front springs

Discussion in 'The whoa and the sway.' started by Brad W, Feb 2, 2018.

  1. Brad W

    Brad W Miles from nowhere...

    I bought my brothers 1972 Skylark Custom (350) not to long ago and when he had it he put 2" lowing spindles on the front with 1" lower springs and there's 225 60 14's in the front with 245 60 15's in the back. I like the way the car looks with the rear end higher and the lower front but I have to be really careful how I drive it if I don't want to be plowing the ground with the front end.

    I'd like to go back to standard height front springs to give me a little more height in the front. Do you guys have a preference for springs? Also I've never installed spring before so I'm thinking I'll need some kind of spring compresser?

    One more thing, I've removed the a/c from the car so it's a little lighter which did help a little with the front end hitting the ground. 72 buick.jpg

    Thanks,

    Brad
     
  2. TrunkMonkey

    TrunkMonkey Well-Known Member

    Springs alone will not give you the stock height, you will need stock spindles.

    But, if the springs on it now have been cut down, or are "dropped" (shorter) springs, then it may account for it being lower than you like.

    You will should use a "spring compressor". You can use a hydraulic jack, and with engine in, but I rather put the car on stands and use a spring compressor.

    You put the car up, pull the shocks, loosen the upper and lower spindle nuts and break the ball joints loose, then use spring compressor to compress the spring and drop the lower A arm and the spring will drop out.

    You can also do this without the compressor, but it takes a little muscle and a pry bar.

    There are several videos on Youtube that will show you the various methods.

    I strongly suggest you look at them and ask questions (here) until you are confident you understand it all.

    If you replace the spindles, you are also looking at the brakes, ball joints and other things that may or may not be stock, and need to be addressed.

    If you know someone who is very well adept in suspension work, or can take it to a good shop and have them look at it and advise you before your start "lefty loosey", it will be time well spent.
     
    Donuts & Peelouts likes this.
  3. Brad W

    Brad W Miles from nowhere...

    Thanks for the quick reply, the car has front disk brakes which are original to the car and My bro tells me just the spindles and the springs have been changed, Well he also added he tells me a big 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 sway bar which I haven't really measured but it looks thick. the car stays flat around corners!

    I think I only would like to change the springs and thanks for the tip about Youtube I'll check that out.

    I won't be doing this I figure till maybe summertime so I will take your suggestions about asking more questions before attempting the work.

    Thanks again..
     
  4. TrunkMonkey

    TrunkMonkey Well-Known Member

    If that's the case, you should be pretty good getting good used stock parts, or OEM equivalents and putting it back to where you want it. :)
     
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  5. gstewart

    gstewart Well-Known Member

    Worst case, if u had a torch, u could could the spring in a couple of places. I have seen this done.
     
  6. gstewart

    gstewart Well-Known Member

    I have used a spring compressor that installs inside the spring. I then employed an impact wrench to tighten the threaded rod.
     
  7. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    Ditto, watch U tube vids carefully..
    If you crack open the lower ball joint without supporting the lower A arm the spring can pop out violently and hurt or kill you..
     
  8. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    I would be amazed if anyone has been "really" hurt by a GM Abody coil spring, especially a lower than stock height spring, with suspension unloaded it may not even have any psi on it. All you need to do is remove the sway bar links, shocks and the pins in the lower ball joint nut. Sometimes the control arm will intrude into the brake backing plate, if it looks like it's not going to clear it you will either need to push the backing plate in a little or remove the upper ball joint so you set the brak/ spindle out as an assembly , just tie it up out of the way if you dont want to break the the line and have to bleed them upon reassembly. With Jack stands under the frame/ cowl area. Put Jack under a lower control arm, put some psi on it till it starts to lift car off the stands, then remove the lower ball joint nut, if you removed the spindle assembly, then just lower the jack, simple as that it's not going to come flying out and kill everyone, if your real worried take a 3ft long chain and push it thru the chain and drop the extra over the back of the control arm. If you decided to leave the brake/spindle attached, the turn it so you have access to the strike pad on the spindle, (full left turn for the driver side) lower the jack a couple inches and then hit the strike pad with a 2lb sledge the arm will jump down and hit the jack then just lower it. Once the arm is down you can use a pry bar to get the spring the last little bit , it will have very little if any psi on it , being a drop spring it may even fall out. I just pull them out with my hand most the time. Don't use a pickle fork to separate the ball joints it just destroys the boot and requires new ball joints, use the strike pad that's what it's there for, sometimes one tap will drop it other times you gotta beat the hell out of it, hit it hard your not going to hurt it. As long as you don't have your face or hands all up in there all will be fine, they make more noise than anything.

    Spring compressors are a pain the ass I've never needed one on a ABody or Gbody, more in the way than help imo. Just seat the spring and use the weight of the vehicle to push it up, if its a stiff spring, usually a couple guys pushing down while you start the nut is all it takes, when doing one on a bare frame, I have a strap that I wrap around the frame rail and under the jack that I use.
     
    PGSS likes this.
  9. john.schaefer77

    john.schaefer77 Well-Known Member

    I removed and installed mine without a compressor. I supported the lower arm with a jack after loosening the ball joint nut and popping it, then remove nut and lower jack. The left spring fell out without fanfare, the right required me stepping on the lower arm gently and it fell out. It did kind of hurt me when it struck my foot on it's way to the ground. I was all scared for nothing.
     
    PGSS likes this.
  10. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    All very true, just pointing out that's kinda lesson #1 to be careful. Plus the 1 inch lower spring should be all the better..
    Now my 82 G body Regal was a bit of a pain. Bought it new, didn't have the F41 package but finally changed all the springs about 2 years later, as it was so stupidly softly sprung I got tired of ending up in the next lane when hitting a bump on the highway, good shocks didn't help much...I was shocked to see that the upper control arm's spring pocket looked like they were made with a old style beer can opener. Just a all around series of triangle tabs. Wow they cheaped out on that big time.
    I had to use a spring compressor and bend the same height replacement ones at some weird angles and it had to be perfect, or it would pop off the top pocket..
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2018
  11. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    I agree, better safe than sorry, certainly need to be cautious. I have gotten my finger caught between the spring and the control arm before when trying to seat the spring, but then again I bleed Everytime I work on something ha
     
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  12. john.schaefer77

    john.schaefer77 Well-Known Member

    I used a pry bar and it took really no pressure to pop the spring into the pocket. You should only do it if you feel comfortable and above all safe. I will admit the first one I was a bit uneasy, but with all the threads on here about this, I knew I was not the first.
     
  13. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    Hugger that was one big ouch Ouch!!!
     
  14. Bluzilla

    Bluzilla a.k.a. "THE DOCTOR"

    We have changed a lot of coil springs over the past 40 years. This going to be your tip of the day. Before you do anything else, position a floor jack that will cup the bottom of the spring pocket sufficiently or a block of wood to spread the load across the pocket, then string a strong chain around the axle of the floor jack and up around the frame, then back down and secure the chain to itself using a removable link. You want no slack but don't have the chain tight enough to raise the jack. Now as you follow the removal and installation procedures (wearing eye protection) as listed in Hugger's post you will never have to worry about the body lifting at all. We've been doing this so long that we actually use axle straps to wrap around the frame on restorations to protect the paint. I'll post photos of us doing this on a'64 Fuelie Corvette before the body was even installed.

    100_1523.JPG 100_1529.JPG 100_1547.JPG

    Larry
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2018
  15. Brad W

    Brad W Miles from nowhere...

    Thanks you guys! and thanks Larry for the photos! I've got lots of time to study this and I realy like the suggestion using the chain!

    The car is not my main ride so I can take my time with this and stay alive!

    Thanks
     

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