Worked on the wagon today

[papabearxl]

So I had to wait till the little lady got off of work so I could work on the wagon. I was planning on taking the front coils out, and cutting them. The rear is wheretoday, I like it, but is much lower than the front. I would rather lower the front, than raise the rear, as far as stance goes.
So I start about 4pm today, and figure I have a couple hours till dark, or thunderstorm. I get the car on stands, drop one of the end links, get the shock off....man I am psyched cause I'm getting this thing apart. The suspension hardware, like the rest of the car, is in very good shape. Much better than the 87 Salon. I start working on getting the coil spring compressor routed up through the shock location. The top ears won't stay vertical so I decide to take some speaker wire I have in my toolbox and loosely tie them up so they will fit up through the coil better. Worked great. As I tried getting the lower ears of the compressor through the bottom, I tried the same thing of tieing the ears together but they wouldn't fit. I could get one of the ears, and the adjusting plate through, but not both ears.....that's when lightning and thunder and rain came down on me......gonna try and go back tomorrow to finish it up........and try to figure out how I'm going to get that bottom of the compressor in.........rain rain go away.......

For the hour I worked on the wagon, and considering this is a job I haven't ever done before, I am happy with the progress, before it rained.

 

[krazykyle]

garage is needed

 

[anakputa]

Lift the car up on jackstands, put the jackstand on the frame safely. Next put the jack on the lower control arm, put pressure on the lower control arm just enough to see the spindle and arm move. Then unbolt the ball joint but leave the nut on the last few threads.Lower the jack just a little bit but still keep the lower control supported. Carefully tap the spindle by the ball joint until you hear a pop and see the ball joint move. Then carefully lower the jack with the lower control arm on it and the spring will fall out of the perch. Cut how many coils you need. Then install the spring, jack up the lower control arm slowly and then install the balljoint with the nut and tighten it and use a new cotter pin..

Those spring compressors like to slip etc and you could get hurt..

 

[shotgun]

anakputa, you must be dealing with some pretty wooped springs. I have never had one fall out.

papabearxl,just did my wagons up at the shop, took one coil off which equaled a 1 3/4" drop, your mileage my vary.

Here is a good link for you , the way I do it is about 1/2 way down : viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19114

 

[papabearxl]

I did borrow the compressor from Autozone. It is the kind with the 2 "ears" top and bottom. The only real oroblem I had was how the lower hole is cut (where the shock goes through).....thought about tring to open it up a little bit, but only if nothing else works. More t-storms called for the rest of the week...as usual this time of year in east Tennessee. But I figure I can work on it an hour or two a day, it'll be back on the road in a couple days. I work on it at my Mom's house, in the concrete driveway and all (majority) of my tools are there......jacks, air compressor, air tools, just cause we don't have the space or pavement at our house........gotta love working on it in the gravel!

Will have to wait till my fiance' gets home from work, to watch the boys. The wagon has the 3.8, and figure I will have to change the springs out again if I ever get to put a v8 in her, but that's a long way off. I am looking to drop the front about 2 inches to level the stance out, as the front is waaaaay too high. Rear springs sagging (would figure that's the culprit) although it could just be that someone replaced the front springs only (with new stock, or heavier spring) at some time, since I noticed the end links were Energy suspension, someone has been working on the suspension, at some time.

Would be a lot easier to change/raise the rear, but I like it where it sits out back,and want the front the same.

Thanks to all of you for the support.

 

[papabearxl]

And I don't underestimate the lethality of the springs.......I have been working with coils for 15 years at my company. We manufacture, calibrate and test spring hangers for heavy industry (power plants, refineries, etc), and I have personally put 100k pounds on springs in the past..........not something to play around with.

 

[Blake442]

True, springs can be dangerous, and it's always better to be safe than sorry.

On the flip side of that, I've pulled dozens of front suspensions apart, and never used a spring compressor to remove them.

I do it the way anakputa described, but with a few differences.
"Carefully tapping" the spindle will never release the ball joint. It takes a pickle fork and a BFH.
The spring won't fall out of the perch once the lower arm is fully dropped. You'll need to pry the spring out past the hump in the spring pocket on the lower arm. Then it falls right out. If you're nervous about that step, just secure it with a chain. It's not going anywhere.

And a tip, pull the brakes and dust shields before dropping the lower arm. Just makes it easier to work, and you won't risk having the lower arm catch and destroy the dust shields... ask how I know... :lol:

 

[bowtietillidie85SS]

Get anything done today??

 

[papabearxl]

Not a thing..........stormed worse today than yesterday evening...........I think I saw locusts and frogs coming out of the sky........... :evil:

 

[bowtietillidie85SS]

lol oh well