Wanna lend a hand on some short notice?
 

I have a question for anyone who knows how to swap springs. Will you help me tonight? Yes, it's really short notice. Yes, it's a week night. Yes, I'll have some "cold ones" for those who can help. Anyone mind a possible late night? "Black Cory" has said that he will start me in the right direction but he's not sure how long he'll be able to stay. Help.?!

http://seccs.org/forums/images/smilies/icon_cool.gif http://seccs.org/forums/images/smili...embarrased.gif

I can't tonight, but isn't this as easy as...

1. With weight on the car, undo the top nut.
2. Jack up the corner from under the ball joint high enough to place jack stand at normal door sill jack point.
3. remove the wheel
4. insert Jack stand as described
5. lower Jack carefully as the strut/sping pulls out of the upper mount.
6. Compress the piston rod, and remove the spring.
7. Ctrl-Z

edit: You may have to remove the sway bar link or jack up the opposite side first so the suspension can droop.

I would help, but I work. :( However, it looks like I'm available all weekend if that helps. The roll bar I ordered that I thought included a harness bar, didn't, so no point in going out to Lovelock without it. Not to mention the lack of a hotel room this late.

Being my birthday weekend, I'm busy Friday, out of town Sunday and a family lunch on Saturday. If I don't get it done tonight, I might have to do it Saturday night, but my heart is set on getting it done tonight.

About Lovelock, that's not such a bad commute, couple hours, but tiring.

So last night wasn't a the night. My springs will have to wait. Thanks Cory for your time. You tired today?

Yeah it's a pretty easy job to do. The hardest part I had was getting the bolts to pop. But once I got a breaker bar is was cool.

I gotta pack my stuff but good luck.

Naw dude! I'm cool!! You have no idea how many REALLY late nights I've pulled in the name of performance! Ha Ha! If you're still up for it, we very well may be able to do dis on Saturday. My work schedule looks pretty decent, so I should be free in the early afternoon. We can use the shop and the whole shit. I'll let you know dude.

Glad to help, as always!

Thanks again man. You let me know. I'll have to be looking for a new couple rachets and wrenches. And I though craftsman wasn't supposed to break! wow. Talk to you soon.

:lol:

I've broken so many craftsman tools. It's not that Craftsman tools won't break, it's just that when they break, you get them replaced for free. Which doesn't do a lick of good if you break the replacement tool on the same part ;)

True, still looking for some help before this weekend arrives to get my springs done. And some miscellaneous electrical upgrades too.

And now two weeks later, IT's finally done!!!


My Springs are in! Special thanks to Cory for taking time after work to fit me in. We.....I mean HE pulled my car into the shop and banged out what the service manual calls for an 8 hour job, in just 2 1/2 hours. It was simply amazing to watch him work. There wasn't much I could do except push on this, tug on that, and hold this for a second. He is truly a great mechanic.

THANKS DUDE!

So how do you like the springs so far?

I like the stiffness in cornering, I was able to push it hard on the spaghetti bowl and I could feel a difference. I'm surprised that the springs don't really lower the car much if at all at this point, but like Cory said last night, "Givem' time to set, they've never had a car on them."

Well made coil springs don't "take a set". If yours do, they're not well made springs.

Not a problem dude! I am glad we could finally get out schedules together and get this done! I appreciate the praise on my wrenching skills as well!!

I'm not entirely sure that is true. Perfect springs don't take a set, but I'm not aware of a spring material that is perfect.

Unless the springs have been previously placed under similar load for some length of time after manufacture, they will have a tendency to settle under their initial load as the spring material reaches equalibrium under load. With extrmely high quality springs, this may be minimal, especially under relatively light loads and high spring rates found in race cars, but is common on street car suspensions.

What I'm referring to is that with a good quality spring, I can take it out of the box, measure its free length & rate on the spring tester, put it in a car and drive it around for a couple months, pull it out and recheck free length & rate, and they will not have changed measureably. With a cheap spring, they will. That's all there is to it.