I'm getting frustrated. I've got the whole front end done except for these new coil springs. My problem is that they keep jumping out of the compressor before I've compressed enough to connect the lower a-arm to the upper. This is dangerous! You should see all the stuff go flying when it pops out under pressure. It almost kicked the car off the jack stands. I've even tried to put the floor jack under the lower arm and jack the spring against the weight of the car. Doesn't work, there's no engine in the car or fenders so I've got no weight up front to help me out. Thought the rebuild would be easier while the front end was still disassembled. Any words of wisdom before tomorrow would be great.
John
Not sure what style of compressor you're using, but I'm guessing that it may be the wrong style? The one that I use is one large threaded bolt with a pair of hooks on each end that slides through the spring and hooks into the next to last coil on each end. You can crank the thing down until the spring is nearly coil bound if need be. Once you get the balljoint attatched you release the tension and slide it out through the lower A-arm through the shock hole. Either that or invite as many "large" friends as you can over and break the floorjack back out! Good Luck & be careful.
I remember what a PITA that is. I rebuilt my front end while my motor was out, figured it would make things easier. I had the type of compressor that was a long threaded piece in the center and then on each end it had two hook looking things that were hinged. I think this is the correct tool, I got it from Autozone as a rent-a-tool. But I never could get the thing to work like it's supposed to. Anyway, I had the same problem, as I tightened the tool, just when I was finally getting some compression either the damn thing would slip and loosen or the spring would just pop out. Now I didn't put in new springs, just reused the old ones, so this may or may not help. I jacked the car up as high as it would go and set the jack stands to their highest setting then set the car back down. I had had the car lower thinking it would make it easier to work on/get to. I then pushed the lower arm until it pretty much hit the ground. I then used the spring compressor, but instead of trying to compress the whole thing, I just tried to compress about half of it, in the middle. That seemed to work enough to be able to get the spring most of the way in. I put the top in first and then had to work the bottom part in. The bottom wasn't too bad with the spring compressed in the middle, but it did take some wiggling. Then I just put the jack underneath it, wiggling it to get it under the arm, and then took it back up. As far as safety goes, I tried to keep my foot firmly on the side of the spring as I wiggled it, I figured with the spring touching my foot it couldn't fly out and hit me in the face.
On a better safety note, using a chain and lock can be used to help keep the spring from flying out. You run the chain through the frame, down through the middle of the spring and out the bottom of the frame, then lock it together. This won't hold it tight, since you don't have the spring in the frame, but you can put it on and try to make it as tight as possible. That way if the spring decides to jump out at you the chain should stop it and you'll only have pee on your pants and not blood too. Good luck and be careful.
It is the loss of weight from the motor that is giving you a hard time. I usually jack the center of cross beam up,take one wheel off at a time, then lower the lower arm until it hits the jack stand, break loose lower ball joint and remove nut, slowly go back up with the jack until you can lift whole upper control arm and spindle still connected out of the way and use coat hanger to tie up high, raise it some more until off the jack stand,thespring will still hold onto lower arm somewhat with a little tension left(not alot but enough when prying out will make a nice TWANGING noise and jump)set the new spring in top and force the bottom to the inner most part of the lower arm.Take note at this point lower arm will look like it is totally facing the ground and back of spring is barley hanging on to the inner lip of arm,dont worry, just put jack stand at outer most lip of arm and go back down with the jack, she will start to close up enough for you to put the upper section you removed earlier back onto the lower ball joint stud and catch some threads.Now all weight off jack tighten ball joint nut.I do one side at time so all the weight of whole car is upon that one spring, your problem is you dont have the weight from the engine helping you so you have to compensate by using some freinds sitting or standing on cross section under hood for extra weight.
Thanks for the advice guys! I completed the project last nite. First off, throw away that cheap parts store spring compressor! It just kept jumping off the spring. Go out and rent a Snap-on spring compressor from your favorite mechanic. The difference in these compressors is that the cheap one has large coarse threads and arms for grabbing the spring on each end. The Snap-on has arms at one end and a u-shaped fork at the other and the rod is FINE THREADED. The finer threads allow for a more smooth pull just like a gear puller. Next, set the u-shaped fork thingy to the side and thread the arm end all the way off the end of the rod. Put about 2inches of spacers on the end of the rod that you will be wrenching and shove the rod through the hole in the center of the shock tower that the top of the shock bolts to (it should barely fit in the hole). The rod is now facing down with the nutted end resting on top. Set the spring in place and put the arms where they can just start to be threaded back onto the rod. This may take another set of hands. When the arms or securely in place, just put a wrench on top and gently tighten until it gets fairly tough to make a turn. Reattach lower arm and shove the jack underneath it and jack until it just rests against the bottom of the spring. Then reattach the upper (should clear the spring compressor just fine) and slide the thing back together.