Hello family, in the next few weeks I will be installing new shocks/struts and springs on my 88 camaro. I'm looking for any tips and or tricks that might make the install a little easier. Anything would be helpful! Thanks in advance

Jack up the front of the car as high as you can get it.

Put jack stands on the "frame rails" that tie into the unibody. Jack stand must be put of the way of the from suspension.

Remove brakes and rotors.
Unbolt sway bar from a arms.

Put a rope through the front spring and through the hole in the a arm. A rope not a kite string.

Cut a 2x4 so it is 2x4x4 square.
Drill a 1/4 hole in the center of the 2x4.

Put 2x4 block on the floor jack and jack it into place on the outside of the a arm. The hole you drilled need to line up with the grease fitting on the ball joint. This keep the block from slipping and keeps from damaging the grease fitting.

Jack the a arm up to compress the spring. Car should not come off of jack stands.

With an impact take the strut nut loose and slowly lower the jack and the a arm. The jack need to be at a 90 degree angle to the car so that the jack can roll toward the cent of the car when the a arm lowers.

Hold the strut shaft and guide it out under the fender as you lower the a arm.

Untie rope Remove the spring.

To install spring

Position spring in lower arm. Hold it in place while jacking up the a arm.

Jack the a arm up while guiding the strut shaft to clear the fender. You may need 3 hands, but it real easy after you do it multiple times.

When the spring it bound so it will not fall loose, PUT the rope back through it and tie it off.

Now position the spring in the bucket so the pig tail is properly indexed. It need to be still loose but tight enough that it will not fall out to position it. If too tight to rotate. lower jack slightly.

Now guide the strut shaft into the strut mount hole while jacking. You can compress and extend the shaft with your hand to make clearing the fender and inserting in the hole eaiser. ie. it is easier to position the strut and push the strut shaft through the hole than to keep jacking on the a arm.

Then shaft it through the hole put a nut on it.

Remove rope reinstall brake and sway bars.

Cash, Can you also give me the version where things don't go peachy- you know... when the rope and spring get all intwined together...

Dean,

You will have to ask Lefty, Gimpy, or toothless Joe about the time they used a dog chain vs. a rope.

I'll tell you the story of the Jack Eater some time.

I can also tell you about Mr. " No I do not need to remove the battery cable before working on MY car"

His brother was "Jackstands, we don't need no stinking jackstands. We called him Frankenstien after that. He had a bolt imprint in his head. This was before face piercings became popular. He was just ahead of his time.

How about welding tank balloon races.

I did exactly what you said and it made the install quick and easy.

Finally finished, but the driver side seems to be sitting a little higher than the passenger side. is this normal? if so, how long will it take for it to go down?

How much higher is the drivers side?

Start with the basics before you take it all apart again.

Equalize all tires air pressure. Do you have the right wheels at the proper locations? Offset can effect this too.

Measure the cars heights of the 4 corners on the same location with the car pointed north and then south. Make sure its the car and not the road surface.

Measure all heights at full lock left and full lock right on the steering. Take notes.

Make sure the car is properly aligned and the caster is not jacking a corner. Its tough to keep the same alignment after removing the struts and changing the ride height.

If the car drives fine, leave it alone unless it is really ugly and bothers you.

If all this checks out and you need to fix the problem mark the springs left and right and swap them. Also check that your isolaters have not slipped out of the perch or are damaged. If they are suspect remove them. They are not needed for a real car.

You can tape the isolaters to the tops of the springs with electrical tape before installing them to keep them in place. I did not mention this because I do not use them.

Last night I bit the bullet and pulled them off and reinstalled them on different sides and without the isolators. WOW! she is sitting like a champ now. Everything lined up like it was supposed to.

Tonight I will be doing the rear and it looks pretty straight forward. I should have some pictures posted by tomorrow.

hi ,,,what about the rear coils?...how do you remove those?

Put the car on jack stands and let the rear drop a bit (without tearing the brake line). If you can't grunt them out from this position, you can remove the lower shock bolts/shocks for a bit more drop room. More info in the following link:

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/su...nsion-how.html (Suspension How To...)

BTW, to avoid a minor headache, when reinstalling, make sure the spring lays in the isolator correctly, then tape the isolator to the spring.

JamesC

All done. I must say that the rear was a walk in the park.

here are a few pics after the install. KYB Shock/Struts w/Hotchkis 1" springs

I want to thank SDIF for all his help with my install!

looks good...sdif...thanks.

Looks good!

Glad it worked

Do the isolators do very much in terms of protecting the metal above the spring? On both the front and back of course.

Some protection, no doubt, as well as damping noise.

JamesC

hi , i replaced the rear colis...wow !!...that was easy...i just basically muscled them out and put in the new ones in including the insulator at the top...kept it on at the right place with some electrical tape so it woudn't move while installed...i will try the front ones this evening,,,i hope it goes as easy as the rear!...thankyou.

I found that one of the most important things with doing the front install, is making sure you get the car as high as possible. oh yeah and that rope!

anything else besides that i should know?.....thanks.

hi,i removed the old coil..it was actually broken!...anyways, i am trying to install the new coil...i will tape the top rubber on the coil so it goes in easy...what about the bottom of the coil on the a-arm?,,,can it just go in any way? as long as it's in the center?...thankyou.

The link below will show you exactly where to position the coil in the a-arm

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/su...nsion-how.html (Suspension How To...)

here is a pic from the above thread

thankyou...i read that article ,,,it is exactly what an amateur like me needed!!!..........thanks again..

Glad to see our thread is getting some use.

I hate to sound stupid by why not use a chain?

You can use a chain.

A rope is faster. I can not tie a chain.

Also a chain large enough to work may cause problems between the coils by not allowing them to compress or either getting stuck.

Don't use a dog chain.

I am using a chain rated up to 500 lbs and wrapped around the bottom and a-arm 3 times. My problem seem to be that the top of the spring is stuck or something. I jacked the car up high, unhooked the brake line and sway bay link along with the tie rod end. I then took off the top strut nut with the jack putting pressure under the ball joint. I lowered the arm as low as it can go (yes, I have the car jacked way high) but the spring does not loosen up. I think I will rent the center spring compressor tomorrow at autozone and see if that gets it out.

Is it still chained?

I think it is binding on the chain.

You do not need the compressor.

Keep the jack under the a arm and remove the chain.

Follow the original directions.

The two lengths of chain I have around it has enough slack to keep it from tightening up. I just came back in from going at it again and I was trying to pry it out with a 2x4 but couldn't get it out. It is loose but still has some tension on the end of the bottom where it stops between the two drain holes. I think the compressor will give me just enough extra clearance to pull it out. Wish I had ran there before they closed so I could get one side done today. Hey, if it is a free loaner I might as well throw down the deposit and finish it up.

sometimes the springs get stuck in the top pocket, tends to happen when chained as they are forced to bend when the a arm goes down. Best way I found to get them out at this point is to get your foot on the a arm to push it down as far as you can get it, then stick a large crow bar between a coil and leverage on the bottom of the spring pocket and apply lots of jiggly forces. This will work it out, just watch your grip on the crow bar as the spring gets close to coming out as the spring might want to fling it at the ground.


btw chains are pretty fast, just have to use a bolt to connect them. On mine i don't recall the chain size, but I was able to use a 1/2" bolt. Just need a couple extra bolts on hand because the chain tends to eat the threads. Also need to leave enough slack in the chain so you dont screw yourself when the spring comes out and the chain is still holding tension from the spring.

I got one side done tonight. jacked the car up way high again and roped/chained the bottom rung on the spring giving it some slack. Lowered te a arm and once it got as low as it could go I was able to use a long blade and handle shovel to pry the back side of the spring on out. It wasn't under much pressure so it didn't pop out and make me jump.
Lesson learned though to make sure when you drop it out you don't let the a arm slip off your floor jack. Getting the new one in was more difficult since I could not gorilla the a arm back onto the floor jack and I had to jack it up with two jacks(one on each side of the a arm next to the spring perch) and alternate between them so nothing slipped.
Thanks for all the great info here.
It is sitting one inch higher now though than the pre replacement height and I installed an eibach pro kit spring. It went from 27.5 to 28.5 from ground to top of fender over wheel. Sure it will drop on down in a day or two.

Both fronts are finished and both are about 29" from the ground to the top of the wheel well. Not sure what the stock height is/was but I owned an 89 back in the early 90s and it was stock and looked nothing like this. No isolators on top. One side didn't have one to begin with and the other one was pretty much destroyed when the spring came out. I hope to have the engine back together by the end of the weekend so I can drive it and see if driving it makes it settle.