Best way to change springs?

i just tried for 3 hours today fiddle ****ing around with an autozone spring compressor, i had to compress the spring onto the A-arm, because when everything was bolted up the lower plate for the compressor would not come out from between the coils.

i wish i had looked this up before i started today, the MFE method sounds so easy now, and i don't see why i didnt think of it before

I used the ford racing lowering springs and had my car on a lift. I didnt use any compressors or chains to hold the spring from firing as I used a tranny jack to lower the control arm. The compression of the tranny jack wasnt nearly fast enough for it to be able to spit out. Should be straight forward through everyones explanations as they are all correct, but the easiest way will be the one you find yourself.

I also am guilty of not using chains when taking springs out, I however do it on jackstands so I used a floor jack to let the spring uncompress. However, it is very very bad practice to do this. A spring uncompressing has enough kinetic energy to turn you inside out

I started swapping out my brakes, and thought "oh what the hell, I'll just swap the springs while I'm at it"

stupid stupid stupid.

I undid the balljoint and tie rod and sway bar, I ended up getting the factory spring out no problem, but tried getting the lowering spring in, big problem.

I tried to loosen the bolts on the inside of the A-arm, but bent two forged wrenches "trying". They just wouldn't budge, I sprayed in some WD40 but I guess it didn't penetrate.

Anyway, I ended up buying a clamshell type compressor for 50 bucks off ebay. I got the factory spring back in (eventually) and it's a little too far past the bottom spring groove. So the left side sits a little high. Then I had to completely disassemble and bend the sht out of it to get it off the spring.

I've decided to wait til I get a new air compressor and some new jacks before I attempt it again. Plus I plan to get a set of extra long wrenches to fit the A-arm bolts.

I've never heard of getting the spirngs banded, what do they use to do this? I understand the compressor part, but what do they band it with?

stangcollecter (your screen name is spelt wrong) i used a breaker bar to break those bolts loose, if you dont have one try a wrench with another one hooked on the open end to get more leverage?

Euphoric306 said:

stangcollecter (your screen name is spelt wrong) i used a breaker bar to break those bolts loose, if you dont have one try a wrench with another one hooked on the open end to get more leverage?

Click to expand...

I know it's spelled wrong, I typed it in stangcollector and it came back as name already used.

I figured as such (breaker bar), however my jack had blew out the hydraulic seal, and I was using the scissor jack, had 90% of my tools stolen including my breaker bars, and was having an all around bad experience with the whole damn thing. I tried using two wrenches and that's how I bent one. So, I figured wait til I get a long set of craftsman's and use a pipe on the end to do it.

So I figured I'd just get it back together to get it on the road and wait til I got my tool collection together to do it.

amnit: Listen to me... I did this three weeks ago.

I tried for 2 weekends fooling with different Spring Compressors... then, we tried it the way StangCollecter is saying... a couple of hours later they were in. Take off the inner side of the control arm and use a tow strap to bring it into place.

Been there done that- Peace

All you guys should know, when it comes to doing anything with big bolts, high torque values, and/or rust etc. There is absolutely no substitute for a 3/4" drive breaker bar, an adapter to fit your 1/2" sockets, a select few 3/4" drive sockets(bought as you need them), and a 3/16" to 1/4" wall piece of pipe about 24-30 inches long. Once you have these things you can add any or all of these other handy tools if you really want to work on your car and not let your car get the better of you: 2 full sets of jackstands, 2 seperate jacks,(with at least one of them being in the 3 1/2 ton range), a big air compressor(60 gallon or so), a nice big air impact wrench,(just like your car, there is no such thing as "too powerfull"). Basically you need to be able to buy anything you need to do the job instead of paying somebody else for labor. Eventually you can do almost anything without even needing a tool that you don't have. Last but not least it helps to have a wife that lets you park your car in the middle of the 2-car side of the garage, while her's sits outside, for a month or more with so much mess all the way around it that she has to jump once, turn twice and duck just to get through the garage to the driveway and she never asks you once when you are going to be done. Sorry for rambling...

HoodStrype said:

amnit: Listen to me... I did this three weeks ago.

I tried for 2 weekends fooling with different Spring Compressors... then, we tried it the way StangCollecter is saying... a couple of hours later they were in. Take off the inner side of the control arm and use a tow strap to bring it into place.

Been there done that- Peace

Click to expand...

tow strap??