Hello to all. I hope I am not beating a dead horse here. I am trying to take off my lower control arms to replace them with new old stock ones. I came up on some with bushings and ball joints already installed. My question is how can I safely compress the coils in order to remove them. I have noticed that there is not much room in there to fit coil compressors. Is there any tips out there where someone used a "trick" to take them out? I appreciate all the help on this as I am anxious to drive my car again before I have to put it away for the winter again.. Thank you all in advance.
1986 cutlass supreme front coils
- Thread starter LOCOGOMEZ
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The correct way to do it according to GM
Raise front of vehicle.support it with jack stands.remove the shocks.remove sway bar links.place jack under the control arm.jack it up to put pressure on control arm.remove the 2 bolts through the bushings.do not undo the ball joint.lower jack.
Put the springs back in using the same procedure.you may need to loop a chain from the frame under the jack.
The spring wont go anywhere.the pocket in the frame will keep it from kicking sideways and flying out.
A spring compressor will not work.its more of a pain in the *ss than its worth.not enough room to get it in there.
Raise front of vehicle.support it with jack stands.remove the shocks.remove sway bar links.place jack under the control arm.jack it up to put pressure on control arm.remove the 2 bolts through the bushings.do not undo the ball joint.lower jack.
Put the springs back in using the same procedure.you may need to loop a chain from the frame under the jack.
The spring wont go anywhere.the pocket in the frame will keep it from kicking sideways and flying out.
A spring compressor will not work.its more of a pain in the *ss than its worth.not enough room to get it in there.
Is there any concerns of the jack kicking out when lowering it? I guess raising the car high enough to be able to release almost all the tension, right? I appreciate the help and your comments. That's why I like this forum....
The floor jack method is what I've always used. I bolted a chain around the frame and through the spring for safety. I hoped it would contain it or at least slow it down if something bad happened. I have a "pickle fork" for separating the ball joint. I put the tension on it with the jack as above, loosen the ball joint nut then run it back on leaving a bit of threads and use the pickle fork to separate the joint. Then remove the nut and slow;y release the jack.
On my Regal I removed my old springs using the heavy duty chain through the frame and coil method but to install the new ones I used the cut down spring compressor that pontiacgp posted, this is the only method that would safely work getting the new springs lined up so they could seat properly when I did it.
With that being said... where can a set like that be found at? If a set can't be found is it pretty easy or just unsafe to do it with the floor jack method?
I have successfully removed springs as detailed by Texas T, I have been able to get a set of 2" lowering springs back in with a jack, but not a hope in hell of getting a set of 5660's in with a jack...spring compressor is the way to go so you don't hurt yourself badly
I used heavy gauge wire and looped several strands through the spring with the suspension compressed because i couldn't get my spring compressors to fit in there. Once the ball joint nuts are removed the spring stays compressed from the wire. I did the same to reinstall. Just cut the wires when your done.
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