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I am having a hell of a time getting my springs to sit correct. I have used internal compressor external and no compressor. Everytime I go to put it in the cup it slides into the ramp and gets stuck. Its frustrating Im messsing up the finish on my arms and am not happy any tips is very appreciated. thanx
It is more difficult to install the springs on the UMI K member. The factory K member's spring pockets are gently slopped towards the coils of the spring. Having it that way allows you to locate the spring in the top pocket, put a floor Jack under the ball joint and slowly Jack it up to fix the spring in place. That will not work with a UMI K member because UMI uses a a tube about 1.5" tall that is nearly exactly the same ID as the springs OD. What I had to do was take a plate of 1/8" metal and drill a hole in it for the spring compressor's bolt to pass through and then I would tighten it and compress the spring as much as possible.
If that doesn't work you could try removing the two A arm bolts and putting a floor jack under the A arm with the spring on top and slowly jack the spring into the pocket. Unfortunately there is no easy way. To be honest I've done it enough times that I purchased a set of weight jacks so I wouldn't be cursing and wasting umpteen time anytime I needed to reinstall the springs.
similar thing happened with mine. and still kinda does
moog springs seem to be the same diameter as the UMI cup on the a-arms is, causing them to bind. sometimes when i jack up the front of my car, the springs are so tight in the cup that the body sits up a few inches high, until i go for a short ride over a bumpy road in my neighborhood. I'm still living with it and it is more of an annoyance than a problem but I am thinking maybe I should disassemble everything and sand off some of the powdercoating on the inside of the cup so they seat without getting hungup better.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...ushings-2.html
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I've never done the sandwich method. But, I have tried to visualize the method others have described. Here is the the sandwich method as I understand it. Please feel free to correct me if I've incorrectly described it.
The sandwich method (as I understand it) works best if you run a strong ratchet strap from one side of the underside of the body of your floor jack, and then over the K-member, and then back down to the other side of the underside of your floor jack.
Without the ratchet strap, you may end up lifting the whole front of the car off your jack stands using the sandwich method.
You will need to take up the slack on the ratchet strap as you pump the floor jack. This better be the best ratchet strap you can afford, because I think this method is asking a lot of the ratchet strap.
I stole an image from another member's post to use as a reference. I added the thick red line on the right. The thick red line is the path I believe the ratchet strap must take when using the sandwich method.
Remember, the sandwich method is using the force of gravity (weight of the car), and the force of a ratchet strap to compress the spring while the front of your car is balanced on jack stands. My biggest concern about the sandwich method is the dance you will have to do with the floor jack under the control arm in order to simultaneously position the control-arm bushings to line up with the mounting points on the body while also using the floor jack to compress (sandwich) the spring.
I almost think you would be best served if you use TWO floor jacks. One to do the heavy lifting of compressing ("sandwiching") the control arm against the spring, and serving as a tie-down point for the ratchet strap. Then, use the second floor jack to finesse the bushing-ends of the control arms into the exact location to allow you to get the control arm pivot bolts installed.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the parts and concepts here, what you are looking at in the pic is the part known as the "K-Member." This is the view of a stripped K-member, viewing from above the car. As if you were, standing on the dash, looking into the engine bay, with the hood removed. Your engine bolts to the K-member by way of two motor mounts. If you look carefully, just to the the left of the red line, you can see the outline of where one of the motor mounts was present before the K-member was stripped. On the opposite side, you can actually see the motor-mount outline a little bit better. The motor mount is actually your friend in the sandwich method, as the motor mount will limit how far your ratchet strap can creep out of position while the strap is being tightened. The spring has to be sandwiched under the circular "bumps" you see on each side of the K-member.
I ended up having to angle cut the open end of the spring to slide pass the open hole in the pocket. honestly I love the components but I dont like the fact I just beat the hell out of my finish to get that spring in. Also this was with hotchkis lowering springs. Bless the guys doing this with the k member and arms with factory springs. I would burn the car down cursing up a storm.
I had a write up about this a while back. Simple method was to tie the back of the spring to the back of the spring pocket with a piece of Romex. Thats enough to keep it from popping out when you compress the control arm.
