Morning All, I have an 88 front cross member out of the car and sitting on the floor and wanted to remove the springs. Am looking for thoughts on how to safely remove the springs. Found plenty of posts of spring removal with the cross member mounted but none (so far) when the cross member is out.

Thanks!

For starters, with the cross member out there won't be much tension on the springs so you can tie a rope or a chain from the lower control arm sway bar hole up to the shock tower. Leave an inch or two of slack, then separate the lower ball joint from the knuckle using whatever your favorite method is (pickle fork, ball joint separator, etc). Just be aware that when the ball joint lets go, the lower control arm will swing out under the remaining force of the spring so don't have anything you value in the line of fire!.

Set it up on jack stands so the lower a-arm has plenty of room to go down further, leave the shock in place, pop loose the lower ball joint stud, loosen the nuts at the top of the shock. The a-arm will drop as the upper shock nut is removed, but with the lower portion of the shock still installed, the spring can't go anywhere. Once the shock stud is free, remove the bottom 2 shock bolts, pull the shock, push down on the lower a-arm and pop the spring free.

Unless you are cutting the springs or installing lowering springs, it will be difficult to reinstall the spring with it out of the car. Easiest way is to get a 24" piece of all thread and once the spring is in place, use the all thread in the shock location and compress the spring until you can attach the lower ball joint stud.

pop loose lower BJ, Remove sway bar & shock, and use spring compressor.
BJ... Loosen BJ nut, do not remove the nut, then use Rondey's tool etc.
spring tool... Likely free from AZ loaner tools etc. Need internal type tool.

that way you don't guess what method work on a section w/o mounted in a car.

Do Not use pickle fork on a joint to reuse.

You likely need some pressure on spring to unload the shock to remove the shock.

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Thanks everyone...i'll post the results

quote Originally posted by theogre: ....use spring compressor. spring tool... Likely free from AZ loaner tools etc. Need internal type tool.

Are internal compressors available which fit inside the '88 front springs?

I thought it was the inavailability of such compressors that made this project tricky.

quote Originally posted by css9450: Are internal compressors available which fit inside the '88 front springs? I thought it was the inavailability of such compressors that made this project tricky.

AZ doesn't have them as loaners but many companies still make them.
I found many on Google. What fits? Not sure.
Google: coil spring compressor

In the car... no need to use them.
Just a cross-member then very easy to slip and throw parts around.

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 11-19-2013).]