week. I did both sides without a compressor in about 35 minutes with the help of a friend.

1. Tape the isolator to the top of the spring.
2. Connect the A-arm to the spindle and loosely spin on the castle nut.
3. Hold the spring up in the pocket and properly position the A-arm underneath
4. Position the jack under the A-arm as central to the vehicle as you can. If you jack directly under the pocket you will lift the car, so jack on that edge of the A-arm that is towards the centerline of the vehicle.
5. Once the bushings are near the holes use a dead blow hammer, large pry bar and anything else you need to line up the holes.

This job is really a lot easier without the spring compressor and the help of a friend to work the parts in.

Legal Disaster

iTrader: (6)

I beg to differ with you there, I did mine with minimal problems all by myself with a spring compressor in probably a shorter time it took you and your friend to do it. Think about the possibilities if the jack lost position and sent the spring shooting out, yeah, very unsafe. no matter how you do it the front springs hold too much tension to be completely safe or "easy" .

AZZ28

The method I used was both safe and easy and is the technique describe in most manuals. I have no doubt that your method worked well but from what I have read most people have way to much trouble with spring compressors and they complicate the install.

stage20

iTrader: (3)

spring compressors only complicate the install if you cant figure out what set of coils to compress. all to often guys grab the top and bottom coils and ask for help. another issue is the top of the K member. positioned right, and its cake.

AZZ28

My point is many people spend a lot of time with trial and error using the compressor when the job can be done without it.

I knew where to position the compressor, the problem I had was keeping to tool from slipping while getting the sping to compress a useful amount.