H&R Lowering Spring installation

[JenkinsBS]

So ive done some searches on how to install or how hard it is to install some new springs on my 86 fox - and really came up with nothing, except that my bolts could be rusted for life to the sleeves they're in on the FCA's - Will this be too large of a headache to undertake?

I have both a haynes and a chiltons manual for the car, and am wondering - would you guys attempt to install your own lowering springs on an 86 fox, or would you take it into a shop to have it done?

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Ok, we are doing a full suspension on the 92. We are in the process of changing rear lower control arms so the springs had to come out. It's just nuts and bolts. I'd say give it a whirl. You will need more than one floor jack and make sure you have an extra person. We are finishing it this weekend then doing a full suspension up front.

No post of mine would be complete without pics.

TeamZ lower control arms with Strange 5-way adjustable shocks.

Getting all this to line up wasn't real fun, I'll be honest.

 

[JenkinsBS]

Hehe, thanks VibrantRedGT - you are like, my go to guy right now.

The mustang is not my daily driver (well, it is, unless its raining), so i can have it up in the air for a few days - ill follow the directions in my chiltons/haynes and prey that none of my bolts are stuck.

I feel more comfortable changing out the springs than changing out my own rear end gears

So its just nuts and bolts for both front and rear? And will i need to get spring clamps to keep the springs compressed when i jack up the rear and front to remove them?

And re-installing the new ones, im not exactly sure on how i would do that seeing as how i cant compress the new springs to put the clamps on them

 

[VibrantRedGT]

My suggestion to you would be this. REAR SPRINGS- Jack up the rear on the axle pumpkin housing (don't forget to put boards in the front part and rear part of the front tires), put your jack stands on both sides, move your jack and put under the rear control arm, jack it up a bit to take the pressure off the bolts (go all the way up until it's about to lift off the jack stands), now zip off your lower control arm bolt, have another person hold that spring, bring your jack down off the lower control arm, the spring will just pull out now. Ok, here's the fun part, put your new spring in (make sure the top and bottom coil is facing IN), use your jack to jack up your rear control arm, now you got to get the holes to line up so you can put that bolt back in.

FRONT SPRINGS- Jack the front of the car up on the middle part of the K-Member (make sure you have the car in gear and emergency brake on), put your jack stands on both side of the frame (behind the front wheels, no your suspension will be hanging in the wind, take your jack to one side and jack it up under the front A-Arm (take pressure off the bolts), now zip off your bolts, your goal is to get the front A-Arm to sag enough for the spring to come out. Some say you will need a spring compressor, I've done springs galore and it's not needed. Now put the spring back in (coils in) and bolt everything back up. Hope that makes sense.

 

[IN2FORD]

When I did my springs, I could not get the front a arm to drop enough to get the spring in. So I borrowed one of the spring compressors that compresses from the inside of the spring, set the spring in and put the a arm back together. Then slowly let the pressure off until the spring compressor came apart so that I could slip it out through the hole in the a-arm. not too bad. I have had others say just put your jack under the a-arm to take pressure off, and remove the two bolts that mounts the a-arm to the frame and put the springs in from the back side. According to them that is the easiest way. The rear suspension is the easiest.

Barry

 

[JenkinsBS]

That is brilliant! I think i will get started on this ASAP, i have everything required.

The only thing i want to clarify is during the rear spring removal, you say "have someone hold the spring", is that so when i let the jack down from the controll arm it does boing out and fly all over the place? And how concenred should this person be about their saftey?

 

[2000xp8]

For the rear just put the car on jackstands on the frame, put the jack under the rear, remove the lower shock bolts, then let the jack out.

 

[zookeeper]

Yup. If you can't swap rear springs in 20 minutes, you're not really trying. The fronts are a different story...

 

[MFE92]

This is the procedure I’ve used to change front springs in a Fox-body Mustang without the use of a spring compressor, which due to packaging of the front end components is often a source of frustration. And unlike other methods that require disconnecting the struts and actually prying the springs in and out, this one lets the spring completely decompress so that no unsafe prying is required.

Bear in mind that compressed springs contain a lot of stored energy. I am documenting the steps I took to perform this operation and although I am comfortable performing this task you should know that as with any job if you do it you do so at your own risk.

Required tools:

- Floor jack
- a 2nd jack, a bottle jack is preferred (and cheap) but a small floor jack will suffice
- 2 Jackstands
- some blocks of wood or other stand for the bottle jack
- A roofing bar (preferred) or other crowbar-type thing
- A good socket wrench is preferred, with the following sockets mandatory, box wrenches a less attractive alternative:
--- 21 mm deep
--- 24 mm deep
--- 15 mm deep
- penetrating oil
- a "persuader" made of a roughly 12-inch length of roughly 2-inch pipe. Slipped over a wrench and used to effectively lengthen it, it is invaluable when it comes to applying real torque to really tight bolts.
- a small hammer
- a medium sized flat blade screwdriver

Now on to how I've done the install:

Block the rear wheels, raise the front, and place jackstands in the inboard ends of the K-member, inboard of where the control arms attach. Keep in mind you'll want all available floor space to place the jacks under the inner side of the A-arm so the stands will need to be pretty close together.

Remove the front tires. Undo the lower swaybar end links (15 mm deep).

Spray some penetrating oil on the nuts and bolts that attach the inner end of the A-arm to the K-member.

Loosen the inner a-arm bolts but do not remove the bolts yet. You won't be able to, but don't even try. Breaking these loose will require a lot of torque on the 24mm. The bolt on the other end is 21 mm, put a wrench on that for leverage.

With the nuts loose, place a floor jack at the inside lip of the A-arm, between the mounting ears.

Raise the jack until you can see the tension taken off one of the bolts (probably the rearward one first). Punch the bolt out with a small hammer and jockey with the jack until you can remove the bolt. You may want to insert the screwdriver to keep things roughly centered while you remove the other bolt, just don’t forget to remove the screwdriver before lowering the assembly.

Place the second jack so it will raise the other ear of the arm while you position the rest of the arm with the first jack. The arm will bend a bit if unsupported so you need the second jack for the second bolt.

Notice that the spring is in a perch and can't squirt out. Notice it's in a perch at the top too. Notice that when you lower the jacks, the spring will decompress vertically and that thanks to the strut and the tie rod still being attached it is very unlikely the spring will ever squirt out. But don't have your head in the wheelwell nonetheless and if you're the real nervous type tie it to the K-member with a piece of rope or something. Lower it until the spring is fully decompressed, which will happen well before the jack gets to the bottom of its travel.

With the jack lowered and out of the way, swing the A-arm to the rear and the spring will practically fall out.

Cut the insulator off the bottom lengthwise so it will come off, then wind it onto the bottom of your new spring.

Clean off the crud out of the lower spring perch.

Position the spring so the bottom end (the one that isn't flattened) ends up between the two holes in the spring pocket. Position it in its pocket at the top, which may require raising the jack a bit just to hold it in place, and then get the jack positioned so the A-arm is roughly lined up.

Raise the jack and guide the A-arms into place. A little WD-40 type stuff on the pockets in the K-member eases the positioning process.

When you get at least one of the ears situated roughly (probably the rearward one), you'll probably have to pry on the ear out a bit to get the boltholes to line up. Insert the prybar from the bottom between the K-member pocket and the ear on the A-arm and you can move the arm in and out pretty easily. By being precise with the jack and prying a bit if necessary you'll be able to slip the bolt right through and seat it. Place the nut on it for safekeeping but don’t tighten it down yet.

Place the second jack under the other ear just like you did to remove its bolt, and positioning the jacks and wiggling things around as necessary, pop the second bolt through and install the nut but don’t tighten it.

DOUBLE CHECK that you haven't bumped a jackstand out of the way in the process. It’s easy to do because raising the A-arm will probably lift that side off the stand and it’s easy to bump it out of the way when you move the jack around. So easy you might not notice you moved it so trust me on this, before you lower the jacks, double check the placement of the jackstands.

Lower the jacks and put one under the balljoint and raise it until the assembly simulates ride height position. This is so the bushings get torqued down in their natural position (If you don't do this you'll be "preloading" the bushings when at ride height). This will probably raise that side off the jackstand a bit again but that’s OK, leave it right where it is for safety. Tighten the nuts down now. I don't have a torque reading but suffice to say it's tight as hell.

You're about 1.5 hours into the job and you're done with that side.

Don't replace the swaybar end link nuts until you finish with the other side.

Now do the other side as outlined above. Reattach the swaybar endlinks when you’re done. You may have to pry on them a bit to give yourself enough clearance. When all is said and done you should be about 3 hours down with the whole front done.

NOW FOR THE REARS

Block the front wheels and raise the rear end. Leave the floorjack under the diff, and place the rear end on jackstands just ahead of where the lower control arms connect.

Remove the rear wheels.

Disconnect one side of the swaybar (15mm Deep)

Undo the lower shock mount, fasteners vary but it may be a Torx and it may be a 15mm 18mm combo.

Remove the quad shocks.

Lower the jack so the axle drops as far as you can without pulling the rear brake flex line.

Now put a second jack under one end of the axle and raise that end as high as you can.

You can now probably just pluck the low-side's spring out. If not, have a helper stand on the low end of the axle to help it the last little bit and pull the spring out, it’s not under any compression at this point.

Swap isolators to the new spring, orient it so the flat side is up and the bottom pigtail points to the drivers side (for BOTH springs).

Lower the high-side jack, make sure the new spring is seated properly, and repeat the process for the other side.

When you’re done, raise the diff back up, reconnect the quad shocks and shocks. Re-attach the swaybar, reinstall the wheels, lower the car and you're done in way under an hour.

 

[2000xp8]

Yup. If you can't swap rear springs in 20 minutes, you're not really trying. The fronts are a different story...

Once you get a little practice with the fronts (lowering springs not drag springs), believe it or not you can do them in 20 minutes.
I know, when i did my engine swap, i attempted to use cut 03 cobra springs.
I did them a quarter of a coil at a time and when it got close like an 1/8 at a time.
Probably did it 6 times.
Half the job is having the right tools out, that usually takes 20 minutes by itself.
Lowering springs will go in with just unbolting the tie rod, caliper and shocks from the spindles.
None of this applies to drag springs.

For the record, all my work was for nothing, just couldn't get the height where i wanted it without coil overs.

 

[JenkinsBS]

My suggestion to you would be this. REAR SPRINGS- Jack up the rear on the axle pumpkin housing (don't forget to put boards in the front part and rear part of the front tires), put your jack stands on both sides, move your jack and put under the rear control arm, jack it up a bit to take the pressure off the bolts (go all the way up until it's about to lift off the jack stands), now zip off your lower control arm bolt, have another person hold that spring, bring your jack down off the lower control arm, the spring will just pull out now. Ok, here's the fun part, put your new spring in (make sure the top and bottom coil is facing IN), use your jack to jack up your rear control arm, now you got to get the holes to line up so you can put that bolt back in.

FRONT SPRINGS- Jack the front of the car up on the middle part of the K-Member (make sure you have the car in gear and emergency brake on), put your jack stands on both side of the frame (behind the front wheels, no your suspension will be hanging in the wind, take your jack to one side and jack it up under the front A-Arm (take pressure off the bolts), now zip off your bolts, your goal is to get the front A-Arm to sag enough for the spring to come out. Some say you will need a spring compressor, I've done springs galore and it's not needed. Now put the spring back in (coils in) and bolt everything back up. Hope that makes sense.

So now that weve got 3 seperate ways of changing the fronts out - and Vibrants seems the easiest, as it dosnt look like i need to unbolt the calipers, tie rods, ect - is that correct Vibrant?

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Actually I don't think the brake lines are long enough to leave the caliper on the A-Arm. It's only 2 extra bolts to zip the calipers off. Some have mentioned a spring compression tool, if you got one use it, if not it's not required. We aren't using one currently and it's not slowing us down. Some mentioned the front A-Arm won't come down far enough to relieve the spring. I haven't seen that one yet with our project. If that's the case then maybe use the spring compression tool. If you don't have one they can be bought for under $25 at Harbor Freight Tools or your local Auto Parts store may let you rent it.

 

[2000xp8]

I've done springs at least 20 times over my life, friends, family, and my own car.
The spring tool is useless.
Once the struts, caliper and tie rod are disconnected and the arm is lowered there is barely any tension on the spring if it stays in.
If it's stuck, simply tie a rope through a loop and pull it out. (assuming you have the car supported correctly)

 

[JenkinsBS]

The car will be supported correctly (safty first) - so undoing the tie rods and putting them back on is somthing ive not done before - im sure the chiltons manual will oiutline how to do it, but is it pretty self explanatory?

Also, how to i get i be sure i get the allignment back in good enough to where i can drive it somwehere to have it done properly?

 

[2000xp8]

If you are going straight to an alignment shop, just eye ball it, a few miles on misaligned tires is no big deal.
It's long highway trips where the tires get warm that you burn the rubber off.

The tie rods are not self explanatory, never used a chiltons so who knows.

But, remove the pin and castle nut, then hit the spindle on the side by the tie rod end.
Sounds wierd, but it will fall out.
DO NOT hit the bolt downwards, you will ruin the threads.

 

[JenkinsBS]

ok, so remove the pin and the castle nut, then hit it horizontally, and the bolt holding it in will drop out?

Ive done this on an 79 chevy before, so im semi famalliar on how to, but that was using spring compressers.

The day is tuesday this week ill be putting her up in the air to do this - do you guys recomend i do the backs then fronts? or fronts then backs?

 

[ID89GT]

Great thread, ill be using this info for when I do mine. I got some Bbk lowering springs, 95 front spindles and 04 front Cobra brakes I gotta install. Dumb question, but how do I know what springs go in the front and rear haha. Will it be obvious which goes where when I tear into it? I bought them used so no info came with them

 

[zookeeper]

Once you get a little practice with the fronts (lowering springs not drag springs), believe it or not you can do them in 20 minutes.
I know, when i did my engine swap, i attempted to use cut 03 cobra springs.
I did them a quarter of a coil at a time and when it got close like an 1/8 at a time.
Probably did it 6 times.
Half the job is having the right tools out, that usually takes 20 minutes by itself.
Lowering springs will go in with just unbolting the tie rod, caliper and shocks from the spindles.
None of this applies to drag springs.

For the record, all my work was for nothing, just couldn't get the height where i wanted it without coil overs.

I've carefully read enough of your posts to know that if you write it, it's absolutely fact. I have not one doubt you could do it in 20 minutes and only wished you lived close enough for me to call you to help drop my stock-height '88. I've dropped lots of older cars, but never a strut-type front end. Of course until this past weekend I'd never replaced the leaking intake gaskets on my '88 and now that it's done, I'm confident I can do it in half the time if I did it again.

 

[2000xp8]

I've carefully read enough of your posts to know that if you write it, it's absolutely fact. I have not one doubt you could do it in 20 minutes and only wished you lived close enough for me to call you to help drop my stock-height '88. I've dropped lots of older cars, but never a strut-type front end. Of course until this past weekend I'd never replaced the leaking intake gaskets on my '88 and now that it's done, I'm confident I can do it in half the time if I did it again.

I appreciate the vote of confidence.
Unfortunately i've learned alot of things the hard way too.
I also benefit from having a good friend in the mustang building business.

 

[JenkinsBS]

So when installing the new springs into the car, is there anything special that needs to be done after getting them seated in properly?

Do i need to twist them to face any certain direction / let them sit for a specific ammount of time before driving?

Getting a bit antsy as i will be starting the project tomorrow