steeda lowering springs/caster camber plates

[Sonicaceman]

my brother just bought me steeda lowering springs and caster camber plates for my 93 mustang lx hatchback. i have taken out the back springs when i did the lower control arms but i haven't done anything with the front ones ever. what kind of special tools am i going to need here, about how long should this take doing it in our garage and are there any special tools i might need. i know we might need a pickle fork, and of course an alignment done shortly after the install. i heard you should chain the front springs when you take them out also because they are under a lot of pressure and can possibly fly out. I will need a spring compressor i believe because my current springs i'm guessing are drag springs. as for the caster camber plates is there anything special you have to do to get the old stock plates off? never done the caster camber plates so i'm not sure if the top strut mount bolt requires a special socket? well if anyone has any info. on this please chime in. thanks.

 

[blueink]

do a search for a spring install, nothing special needed, but a floor jack, hammer, sockets and wrenches and a little mechanical sense. Piece of cake really, but if its your first time, id say bout 3-4 hrs should be enought time to do the fronts. It can be done in bout 45Mins or so (I have air tools, and have done it plenty of times before).

 

[2000xp8]

Blueink is right, although there seems to be alot of debate here on the safe way and the quickest way.

The way i do it is, detach tie rods/sway bar links, put a jack under the lower control arm, remove the inner bolts, release jack slowly, then put the new spring in, and jack it back up into place, reinstall the bolts.


This way i mentioned IMO is safe, the spring really can't go too far because the struts and brake/rotor assemlby is blocking it.

BTW, make sure to use new energy suspension isolators (top and bottom) if you don't want to destroy your ride quality.

 

[fordmuscle395]

If you wanna reuse your tie rod boot, use a pitman arm/tie rod puller....I picked it up at auto zone and LOVE IT!! It just presses the tie rod off the spindle. no damage!

When i was removing the front spring i ran a chain through the spring and through the A arm, so it wouldent fly out, then lowered the A arm with a floor jack. Lower it all the way down then pop out the spring with a crow bar!

 

[Sonicaceman]

springs

hey, just did the springs today. i was about to quit until i had a third hand when my bro. came over. basically what we did was take the caliper off, unbolt the sway bar link, turn the wheel all the way to one side, unbolt the strut tower bolt on top, compress the strut and completely take it out, and one of us took a crow bar when the other one pushed down on the a-arm and it came right out. when we put it back in there was some trouble keeping the spring seated when we were raising the a-arm so my bro. had the idea to put a big screw driver in the one hold on the front of the a-arm to prevent the spring from popping out while one person pushed the a-arm down and i jacked the a-arm up. this proved to be very effective for us because when we did the other side it only took about 30 minutes instead of the the 2-3 hrs. we spent on the first side. the back was a breeze, only had to take the shock bolts on the bottom off, lower the rear end in the middle and jack up under the shock mount untill the one side was all the way up, and we took the one spring out on the other side, and repeated it for the other side and used the same method for installing and it worked great. i am going to definitely post pictures in a day or two so everyone can see what it looks like. i'm very happy the steeda springs ride way better than the drag springs i had in there and the handling it awesome. stay tune for some pics. in the near future.

 

[Sonicaceman]

new pictures

here are some pics of the car since the springs have been put on. no top isolators in the front, but bottom and same out back with the rear springs. i have 17x9 cobra replica's also with 245/45/zr17 falcon azenis tires. no rubbing when i turn either. let me know what ya think. i will get better pics on a nice sunny day when that comes around on my day off, lol.

 

[fordmuscle395]

lookin good friend