I've never touched the suspension before. Now I need to replace it. I noticed on the front struts that there are no coil springs. I have an 88' Firebird Formula. Is this correct and they only have springs on the back shocks, or am I just missing 2? Any help would be great.

 

The front of your car is a McPherson strut design. The springs are not around the shock itself, the spring is located in the frame rail to the lower control arm.

So...you have struts in the front and shocks in the rear.

 

Welcome to the boards Flippin.

Look here for my complete suspension rebuild and brake upgrade. I have pics and hints to go along with 'em. This may help you understand what you'll be getting into. It's not bad really. Click on the Camaro links.

Good luck!!

http://photos.yahoo.com/taramiller72

Ed

 

Thanks alot. I feel like an idiot. But I never touched suspension before. Luckily it all went in. Still gotta go back to Summit to buy the rear shocks. Maxed out credit card the first time there had to make sacrifices. Thanks again.

 

Ive gone back and forth with a bunch of people on this...but...our beloved f bodies dont use a macpherson strut design since the macpherson design consists of a strut with spring around it, you could call it a modified macpherson since it still uses the struts upper mount as the upper "ball joint" but as far as ive heard its not a "True" macpherson strut front susp..

 

Acutally, what makes a strut different from a shock is not where the spring is at all. It's how the bottom of the damper is mounted to the suspension. Struts are hard bolted to the spindle or upright, effecting camber and toe. Shocks are bolted to the suspension arm or axle itself. Moving the upper or lower mounting points of a shock have no effect on the suspension geometry.

There are MacPherson Struts and Chapman Struts, and I honest cannot determine the difference between the two. But I can tell you that the spring's placement on the damper or not doesn't change a shock from a strut. For example, the 4th gen cars have a coil spring over shock arrangement, but because of the way it bolts to the suspension it is a shock and not a strut.