I'm freaking out a bit here. Ball joint, sway bar, and tie rod are all undone. I have the car on jack stands with no motor or tranny. This is the 3rd unsuccessful night of trying to remove the front coil springs. My biggest problem is I'm scared of it slipping and hurting myself. I've tried 2 different sets of coil spring compressors. The first set had the 2 sets of hooks. It kept slipping. The second has a set of hooks up top and a plate on the bottom. Still slipped when compressing. I've tried going as far as I can on the compressors and let the a arm down with my jack. The spring still doesnt want to come out. What am I doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated

 

Normally, the compressor is used to install the springs.

If the car is high enough on stands, chain the spring to the A-arm (for safety's sake) and drop the arm. That should be enough to release the spring. On occasion I've had to use a pry bar, but even that wasn't a real issue.

JamesC

 

I used a coil spring compressor like this one (see attachment)

Install the spring compressor with the hex end (where the wrench goes) on the top.
You have to get the arms as close to the ends of the spring as you can and then tighten the compressor as much as you can. I wrapped electrical tape around the coils to stop the compressor from slipping.
Also, notice that the arms are offset so you have to install the tool correctly.

 

I'll try the pry bar then. I tried dropping them with out any compressor and it wouldn't come out. I have a ratchet strap wrapped around a coil going to the cross member so it doesn't kick out. Will that work in place of chaining the coil to the a arm?

 

Yep yep. The spring isn't under a whole lot of tension with the arm all the way down but the ratchet strap is a good idea just to be sure. When I did mine I just pried it out and stood out of the line of fire... it bounced a little bit but it didn't go far, I don't think it had enough poop behind it to cause death or injury worth mentioning, obviously I wouldn't have stuck my face or other, uh, important body parts in front of it though haha. With both the ratchet strap AND standing off to the side a little you should be safe. Going back in is the dangerous part. If you aren't using weight jacks or lowering springs, you will definitely want to use a compressor and a chain and treat it like a loaded gun (don't stick anything valuable in front of the top or bottom of the spring- just wind it down safely where it won't slip, position it and start jacking and get the steering knuckle and strut bolted on as fast as possible). Good luck!

 

Planning on replacing the springs with some lowing springs while I'm at it. Thanks for the advice.

 

the proper way is to just lower the control arm with the jack under the balljoint until the spring either falls out or comes out with a little help from a pry bar... the lack of an engine means that you might not have enough weight on the front of the car to keep tension on the spring without the car raising up off the jackstands, so you can loop a piece of chain around the front axle of the jack and around the frame somewhere in the vicinity to contain the forces and allow you to lower the jack until the spring comes out...

another alternative: since you are replacing the springs, anyways, get in there with a torch and cut it in half..

 

Ha, if only there wasn't a fiberglass shelby in there right now, I'd be lighting **** up. Its gone Wednesday

 

here's what i meant by chaining the frame down to the front axle of the floor jack to keep pressure on the spring without engine weight to hold the car down:



this was on a 70 Nova, but the same principle can apply to pretty much any car with a spring mounted like this..