Replacing the front springs on my '85 GT. To make things a bit easier getting the old springs out, I cut them in half. The first one came up after a bit of persuasion, but the second on is stuck up there good. I've tried a pry bar, bf screwdriver, brute force, everything I can think of. Any tips/tricks for getting this off?
After getting the knuckle out of the way and dropping the LCA as far down as it would go, I pried the spring off the lower perch. It was still jammed in so tight that I couldn't even move it. Rather than go through the same on the right side, I skipped right to the cutting. Maybe not the best thing to do, but I couldn't see any other way to get the springs out from between the frame and the control arm.
Originally posted by NetCam: I skipped right to the cutting. Maybe not the best thing to do, but I couldn't see any other way to get the springs out from between the frame and the control arm.
If you hadn't chopped the spring in half, you could have detached the lower control arm, to give yourself some room to work. Then you could yank on the spring to break it free. With only half the spring remaining, you're going to have half the leverage, which will make the job more difficult.
That said, with a long enough pry bar, you should be able to break it free.
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 11-17-2013).]
Cameron, sounds like you're not getting the lower arm to rotate down out of the way enough, try spaying the bushings with some PB blaster, If you jack the car enough, you should be able to just step on the lower arm, rotating it downward will relieve the pressure, then you just pull it out. If it's stuck it's probably just the rubber at the top of the spring, wrap a strap on it and pull, wear your motorcycle helmet, lol
[This message has been edited by rourke_87_T-Top (edited 11-17-2013).]
Went out this morning, and as suggested by Rob, put some PB blaster on it, got the nozzle right in under the grooves of the rubber ring and gave it as many blasts as I could. Let it sit for about a half hour and gave it a good yank, and out it came. Having the rest of the spring on there wouldn't have made any difference in the amount of leverage I could get on it, I made sure I left enough to get the crowbar under the lowest coil and still pry on the bump stop.
Having the rest of the spring on there wouldn't have made any difference in the amount of leverage I could get on it, I made sure I left enough to get the crowbar under the lowest coil and still pry on the bump stop.
Glad to hear you got the spring out, but you asked for advice in your earlier thread and didn't follow it.
quote
Originally posted by Patrick:
With the lower control arm hanging down (push it further down with your foot if need be), a little pressure behind the bottom of the spring with a crowbar will pop it right out.
With the lower control arm hanging down (push it further down with your foot if need be), a little pressure behind the bottom of the spring with a crowbar will pop it right out.
Actually that's exactly what we did do that on the first spring, and it jammed in between the bump stop and the LCA. No matter how hard we pushed down, we couldn't get the control arm pushed out of the way enough to get the spring off, it was just arced half on and half off and pushed against the outside of the lower perch after we pried it over. When I went on to the 2nd, we didn't have any more wire to keep the spring compressed, so we figured it was going to be worse and went straight to cutting the spring.
[This message has been edited by NetCam (edited 11-17-2013).]
Actually that's exactly what we did do that on the first spring, and it jammed in between the bump stop and the LCA. No matter how hard we pushed down, we couldn't get the control arm pushed out of the way enough to get the spring off...
I'm not exactly an expert by any means, but I've done this to two '84s, two '86s and an '88... and I've never had a problem getting the LCA tilted down low enough for the spring to pop off with little effort. As I mentioned in your other thread, I put a chain through the spring to discourage it from jumping too far.
I don't know what you were doing any differently, but with the tie rod and lower ball joint disconnected from the knuckle, and with the knuckle/UCA raised up out of the way, the spring will come out of there without a lot of drama.
For some reason the LCA wouldn't go down as far as I expected, I heard some people say that by putting pressure down it should go almost vertical. Mine was nowhere near that, which is why we had so much trouble. The chain, yeah, I made sure I did that, made a last minute run to Home Depot the night before to pick up some chain for the job. After I popped the spring, the chain was pretty tight, so it appears to have done the job.
[This message has been edited by NetCam (edited 11-17-2013).]
