Hi, My name is Gary Sparks, I applied for membership in January, 2005, in Kissimmee. FL. I'm in the process of "restoring" my 1958 Corvette. I'm in the disassembly stage at the front suspension. In the interest of safety, can you tell me what is the best method to compress those coils springs? I've seen several types of spring compressors available; internal, external, hydraulic etc. As I don't expect to do this for a "living", safety and cost are important considerations here.
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Re: Chassis Disassembly/Reassembly
Gary,
When we restored our '58 we used a length of 1/2" threaded rod installed in place of the shock absorber. I think we used a 3 foot length, which was more than enough. We put a 1/4" plate top and bottom and tightened the nuts until it compressed the spring enough to remove the spindle and upper A arm. Then loosen the nuts until the spring is at full extention. Worked for us. It's much easier if you have an old set of kingpin (thrust) bearings on each end of the threaded rod.
Be careful, lots of energy stored in the compressed spring.
Mark -
Re: Chassis Disassembly/Reassembly
Some of the AUTO SUPPLY stores such as AUTOZONE have free loaner tools for this purpose. Threaded rods from your friendly LOWES or other home suppliers are not suitable for this application. This is a grade 8 thread application.... not a grade 2 or 3
If things break there can be a tremendous amount of energy unleased.....Comment
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Re: Chassis Disassembly/Reassembly
I went the Auto-zone loaner route & I took a recomendation from this board and secured the coil with Chains just in case something let loose.
DougComment
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Re: Chassis Disassembly/Reassembly
gary, my name is chris trombetta, i'm restoring a 58 in st petersburg florida. i would love to speak with you along the way. i will be starting on mine around april 15 as i'm a cpa and will be busy until then. give me a call 727-515-5469Comment
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Re: But that's just what I used Steve!
A three foot lengnth of 5/8" thread stock. Grade 5 that is.
I then doubled up on grade 5 nuts and tack welded them together to increase the amount of thread pull along the thread stock and finally used the lower portion of an internal spring compressor I purchased from Harbor Freight.
Why didn't I just use the whole Harbor Freight compressor you ask? I couldnt compress the spring enough without binding the compressor up in the coils.
I then drilled out a piece of 1/4" flat stock to set on the top of the shock tower, threw on a couple of heavy flat washers for the nuts to ride up againt, and greased the h_ll out of all the bearing surfaces
I was amazed at how easily it pulled the spring up.
Keep in mind that I pulled the spring up only just enough to release it's grip on the lower control arm and no more!
I'll echo the sentiment about the latent energy of these springs. They can be all over you before you can blink if they bust free.
I cabled off my springs and stayed well out of the path of travel while I was pulling them up AND backing them off.
One thing I had to do addtionally, was to use a ratchet strap to help provide the slight curl required to help seat the coil in the lower control arm as I already had the control arm mounted to the shafts.
I even re-connected the ball joint to the control arm from the high side.... just in case.
This is very dangerous work and should not be taken in any way, shape, or form as anything but.
ChuckComment
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Re: But that's just what I used Steve!
You could probably buy "joiner nuts" to put more threads on the rod... they are twice the length of regular nuts.Comment
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