will be swapping coils soon....
 

I will be swapping my coil springs soon and i was wondering what do i need to look foward to and what do i need to be careful of.. ( i have never taken out coils before) so i don't want one to smack me in the face and i become uglier than i already am... what is needed to do the swap or if anyone has a thread that covers this i would be interested. front and rear please... all i am doing is coils for now.. other components will come later...

Thanks in advance..

Rick

Some say no compressor needed, others say you do.
I prefer to take the safe route and rent a coil spring compressor, most places end up loaning them out for free :cool:

For the fronts, I have compressors. If not, then chain them and lock the chain. If not, they can take off on you and REALLY change your looks. Seriously, they can get away and hurt you BAD. The rears, unbolt the shocks and pull them out.

compressors?!?!? for what?

I use to do suspension work and I never used a compressor on coil front ends. I did alot of trucks. if i had to get the job done I didn't even use a jack. Our trucks are cake, just put a jack on the the lower controlle arm brake off the lower ball joint, or which ever you like and slowly lower......done.

and don't stand in front of it while lowering the jack (just for extra safety)

good advice, I almost set the jack handle to angle out towards the front

Just did my sons front springs and they were a piece of cake. No compressor needed, Put the floor jack under the lower a-arm. Backed off both upper and lower ball joints about half way. Smack the side of the spindle where the ball joint is with a big hammer. Lower the floor jack real slow. It was that simple. Heck hardest part about doing the front end was trying to scrape off 30 years of oil and caked on dirt.

OK, but I'll still use compressers or a chain. Wait till one gets away......

i took some out of a cross member that wasnt on a truck. i was a bit scared of that, but i did the chain and lock thing, after it was all done i didnt even think i needed it. the springs didnt even move. but better safe than sorry

I used the advise from Greasemonkey - "support the truck, stick a jack under the lower control arm shafts and unbolt the ubolts holding them on. Lower the jack and pull the spring out". I used an additional jack under the coil spring just to be on the safe side. Bolted the ubolts back in the exact place and was good to go.

When you swap out front springs, how BAD is the front out of alignment?. I'm just curious what the truck feels like while driving it to the alignment shop afterwards. Thanks

I just made sure that I put the ubolts back in the 'exact' same place and didn't feel any issues at all.