I all ready looked around and I found a few good tech articals on this swap. I want to know how many of you changed your 3rd gen springs "without" useing a spring compresser,,,,can the lower A arm be lowered with the jack slowly and the spring come out with out needing to be compressed (is there enought room)?? Plus has anyone else written or seen a tech artical on swaping shock/springs that I probably didnt see?? (ive only see one on cardomain, one here and one at iroczone,,,,any more good ones out there?). Thanks

 

Ya you can take the spring out without a compressor by lowering the jack slowly but can get really ugly really fast...thats what i did on one side becuase when i was changing that side i almost died. When i was lowering the a arm the spring launched out and just missed me... the spring compressor works but it takes some patiance and effort and is much safer.

 

when i changed mine i put a jack handle up through the middle of the spring and the a arm and it never poped out, i ended up having to yank the spring out, it was jacked up as far as i could get it and even had to release the sway bar. but in the end it was all worth the trouble and the hard part was just the front ones, backs are a breeze

 

Ya i know they can fly out at ya and ding stuff up pretty good,,,but I was thinging of using a rope or some cable and tie the spring to something first to make sure if it does fly out it wouldn't go too far. But does the a arm open up far enought to put in a spring without compressing it ???

oh ya and were do I start pealing back the carpet to get at those rear shock bolts?

 

Right behind the rear seats next to the plastic peices.

 

If you're installing stock springs, you'll need a compressor to get them in. Most lowering springs should go in easily without a compressor, but there are some brands that will require the use of one.

 

theres a pic of the same (red) lowering springs I have in the post called "Does anyone have dropzone springs" they are a bit shorter then the stock ones,,,but if I need a compressor to get the stock ones in shouldnt I need it to take the stock spring out??

 

Nope.

Raise the front the front of the car as high as possible, then support it with jackstands. Next, place your floor jack under one of the A-arms but leave a small amount of space. Now, LOOSEN the ball joint nut but DON'T remove it. Break the ball joint loose with a balljoint separator. Now, raise the floor jack to relieve the tension on the ball joint and remove the nut.

Okay, here's how you get the spring out. SLOWLY (I can't emphasize that enough) lower the floor jack. Your goal is to get the A-arm almost perpendicular to the ground (the jack should no longer be under the arm at that point). Once the A-arm is lowered as far as it will go, carefully pry the spring out with a pry bar or large screwdriver.

There should be only slight tension still left on the spring. However, I recommend you stand off the side a bit as you pry out the spring just to be safe. It should just pop out and fall on the ground.

 

here's how i did them

www.fl-thirdgen.org/frontspringswap.html