How Do I Get the Coils Springs In? 63 GP
 

I am so proud of myself. I managed to get my A-arms off of my 63 Grand Prix. Acid-dipped, painted, and rebushed them. New ball joints. Reattached the a-arms on the body with the ball joints in. But the shims in on the top just like they came off. Cleaned up the sway bar. Have a new kit for that. Got new coil springs. Have the coil compressor. I have to be the densest person around. Someone has to give me some hints on how to get that fricking spring in. I've compressed it. What on earth is the order of assembly to get that sucker in there? Anything.

For stock springs you usually don't need a coil spring compressor. Just get the top seated on the ring up inside the frame and sit the lower pigtail in the bucket in the lower A frame and jack the lower control arm up with a floor jack until you can start the ball joint stem in the spindle and put the nut on.

If your going to use a spring compressor it needs to be the internal type that goes into the center of the spring, not the other style that have 2 separate threaded units that attach to the outside of the spring. They are not intended for use on GM cars.

If your using the internal style you need to have the grab hooks on the next to the last coils on each end as it won't be able to be released and removed if you grab the last end coils. You compress the spring using a ratchet and socket (using an impact pounds the threads and welded nuts so I recommend using a ratchet with plenty of lube on the threads). Compress the spring with the bolt head on the bottom portion of the spring. After compressing it do the same as I outlined previously making sure both ends of the spring are seated properly and after the ball joint nut is on loosen the compressor up an remove it through the hole in the lower A frame. You might have to use a long screwdriver to disengage the grab hooks from the spring coils. Before you proceed any further make sure the spring is properly seated on each end. Failure to do this step can end up in a lopsided sitting car, plus having to do the job over again to seat the spring properly.

BE CAREFUL as the compressed energy in a coil spring can pop loose due to compressor failure or just not being seated when you are compressing it in the first scenario I outlined, and can seriously injure you. Be safe and good luck......;)

Thanks for the help. Got it in. The key seems to be attaching the lower ball joint first (I had been trying to attach the upper ball first) and getting the coil in compressed (using an internal spring compressor) enough to get it in in the tower and seat on the lower arm. Once that's done, using a floor jack to raise the lower control arm to get it set in positional place, firmly. Begin to compress the spring further, jack up further, compress, jack, until the upper ball joint can be attached. By the time the upper ball joint is in, the spring is really compressed.