M
Mustangcwo
Guest
The installation of lowering springs is usually pretty straight forward; however the installation of the OEM springs is not nearly as easy. If you are going from lowering springs back to stock springs please be prepared to use spring compressors or use the removal of the A-Arm approach.
Tools Needed
1. Two Jack stands (tall ones)
2. Torque Wrench (not needed but should be used)
3. Hydraulic Jack
4. Crow Bar
5. Zip ties or wire/string
6. A friend to help at times if possible
7. Ratchets
8. Metric Socket Set 10mm-23mm
9. Breaker Bar
10. Air tools help, but are not needed
Cutting Your Springs and Other Tips
1. If you plan to cut your springs, such as cutting C-Springs, do not use a torch or anything that will drastically heat up the spring. Use a cutting wheel, a dremel, or something similar to do the cutting. Cut the top of the rear spring and the bottom of the front spring.
2. If you want a little more drop on the front end of your car and you do not want to cut your springs you can remove your front top isolator. This will not cause any significant increase in noise or ride harshness. You should see one or two tenths of an inch more drop in the front of your vehicle.
Installation Preparation
Try to arrange for a friend to help during some aspects of the installation. Make sure all items listed above are available for use, checking would be nice instead of assumption. A flat surface, such as a garage or a driveway is the best place to install springs.
You should start by parking the car on a nice flat area with a good working area around each spring. Loosen the lug nuts on the front rims, but do not remove them. Raise the hood and make sure the emergency brake is pulled up and the car is in first gear or park for automatics.
Place the jack under the K-Member so you raise the front of the car evenly. Place jack stands under the car making sure the jack stands are under the frame rails. Remove the rims from the car and place them somewhere that will be out of the way. ( both sides raise evenly ).
The front springs are the hardest and the most dangerous. Take your time decompressing the front springs and make sure as they decompress that the strut does not become stuck on the top fender area. This usually happends so be prepared to re-compress the spring a little to remove the strut from any obstruction.
1. Locate the two bolts that hold the brake caliper on. There are four bolts on the back side of the caliper, the two inward most bolts are the two you need to remove. They should be the only 15mm bolts located behind the caliper. Use a 15mm socket to remove the caliper bolts.
2. Once you have removed the caliper bolts slide the caliper off of the rotor and use a zip tie to place the caliper out of the way, ensure that no stress is on the brake lines when you have the caliper placed out of the way.
3. Place the hydraulic jack under one of the A-Arms. Place the jack on the A-Arms so it is directly under the spring. Use the groove on the under side of the A-Arm to ensure the jack’s end will not slip off of the A-Arm. Raise the jack until it is holding the A-Arm and spring in place. You should raise the jack one or two jacks once it has made contact with the A-Arm to ensure that the spring and A-Arm are both being held in place totaly by the jack since you will be removing the current support, what is keeping the spring compressed, which is the strut and stock caster/camber plates. Make sure you do not raise the car off of the jack stands while applying pressure to the A-Arm and spring, it does not require that much pressure to hold the A-Arm and spring in place. You are basically holding the spring and A-Arm in place while you remove the caster/camber bolts that hold the strut and keep the spring from decompressing.
4. Once the A-Arm is compressed by the jack you can now remove the sway bar bolt. This bolt is a 15mm bolt. A deep socket is needed for use with a ratchet, if you do not have one you can use a 15mm wrench.
5. Now you need to remove the strut nut, air tools work great here to simply pop it right off, but if you do not have an air toold you can use a large flat head screw driver and the correct sized wrench. Be careful not to strip this bolt off, or to strip the slot in the strut shaft where the screw driver will go.
6. Once all of the bolts have been removed you can slowly lower the jack. THIS WILL DECOMPRESS THE SPRING so be very carful and make sure every one is clear from the spring area. As you lower the spring the under side of the strut will most definatly become stuck. If this happends the spring will not decompress all the way. You should lower the jack a little bit, four to six inches, and then stop the jack from lowering any more. Once you are sure the jack is still supporting the spring fully grab the strut and manually compress the shaft. This will allow you to pull the strut out from under the fender well inner linning (the plastic inner peice do not attempt to pull the strut totally out from under the fender) and allow the spring to fully decompress so proceed to the next step. If the sway bar endlink does not come out of the sway bar you may have to raise the jack again and move the endlink so that it will come out of the sway bar as the spring decompresses. Be very careful when guiding the strut out from under the fender well.
7. Once the strut has been removed from obstruction make sure every one is clear of the spring again and lower the spring on down by lowering the jack. You should have no doubt that the spring is decompressed, you will be able to literally push the A-Arm on down a little bit and it will move back and forth with out much issue. The last step will be compressing the strut by hand and sliding it out from under the fender. This can scratch the fender so take care to make sure this does not happen. The end of the strut shaft may scratch the paint as it slides out from under the fender.
8. Once the strut has been pulled out from under the fender you will see that the spring is barly compressed, the A-Arm will be very easy to move back and forth. Take a crow bar, the one that comes with the car works fine, and pry the spring out from its socket on the A-Arm end of the spring. The best way to pry the spring out is to pull up and out on the spring making sure you push the spring out of the A-Arm socket towards the back of the car. This makes sure that the spring does not become obstructed on the sway bar endlink.
9. Once the spring is out remove the top and bottom isolator from the spring. The top isolator will be taped to the top of the spring if the spring has never been removed before. Slide the bottom isolator off of the spring, a little WD-40 may be helpful with this.
Installing New Springs
1. Begin by placing the bottom isolator onto the new spring. Make sure you have one of the front springs, both front springs are identical. Place the front isolator into its top socket mount location before you try to slide the spring back into the socket. This adds a little bit of space to help slide the spring back into the top socket that taping the top isolator to the top of the spring would not.
2. Place the front spring into the A-Arm. Make sure the bottom of the spring is aligned with the A-Arm’s groove correctly, this should be easy to see. Get a friend to push down on the A-Arm and slide the spring into the top socket. If you have ABS you will have a wire comming down to the back side of the rotor, be sure that this wire is not stressed by pulling up on the strut shaft to give the wire more slack as you push down on the A-Arm.
3. Once the spring is back into its top and bottom sockets inspect the spring. Make sure the isolators are still in their correct positions and the spring is fully in the top and bottom sockets. This step will probably take the most time so be patient and it will eventually pop in correctly.
4. Push the end of the strut in to compress it and slide the strut back under the fender well. Have a friend help you guide the strut up and back into its mounting position. After you have the strut aligned correctly slowly raise the jack and have a friend guide the strut into place.
5. Once the strut is back into place put the nuts back on to the strut shaft to hold the spring in its position. Snug this bolt down good, with an air gun its pretty easy. If you dont have an air gun put it as tight as it was when you removed it then add another quarter turn or so.
6. Place the sway bar endlink back into the sway bar, just snug these down they do not requre alot of torque. The endlink can be bent to make it align correctly if needed.
7. Slide the caliper back into place and start the 15mm bolts by hand and then use a ratchet to tighten them down. Finally use the torque wrench to tighten the caliper bolts to 85-95 ftlbs. If you hear any knocking noises while driving the caliper bolts may be loose. Finish by inspecting the brake line and if possible get a friend to push the brake down a few times as you check for leaks.
8. You now have one front spring done, simply repeat the process for the other side of the car.
Now you are done with the front spring installation.
After 20-25 miles
***Inspect all bolts on the vehicle you removed to make sure they are still tight (check aginst manufacturer specifications). This includes the wheel’s lug nuts.***
Tools Needed
1. Two Jack stands (tall ones)
2. Torque Wrench (not needed but should be used)
3. Hydraulic Jack
4. Crow Bar
5. Zip ties or wire/string
6. A friend to help at times if possible
7. Ratchets
8. Metric Socket Set 10mm-23mm
9. Breaker Bar
10. Air tools help, but are not needed
Cutting Your Springs and Other Tips
1. If you plan to cut your springs, such as cutting C-Springs, do not use a torch or anything that will drastically heat up the spring. Use a cutting wheel, a dremel, or something similar to do the cutting. Cut the top of the rear spring and the bottom of the front spring.
2. If you want a little more drop on the front end of your car and you do not want to cut your springs you can remove your front top isolator. This will not cause any significant increase in noise or ride harshness. You should see one or two tenths of an inch more drop in the front of your vehicle.
Installation Preparation
Try to arrange for a friend to help during some aspects of the installation. Make sure all items listed above are available for use, checking would be nice instead of assumption. A flat surface, such as a garage or a driveway is the best place to install springs.
You should start by parking the car on a nice flat area with a good working area around each spring. Loosen the lug nuts on the front rims, but do not remove them. Raise the hood and make sure the emergency brake is pulled up and the car is in first gear or park for automatics.
Place the jack under the K-Member so you raise the front of the car evenly. Place jack stands under the car making sure the jack stands are under the frame rails. Remove the rims from the car and place them somewhere that will be out of the way. ( both sides raise evenly ).
The front springs are the hardest and the most dangerous. Take your time decompressing the front springs and make sure as they decompress that the strut does not become stuck on the top fender area. This usually happends so be prepared to re-compress the spring a little to remove the strut from any obstruction.
1. Locate the two bolts that hold the brake caliper on. There are four bolts on the back side of the caliper, the two inward most bolts are the two you need to remove. They should be the only 15mm bolts located behind the caliper. Use a 15mm socket to remove the caliper bolts.
2. Once you have removed the caliper bolts slide the caliper off of the rotor and use a zip tie to place the caliper out of the way, ensure that no stress is on the brake lines when you have the caliper placed out of the way.
3. Place the hydraulic jack under one of the A-Arms. Place the jack on the A-Arms so it is directly under the spring. Use the groove on the under side of the A-Arm to ensure the jack’s end will not slip off of the A-Arm. Raise the jack until it is holding the A-Arm and spring in place. You should raise the jack one or two jacks once it has made contact with the A-Arm to ensure that the spring and A-Arm are both being held in place totaly by the jack since you will be removing the current support, what is keeping the spring compressed, which is the strut and stock caster/camber plates. Make sure you do not raise the car off of the jack stands while applying pressure to the A-Arm and spring, it does not require that much pressure to hold the A-Arm and spring in place. You are basically holding the spring and A-Arm in place while you remove the caster/camber bolts that hold the strut and keep the spring from decompressing.
4. Once the A-Arm is compressed by the jack you can now remove the sway bar bolt. This bolt is a 15mm bolt. A deep socket is needed for use with a ratchet, if you do not have one you can use a 15mm wrench.
5. Now you need to remove the strut nut, air tools work great here to simply pop it right off, but if you do not have an air toold you can use a large flat head screw driver and the correct sized wrench. Be careful not to strip this bolt off, or to strip the slot in the strut shaft where the screw driver will go.
6. Once all of the bolts have been removed you can slowly lower the jack. THIS WILL DECOMPRESS THE SPRING so be very carful and make sure every one is clear from the spring area. As you lower the spring the under side of the strut will most definatly become stuck. If this happends the spring will not decompress all the way. You should lower the jack a little bit, four to six inches, and then stop the jack from lowering any more. Once you are sure the jack is still supporting the spring fully grab the strut and manually compress the shaft. This will allow you to pull the strut out from under the fender well inner linning (the plastic inner peice do not attempt to pull the strut totally out from under the fender) and allow the spring to fully decompress so proceed to the next step. If the sway bar endlink does not come out of the sway bar you may have to raise the jack again and move the endlink so that it will come out of the sway bar as the spring decompresses. Be very careful when guiding the strut out from under the fender well.
7. Once the strut has been removed from obstruction make sure every one is clear of the spring again and lower the spring on down by lowering the jack. You should have no doubt that the spring is decompressed, you will be able to literally push the A-Arm on down a little bit and it will move back and forth with out much issue. The last step will be compressing the strut by hand and sliding it out from under the fender. This can scratch the fender so take care to make sure this does not happen. The end of the strut shaft may scratch the paint as it slides out from under the fender.
8. Once the strut has been pulled out from under the fender you will see that the spring is barly compressed, the A-Arm will be very easy to move back and forth. Take a crow bar, the one that comes with the car works fine, and pry the spring out from its socket on the A-Arm end of the spring. The best way to pry the spring out is to pull up and out on the spring making sure you push the spring out of the A-Arm socket towards the back of the car. This makes sure that the spring does not become obstructed on the sway bar endlink.
9. Once the spring is out remove the top and bottom isolator from the spring. The top isolator will be taped to the top of the spring if the spring has never been removed before. Slide the bottom isolator off of the spring, a little WD-40 may be helpful with this.
Installing New Springs
1. Begin by placing the bottom isolator onto the new spring. Make sure you have one of the front springs, both front springs are identical. Place the front isolator into its top socket mount location before you try to slide the spring back into the socket. This adds a little bit of space to help slide the spring back into the top socket that taping the top isolator to the top of the spring would not.
2. Place the front spring into the A-Arm. Make sure the bottom of the spring is aligned with the A-Arm’s groove correctly, this should be easy to see. Get a friend to push down on the A-Arm and slide the spring into the top socket. If you have ABS you will have a wire comming down to the back side of the rotor, be sure that this wire is not stressed by pulling up on the strut shaft to give the wire more slack as you push down on the A-Arm.
3. Once the spring is back into its top and bottom sockets inspect the spring. Make sure the isolators are still in their correct positions and the spring is fully in the top and bottom sockets. This step will probably take the most time so be patient and it will eventually pop in correctly.
4. Push the end of the strut in to compress it and slide the strut back under the fender well. Have a friend help you guide the strut up and back into its mounting position. After you have the strut aligned correctly slowly raise the jack and have a friend guide the strut into place.
5. Once the strut is back into place put the nuts back on to the strut shaft to hold the spring in its position. Snug this bolt down good, with an air gun its pretty easy. If you dont have an air gun put it as tight as it was when you removed it then add another quarter turn or so.
6. Place the sway bar endlink back into the sway bar, just snug these down they do not requre alot of torque. The endlink can be bent to make it align correctly if needed.
7. Slide the caliper back into place and start the 15mm bolts by hand and then use a ratchet to tighten them down. Finally use the torque wrench to tighten the caliper bolts to 85-95 ftlbs. If you hear any knocking noises while driving the caliper bolts may be loose. Finish by inspecting the brake line and if possible get a friend to push the brake down a few times as you check for leaks.
8. You now have one front spring done, simply repeat the process for the other side of the car.
Now you are done with the front spring installation.
After 20-25 miles
***Inspect all bolts on the vehicle you removed to make sure they are still tight (check aginst manufacturer specifications). This includes the wheel’s lug nuts.***
