Hey guys, I have a 91 T/A 'vert that has a lovely coating of surface rust on its suspension. Hopefully soon I can take it apart (probably not completely though) and bring the parts in for blasting/powder coating. My biggest concern is getting hurt while taking it apart. Obviously the car will be on jack-stands with no weight on the suspension but I'm afraid of springs or shocks exploding out of there when I go for it. Is there any force still packed into any parts even if the suspension has no load on it? Any tips, or special tools I need to get? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to this. My plans are to remove the front control arms, front & rear swaybars, coil springs, rear diff, stuff like that. The car also needs new shocks (they work but they look ugly from age/rust). Oh and what is the factory gearing in the rear end in this car?

When i took my suspension apart the coil springs were loose when i jacked it up so i wouldn't worry about them springing out. And i didn't have to use any special tools unless you count metric wrenches as special. LOL.

lol thanks. So I'm assuming the same thing for shocks, swaybars, etc?

Only thing will be the front springs - they still have alot of tension on them. After the front is on stands, Get a chain about 2 ft long, run it through the front coil, and through the k-member back to itself, and stick a bolt/nut through the links as tightly as you can get the chain. Then jack up under the coil spring perch just enough to remove the lower bolt that runs through the control arm, then let the jack down slowly - the coil will pop, and scare the hell out of you, but at least it won't fly out and take your head off!

The rear springs will just fall out - the only thing holding the rear end in place is the shocks, lower control arms, sway bar end links, and brake cable - don't let the rear fall enough to stretch/break the brake cable.

You'll need a "snipe" to get the large bolts/nuts off the front spindle - they are torqued down alot! In my dictionary, a "snipe" is a long (3 ft.) chuck of pipe with an inside diameter large enough to fit over the handle of your 1/2 inch rachet.

(Unless you have a city boy out in the country on the weekend, then a "snipe" is similar to a large muskrat but has blonde fur - which doesn't really exist, and you send the city boy on a "snipe hunt" AFTER he gets back from making the beer run - if he doesn't return out of the woods by the time all the beer is gone, then you go home and call rescue)

Oh gotcha! But what about reinstallation? Assuming that the fronts still have force in em, that means I gotta compress the coils to fit em back in right? What's the trick for that?

And what about front/rear shocks?

And thanks for the joke.

I'd probably do the chain trick again to cover my butt (or head - depends on what position I'm in at the time) - and kinda reverse the procedure. I installed Eibach lowering springs, so install was easier as they slipped in easier - but I still used the chain.

Shocks in the rear are easy - they just go in as mentioned. They are bolted in at the top, inside the car, under the carpet - youll see two foam corners - under there is the tops. Front takes the struts - that's where you'll need the "snipe".