[alanmay0]

So I decided to change out the front coil springs and shocks on my 1967 GTO. I watched a guy on YouTube do it and it seemed doable for me. So I bought a set of springs and shocks from Summit Racing, only because they are in driving distance to me, and following what the guy did I removed the front coil springs. Now in his video he is working on a 1966 Lemans. Everything went so so, I rented the spring compressor from Auto Zone and brought it home. Now for the problem, The space between the coils is not wide enough to use the spring compressor he was using. So now I have the car apart and am at a loss as to how to get the new springs in. I have tried both Auto Zone and O'Riely's compressors. They are both the same.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to compress the springs or get them in the car??

thank you in advance.
alan

[goa484]

One of my least favorite jobs! I typically use a strut compressor (goes on the outside) to compress the spring a little bit to set it partially in the spring pocket. With a jack under the control arm, I compress it the rest of the way until I can attach the spindle to the control arm. Once the ball joint nut is tightened up a little bit, i release the Jack and ompressor. Another option is to take the spring to a shop and have them compress it and cinch it down with plastic straps. You can set it in and attach the control arm to the spindle, then cut the straps.

[Formulas]

You got this kind of compressor?

[Chief of the 60's]

I never used a spring compressor on any old RWD GM car in my life.

[melemans]

I've used the same compressor as FORMULAS on a bunch of GM front springs.

[JLMounce]

No need for a spring compressor. They are terrible to work with an dangerous. Here’s what I do.

1. With car on stands place a jack under the front control arm and add a slight amount of pressure.
2. Remove shock.
3. Remove upper ball joint cotter pin and loosen castle nut. Allow enough thread to break lose the ball joint and spindle but not so much that the nut wont catch a run away control arm if your jack slips.
4. Separate ball joint and spindle by use of a ball joint tool, pickle fork, bfh etc.
5. Carefully remove castle nut and slowly release pressure on the floor jack.
6. Lower the control arm until it is at or near full droop. The spring will either fall out or will come out with minor prying.

Then simple repeat those steps in reverse to install the new spring and shock package. Make sure to install the springs clocked in the correct position.

In my experience, this is the quickest and safest way to r&r a spring set. The only pitfall is possibly damaging a ball joint. It’s a good time to inspect, grease or replace as needed.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by JLMounce

No need for a spring compressor. They are terrible to work with an dangerous. Here’s what I do.

1. With car on stands place a jack under the front control arm and add a slight amount of pressure.
2. Remove shock.
3. Remove upper ball joint cotter pin and loosen castle nut. Allow enough thread to break lose the ball joint and spindle but not so much that the nut wont catch a run away control arm if your jack slips.
4. Separate ball joint and spindle by use of a ball joint tool, pickle fork, bfh etc.
5. Carefully remove castle nut and slowly release pressure on the floor jack.
6. Lower the control arm until it is at or near full droop. The spring will either fall out or will come out with minor prying.

Then simple repeat those steps in reverse to install the new spring and shock package. Make sure to install the springs clocked in the correct position.

In my experience, this is the quickest and safest way to r&r a spring set. The only pitfall is possibly damaging a ball joint. It’s a good time to inspect, grease or replace as needed.

I leave the shock hooked up until some of the tension on the spring is released. This prevents premature spring jettison.

You also left out the part about using a BFH to coax the spring into place while jacking.

[Formulas]

Instead of using a pickle fork on a ball joint back the nut off a turn apply heat via small propane torch on the steering knuckle the knuckle will expand and pop ball joint is loose, good proceedure to use on tie rods and such that you want to use again but since they dont have spring pressure when they are ready a modest tap with a hammer works

[Squidward]

I've done similar to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLCSFUEmz7c

I like to put a nylon ratchet strap around the spring as a safety restraint in case it comes loose with any amount of tension on it. Last time I did this on my 67 FB, I kicked the spring until it popped into the pocket. I don't recall having to use a big prybar and hammer like the guy in the vid.

[alanmay0]

What kind of shop can compress it and cinch it for me. Also do you know the torque of the ball joint nuts. thanks again

[Grand73Am]

Originally Posted by alanmay0

So I decided to change out the front coil springs and shocks on my 1967 GTO. I watched a guy on YouTube do it and it seemed doable for me. So I bought a set of springs and shocks from Summit Racing, only because they are in driving distance to me, and following what the guy did I removed the front coil springs. Now in his video he is working on a 1966 Lemans. Everything went so so, I rented the spring compressor from Auto Zone and brought it home. Now for the problem, The space between the coils is not wide enough to use the spring compressor he was using. So now I have the car apart and am at a loss as to how to get the new springs in. I have tried both Auto Zone and O'Riely's compressors. They are both the same.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to compress the springs or get them in the car??

thank you in advance.
alan

Here's a pic of a coil spring compressor that works well for what you're doing. I used one like it for over 20 years. Never had an incident with it, but you must be careful. This one is a Snap-on, but there's an OEM Coil Spring Compressor #27035, that's like it on eBay, for about $43.



Here's one that works even better. I bought this one a couple years ago, and love it. It easier and safer to use, but more expensive. It's worth it if you think you might do springs on more cars in the future. It's an OTC 7045B, about $170 on eBay.

[lust4speed]

The tool above looks really trick, and would love to have one. Just don't do front springs enough to justify the purchase since I've got the old style already.

The 67 and most others still have about 4" of compression when the A-arm is forced down as low as it will go. About 30 years ago I customized the drywall when I tried the removal without a compressor. We were just lucky we weren't in the flight path. Many other cars will have the spring totally relaxed way before the A-arm reaches the bottom end of its travel, but ours have a great deal of preload.

While it is not a bunch of fun to thread the hooks over the spring coils, all of us using the compressor have been successful. Only warning here is there is a cheap Chinese version of the good compressor that Formulas posted that have really thick arms that are a bitch to sneak between the coils. It is also very soft metal and really not safe to use.

The trick is to remove the shock with all balljoint bolts still tight, the relaxed assembly will give you the most room to thread in the compressor fingers between the spring coils. You will only be able to grab the top coils about 3" down from the top of the spring and the bottom about 2" up from the bottom of the spring. This will possibly give you maybe 5" of spring to compress. At this point loosen the ball-joint nut only about a 1/4" and use your favorite method get the tapered ball-joint loose of the A-arm. I prefer to use a ball-joint U-clamp tool to exert force on the tapered bolt and a really big hammer to whack the A-arm. Once the joint has popped then you can jack up on the lower A-arm under the ball-joint and start screwing down the compressor. There will be a point where things get a little tense since the spring coils between the fingers really need to be compressed until they almost touch. After this, the ball-joint nut can be removed and the jack lowered removing pressure on the spring. You should be able to just lift the spring and compressor out of the pocket at this point. I also like to run a safety strap through the spring as Squidward suggested in case things go south - much better having the strap there than having a spring removed from your chest cavity. Once the spring is out and on the floor, you can unscrew the compressor and release tension on the spring. There is definitely a learning experience and you will have a list of things not to do on the other side of the car.

As a side note, a friend purchased Summit 2" lowering springs for his 67 Lemans. Those red springs dropped the car over 4". The good news is he didn't have to use a spring compressor to put them in, but the bad news was his front cross-member was only 2" off the ground. So out came the trick springs and by that time he just put the stock springs back in and lived with them.

[RocktimusPryme]

This is a job I usually just farm because it sketches me out. I was having my exhaust done and asked the shop how much it would be to change my front coil springs. (I already had the springs) They charged me one hour of labor. $80. I peeled off the four $20's and lost not an ounce of sleep over it.

[vitamin c]

With the spring work I've done on the 74, and just not liking working with the spring compressor, out of curiosity decided to look at the service manual on spring removal. Even with the ball joint separated and the lower control arm at full extension the spring still has a bit of energy left and comes out at a high rate of speed. Looking at the manual it walks you through leaving both ball joints attached and removing the two lower control arm bolts. Doing that, along with the compressor gives you a straighter path for pushing the spring up into the pocket. it works!

[rwfisher]

Originally Posted by Grand73Am

Here's a pic of a coil spring compressor that works well for what you're doing. I used one like it for over 20 years. Never had an incident with it, but you must be careful. This one is a Snap-on, but there's an OEM Coil Spring Compressor #27035, that's like it on eBay, for about $43.



Here's one that works even better. I bought this one a couple years ago, and love it. It easier and safer to use, but more expensive. It's worth it if you think you might do springs on more cars in the future. It's an OTC 7045B, about $170 on eBay.

You can get the OEM Coil Spring Compressor #27035 as part of the Autozone loaner program. As stated, it does work very well and can be used in a few different ways (Google will hep there)..

[goa484]

Alanmay0,
I've taken them to a shop that has a strut compressor rig. They compress them down and then keep them compressed with either a large zip ties of plastic or steel. Places that work on trucks may be a good place to start.

[chiphead]

Here is how I did it on my '67 LeMans when I did the front coil springs and disc brake conversion. I have the engine out, so I cant use the weight of the car to compress anything.

As others have mentioned, use a ratchet strap to keep the spring from jumping out and killing you. You need to really crank on that spring compressor to get the coil spring compressed enough to slip into the LCA.

What springs did you get? I'd use a set from Santhuff or Coil Spring Specialists before I use a generic Summit spring.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by lust4speed

Many other cars will have the spring totally relaxed way before the A-arm reaches the bottom end of its travel, but ours have a great deal of preload.

The trick is to remove the shock with all balljoint bolts still tight, the relaxed assembly will give you the most room to thread in the compressor fingers between the spring coils. You will only be able to grab the top coils about 3" down from the top of the spring and the bottom about 2" up from the bottom of the spring. This will possibly give you maybe 5" of spring to compress. At this point loosen the ball-joint nut only about a 1/4" and use your favorite method get the tapered ball-joint loose of the A-arm. I prefer to use a ball-joint U-clamp tool to exert force on the tapered bolt and a really big hammer to whack the A-arm. Once the joint has popped then you can jack up on the lower A-arm under the ball-joint and start screwing down the compressor. There will be a point where things get a little tense since the spring coils between the fingers really need to be compressed until they almost touch. After this, the ball-joint nut can be removed and the jack lowered removing pressure on the spring. You should be able to just lift the spring and compressor out of the pocket at this point.

This is pretty much how I go about it. I've used that tool many many times on Fords, mustangs, T-birds, A-bodies, F-bodies etc... It works fine. Like mentioned, most times there is still a fair amount of preload on the springs even when control arms are completely open. I've even had instances where new springs were stiff enough that trying to jack the control arm up doesn't work, as it starts lifting the car off the ground before the spindle is even close. So compressing the spring a small amount becomes necessary. Some of the restoration work here doesn't allow force with hammers and prybars during reassembly anyway unless you want to ruin all the hours of restoration work.

It's not a bad job. After you do a couple of them you pretty much know what to expect.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by chiphead

Here is how I did it on my '67 LeMans when I did the front coil springs and disc brake conversion. I have the engine out, so I cant use the weight of the car to compress anything.

And sometimes I've found even with the engine in the car that's not enough, lol.

This is an instance where a lift comes in handy. I've strapped the car down onto the lift so it won't lift up regardless of whether it has an engine or not.

Anchors in a concrete floor is another option I've seen.

[Chief of the 60's]

I would never trust a cast piece to hold coil spring pressure. Bad recipe right there.