Looking to install lowering springs

[Greg Norris]

ill see if i can give you a quick rundown of how to do everything.

jack the front of the car up and put it on jackstands on the jack pads, not on the a-arms. make sure the parking brake is set and the rear wheels are chocked, (unless you have enough jackstands to do the whole car at the same time).

fronts, begin by taking the front wheels off and setting them aside. then you can pull the 4 bolts (really 2 bolts and 2 nuts) from whichever side you start on. on the drivers side, you will have to deal with the abs/brake lines and on the pass side, you will have the ac lines in the way. be careful not to bend them too much (dont kink them) be mindful when you are loosening them all the way, its a good idea to have help if you can, if not loosen all 4 of them, and remove 3 leaving the 4th one still connected. this is to keep the whole front steering assy crashing down causing damage to your parts.
carefully loosen the last bolt/nut while keeping a hand on the wheel hub. you might get lucky and have a small amount of surface rust holding it to the wheel well. once the last bolt/nut is loose, work your way down while still holding the steering assy. then slowly pull down on it to disconnect it from the wheel well completely. you could also use your wheels to support the brake/steering assy or a block of wood, just keep the rubber brake line from getting pulled too far.
now you can move on to pulling the bottom two bolts that hold the strut to the lower a-arm.
once they are loose, you can pull the strut/spring assy out. you might have to work it a little bit to get it out.
now you take your spring compressor that you rented, and put one on either side of the spring. tighten each side down a little at a time so it doesnt curve the spring and pop off. once you have the spring compressed enough to seperate from the upper rubber mount, you can push it down and see the upper nut that holds everything together. like i said before, one side of the car usually collects water and rusts onto the shock. so you want to be carefull when pulling it so you dont strip it. once you have that nut off, you can pull off the upper rubber strut mount to transfer over to your new setup.
now slowly undo the spring compressors a little on each side to relieve the pressure on the spring. once it is off, you are done with the removal of this strut/spring setup.

basically repeat the steps in reverse to reinstall. one caution tho. the upper rubber mount can only go on one way and it is molded for the spring to fit perfectly. so a good idea now is to mockup the setup by putting the new spring on the new shock (dont press it into the cup yet) and align the rubber mount onto the spring. now take it to the car and rotate the spring and rubber mount till the mount lines up with the holes in the wheel well while keeping the strut lined up with the two bolts on the lower a-arm. once it is aligned properly, you can go ahead and push it into the strut cup. now you can put the spring compressors onto the new spring, making sure you will have enough room to remove them when you compress it. once you can get the shock nut back on with everything put together, put it on and tighten it down a good ways.
now you can put it back into the car using the reverse of the removal to put everthing back together.

repeat the above for the other side of the car.

words of caution for the front. depending on the mileage of the car, as ive said before, the nut may be rusted to the spring requiring you to either cut the strut shaft to get the rubber mount off or buy new rubber mounts (i did this, figured, i was in there anyway) if you cant get the nut off, you will need to get a new lock-nut (has the nylon inside to keep it from backing off) to fit.


as for the rears, they are pretty much self-explanitory. jack up the rear of the car, support the car on jackstands (the body, not the rear axle). once the car is up and balanced and safe to be under, take your jack and slowly jack the rear end up to put a little pressure on the rear. now you can unbolt the lower shock mounts on the axle. once they are unbolted, slowly lower the axle, the springs will just fall off or just sit there. now you can pull the upper shock mounts loose.

reverse for install, keeping an eye on the springs to make sure they are aligned in their pockets on the car and the axle.

the main problem is the nut on the strut that can get rusted or the rubber mounts are bad requiring replacement. any other questions, feel free to ask.

[McCauleyWB]

Excellent Greg. Thanks!

[KLaBZ28]

Are the front struts really that much of a bitch to swap? I got AGX adjustable struts and shocks and I thought the fronts were as easy as unbolting them and swapping the springs. Uh-ohh....

[Greg Norris]

Are the front struts really that much of a bitch to swap? I got AGX adjustable struts and shocks and I thought the fronts were as easy as unbolting them and swapping the springs. Uh-ohh....

well they can be difficult to wrangle into position. one main thing to keep in mind is ensuring that the bottom of the strut will be aligned with the lower A-arm and that the upper mount will align with the mounting holes in the frame. I had to pull mine off and readjust a couple times when I lowered my car.