Well after fighting just to get one front spring installed for the last 10 hours my spring comprssor let go and damn near killed me. Thankfully I rolled out of the way and have a large gouge in my concrete at my house. Is there any EFFECTIVE way short of getting lowering springs, in terms of reinstalling stock springs. My car is an 84 Z28 that I had to replace the motor mounts, which unlike most cars, you have to take off the a-arms in order to replace. While I was there I completely built everything, I had new moog bushings and ball joints pressed into the a arms. I even got some new iroc springs for the car, but I seriously cannot get the ******* things in. I need them in by this weekend to put the motor back in but at this rate they will never go in. I don't have access to air tools and I am working by myself. I tried the jacking the a arm appraoch in combination with the spring compressor to the a arm in hopes that I could seat the spring with it already properly indexed to the arm however the new bushings barely squeez into the k member and even then thedamn spring compressor stripped it threads because of the tension on the spring. The gm unit is $400 and the car is in pieces in my driveway so I can'
t even tow it to a mechanic which i am willing to pay for now. I am now at the point that I want to junk the car because nothing is made for them, everything we do to them is half assed and improper as GM seemingly never desgined these cars to live past the 80's, and the tools to work on them either don't exist, have to be fabricated, or are exorbitantlly expensive if they exist. I am really frustrated any input will help at this point.

 

holf F dude you are lucky you didnt get hurt!! i would have shat myself

anywho... air tools are very helpful when working with springs. you can get the compressor much tighter with them. i just changed my springs recently and it was kind of a pain. had to take the caliper off and disconect the strut so i could drop the arm all the way down. had to compress the spring to no end and it just fit back in with the "jacking the a-arm" method. not the easyest thing to do. i believe lowering springs are shorter or have a lighter initial rate so they would be a little easyer to get in. but definatly you would need an air powered impact gun to get the spring compressors tight enough to get the spring in.

i got my spring compressor from i think jcwithney? its a piece of crap but works well

what bushings are you trying to squeeze into the k-member? all that the springs have is a stupid little rubber dounut/ isolators?

 

to be honest, the jack method works flawlessly IF you have a motor in the car. Now being that you don't, you can just slap the a-arms in with no springs and reassemble everything else, drop the motor in....then turn around and drop the 2 a-arm bolts and put the spring in the pocket THEN jack up the a-arm to compress the spring. Remember to wrap a chain around the spring and a-arm so it doesn't go flying and hurt you.

 

I replaced motor mounts with my front suspension intact. You just need to use a wrench in a creative way for the underside bolts. Its frustrating, but only took less than 2 hours.

 

I just had the same problem trying to get my front springs in without having a motor in the car this weekend.
We ended up sticking a 4x4 instead of the actual coil spring. It will do fine until i get the motor in.

 

ugh, front springs are one of the worst installs I have done to a car yet. Even with eibach prokit springs I had a difficult time putting the new ones in...granted it would have been alot easier with another man, and some better tools then what i had at the time but the worst part is always the spring compressor....like playing with a loaded gun

glad you're safe

 

I dont wanna here this! I bought some good IROC springs to replace my soft sagging z28 springs. My dad is a GM tech and remembers doing springs a few times. Hates them, says it like "handling a ****ing hand grenade."

I'm gonna wait till I get my new shocks and a-arm bushings. Only want to do this job once.

 

what would be the best kind of struts/springs to go with so that the frickin car wont scrape on EVERYTHING! anything to at least reduce the scraping would be nice because i have huge fat friends and they weigh down my car. anything will be appreciated.

 

First things first, you should always use a safety chain when working with front springs. Dosnt matter if you're using a spring conpressor or not. A safety chain will prevent the spring from flying anywhere, even if its loaded and happens to pop out. Safety first! There is a hole in the K-member in the perfect place to attach a safety chain around one of the middle coils, here is a picture to help:



When you do the install with a safety chain its a whole new ballgame. You can manhandle the install without fear of being injured. I've done a stock front spring install with no spring compressor. My method is to use a floorjack to mock fit everything and hold it in place. Then I tighten the balljoint bolt about 1/2 way and use that as the pivot point for compressing the spring. With the safety chain tight and the balljoint bolt 1/2 on or more you can use the floorjack to push up on the other end of the a-arm (use the ridge between the two a-arm to k-member bolt holes). When its close you use a screwdriver to line up the holes and slip both a-arm to k-member bolts in. Then tighten everything up.

 

i do it the same way as crazy hawaiian, except i run the chain through the spring pocket hole and not through the kmember. Same difference though.

 

Join the club who hates them!! They dont call spring compressors the widow maker for nothing..

 

i put in my prokits a few years back. It was a b*tch!!! I didnt even bother with the compressor when installing. I remember its very important to get the car high enough so you can lower the a-arm enough to get the spring in the pocket. I tried to get them seated correctly in the upper and lower pockets and used the jack/a-arm pivot method. Got them in fine but they were both hung up at an angle in the top perch (as I later found out) which explained why my camaro had the ride-height of a buick.

Ended up driving it to pep-boys where they somehow got them situated correctly

 

I just installed my prokit when I was putting my front end back on... The A-arm has to be almost vertical. I seat the top, then I "pop" the bottom over the pocket. Then I attach a chain around it so it doesnt come out. Next just go easy with the jack under the ball joint area.

oh...and after having to pull those springs out a couple times...I found that alittle grease or anti-seize on that last coil will keep it sliding back into its seated position. Instead of binding and wanting to "climb" out of the coil pocket.

Either way...take your time, go easy, and use a chain or strap to keep that sucker in. Its not that bad of a job once you do it a few times.

Justin

 

stock springs are easy if you have the motor in and know the trick...
its putting in drag springs that REALLY suck.. LOL.


have the A arm near vertical.. its hanging up and down. put the spring in the TOP pocket... then tilt it so the edge catches the pocket of the a arm.

then you can just use a jack to lift the A arm into place.... unless you dont have a motor... without a motor, the car doesnt weigh enough to compress the springs.


if you dont have a motor in yet...but will eventually, put a piece of 4x4 wood where the spring goes... and wait. you can roll the car around, you can install the motor... and THEN you can do the springs easily.

the only other way, envolves spring compressors, and being verrry careful and aware of where you are and where everything is..

 

thanks crazy hawaiian helps out alot. is there any certain type of spring or struts i can use to stiffin up my ride and not scrape as much? Do you have any recomedndations?

 

Mr. Dude and xpndlble said what I was going to say.

Spring compressors seem to not work very well on these cars, so I did it the GM way, using jack under the inner section of the a-arm, while it's held in place via the spindle/strut/balljoint connection.

Again, I found out that you need the weight of the motor in the car, otherwise you're just jacking up the car. Kinda frusterating, but it doesn't take a genius to figure this out when you're doing it. So I threw in my motor, then put the springs back in.

I skipped the safety chain, I can't see how it's possible to make this dangerous, once you put any amount of force on that spring it's already safely up in it's home, and not going anywhere unless the jack f-'s off. But then again, if you weren't dealing with springs, and just jacked up the car, and the jack took off, you're dead anyway, so...

 

Huh? guess I don't understand I've always use a floor jack and steel toed boots. Thats right insert in pocket jack a little. Lean back and kick the spring in. Never have I had one fly out.

 

hahaha, that got me laughing out loud here Thanks John

 

Not sure it was the smartest idea and wouldnt recomend it. But I just jacked up the front of the car on the k member then disconnected all the stuff from the arm slowly letting it down as far as it would go. Then I pushed the a arm more vertical with my foot, and spring just popped out, then proceeded to put the new one in.

 

Well My problem is there is no motor in the ******. So I have to come up with some alternative method to putting it together. As really I have to have this together on sunday. So I will post what I find because I am the only human being ever to do this. Thanks for the advice guys.

-SmallTires

 

the only other way is ALOT of work with a spring compressor, while keeping yourself clear.

id highly recommend you just wait, and use a piece of wood till then.. without a motor, its not driving anyway.
put the wood across the A arm spring pocket, and it'll sit on the Kmember/framerail... holding the car up at ride height (or higher or lower.. depending on the size you use)

30min spring swap with no compressor and a high margin of safety..
VS
4 hours of spring compressors, compressed high tension springs, ect....

 

nothin to do with springs but next time you have to change motor mounts, do like I did. I got a grinder and cut a small slit in the top part of the frame where the two bolts are. Make the slit just big enough for a wrench to fit in and turn up to catch the nut on the back side. With this you can change motor mounts in 5 minutes tops.

 

I too hate spring compressors...
I got so tired of fighting with my lowering springs, and repainting my lower A-Arms from all the scratching and wrestlling, I just took the front springs to get banded - .... glad to hear you are allright..
-Andrew
p.s. check out this thread for a pic of what banding looks like:https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...=spring+banded