well after struggling for about 4 hours to put the passenger side front spring in using the commonly posted method of dropping the rear bolts on the A-arm and then bolting it up to the shock and guiding the rear of the A-arm back into place. I decided to sit and think about it a little bit and came up with another easier way to do it.

1. To start with rent an internal spring compressor from Advance Auto, it's like $50 up front but whenever you return it you'll get it all back.
2. Go to ACE Hardware or any other hardware store and pick up like a 5" (I think that's how long it was not sure though) 3/4" pipe. Assemble it like this:

3. Now lower the A-arm as far as you can without taking the rear bushing out, kind of like you do for removing the old springs. You'll be able to get the spring in but you can't index it correctly.
4. Jack up the A-arm compressing the spring a little bit but you don't need to jack it up all the way.
5. Disassemble the spring compressor and feed each part in one at a time through the hole in the A-arm and place the pieces in their places on the coils and reassemble.
6. Compress the spring with the spring compressor and you'll be turning as it gets compressed enough. Keep compressing until the spring is in the correct position for indexing.
7. Jack up the A-arm more to hold the spring and loosten up the spring compressor.
8. Disassemble the spring compressor and pull the pieces back out
9. Reassemble everything

Took me about 20 minutes to put it in after getting the old spring out. It was much easier than messing around with the A-arm and trying to get the rear mounts to line back up and risking things exploading since the spring is compresed. Here's a couple more pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like with the spring compressor in:

 

what does the term mean indexing ?...Great post by the way....

 

there's two holes on the A-arm on the inside, the end of the last coil needs to cover one of the holes.

 

The front spring needs to be index correctly for the front end to sit at the proper ride height. On the F-body, the bottom coil (the end of bottom coil) of the spring must line up inbetween two drain holes in the lower a-arm assembly for the spring to be correclty 'index' - failure to index the spring will lead to a front end ride height that looks like a 4*4 Musn't forget to have the front coils seat properly up at the top too!
-Andrew

 

ok so you rotate until the holes are covered and both top and bottom are then in the correct spot ?

 

One hole as Boosted mentioned above. Yes.

JamesC

 

Well, I’ll start with that I feel those spring compressors are seriously dangerous… they tend to slip and then do all sort s of unpleasant things.

Where were you getting hung up with doing it with the jack? I doubt that it’s taken me more then 20 minutes any time that I’ve done it that way once you got the LCA bolts out, and the only hassle I ever remember having was when installing some very stiff (almost 1000lb/in) springs and I had to jack the opposite rear corner to get enough weight to compress the spring into the pocket.

 

Whenever I was doing it the a-arm would slide towards the motor and the holes wouldn't line up. I tried prying on it to push it forward but it took forever to finally get them to line up. I just really didn't like the method and came up with this way of doing it and thought I'd share.

The spring compressor is much safer than the jacking method. The compressor has a 5/8" (I think that's what it was) hardened threaded rod with threads that have a deep pitch. I've used spring compressors before that have given out but they were cheap ones. Also this one has the arms offset to compensate for the change in height on the coils. If you're going to strip the threads on this spring compressor then you're gunna need atleast a 2 ft breaker bar to be turning it.

 

Rereading what you wrote… I think I’m a bit confused… you’re lowering the front pivot as far as it will go without removing the rear one? How are you installing the spring? Do you have the ball joint or spindle/strut disassembled?

 

Get the OTC spring compressor tool.

It aint cheap, but it works beautiful.

Goes inside and actually built solidly to trust.

Handy dandy ball bearings too.

U can literally compress springs with your hand(actually have on a few cars)

For lowering/lowered cars I use the compressor and unbolt the arms on our car, its the safest way and goes pretty quick.

later
Jeremy

 

You’re not talking about one of these are you?

 

Yes I am.

Not cheap lol

Work great though.

Stick it in there and crank with your hand on anything but the stiffest springs, or you really have to compress them.

Works like a charm.

I just like the safety factor, if its compressed with something I can trust I can have it bolted on safe in a couple minutes without having to fight anything.

later
Jeremy

 

Heh, that’s the type that I tried the first time I ever did front springs on one of these (must have been like ’91 or so)… a buddy of mine worked at a dealer and brought one over for us to use, the cast plates kept slipping around on the coil surface it with the spring compressed and of the 3 of us hanging out/working on the car none of us had the guts to actually loosen the thing, we were all afraid of loosing our fingers or worse so we finally sat back and drank most of a case of beer and one of us had the bright idea of tossing it up as high as we could in the yard and hiding behind the car when it came down (pretty sure much of this idea was inspired by the beer).

I seem to remember one toss and one of the cast plates either cracked or slid off completely sending the rest of the assembly shooting off like a bullet.

I won’t touch one of those again with a 10’ pole… hell, I wouldn’t touch it with your 10’ pole… (not the exact expression I intended there but you get the idea), at least nowhere near an actual coil spring.

 

No slips never had an issue.

I've done springs at least as many ways as you have.

Current record holder for it is 900+ # on a caprice wagon (lol yes im serious and no its not mine)

Only comparable clamp type with fingers I ever liked was the older Volvo dealer tool version.

Had strong deep fingers to go on the outside of the spring.

I dunno what to tell you, I've used the above OTC setup on prolly 30-40 cars now on A, G, F and B bodies new and old.

Oh well, works for me

 

Good grief, I guess. I was interested enough to do a search. Found one for $267+ and another for over $300. Of course, if I were doing as many springs as you obviously are, the utility would probably overcome price.

JamesC

 

I have never used a spring compressor on an F-Body. I just pull the wheel disconnect the brakes, and sway bar and lower the A-Arm with a jack.. The put the new spring in and jack the A-Arm up.. Works every time for me!

 

you shouldn't be able to index the spring correctly by doing it the way you just posted. The spring will go in but it'll be way off from where it's supposed to be sitting.

 

U can index it just fine.

Might have to put your hands in there :-)

Why I like to use a compressor of some type.

I feel alot safer sticking my fingers in there when I got back up

later
Jeremy

 

The pics aren't coming up. Can you repost with the pics, I"m doing this now and it would be a great help!

 

they work for me

 

I agree with you...I did all my springs in a quick morning, i was surprised at how easy it was!

 

my lowering springs just slip right in the a arms... i say the hardest part was trying to get the stockers out and making sure they dont impale you....