pcm2a

I have recently purchased a '88 t-top 5.0, but the person that had owned it for 15 years had cut the springs to lower the car. So you can imagine how rough the ride is. I bought a couple stock springs for the front and back at O'Riellys for pretty cheap but I wasn't successfull at installing the front springs.

I don't have access to a car lift, but I jacked the car up rediculously far. I just couldnt get the coil spring in there. I went to autozone and got one of their coil sprong compressors but it was made to go inside the spring. And unless I was using it wrong once I would have had the spring in there, there would have been no way to get the tool out.

I also tried a strut spring compressor from autozone and the tools were way too big so once i had the spring compressed enough I couldnt get it in.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to installing front coil springs? I have called around and the cheapest I can find for an install is $200 and they are going to take the lower control arm off. Then Ill have to spend another $60 on an alignment.

Thanks!
--Cameron

83gtragtop

Your having trouble getting the new ones back in right? I had the same problems about three weeks ago and here is a link to my forum. https://mustangforums.com/m_1772906/tm.htm I bought a spring compressor that wouldn't work with the mustang set-up,and compressed the spring down and wrapped with bailing wire about 10x times. Sounds dangerous but it worked fine, even left one of the springs compressed like that for 3-4 days and it did not fail. In the forum another guy suggested going to a truck shop where they will compress the spring and use straps to keep it compressed. You can just take it home and install it. This seems like a better idea. Read my forum and let me know if you have anymore questions.

Brian

pcm2a

Yes, I'm having trouble getting the stock springs back in. The old cut ones go easily back in.

Once you had the spring in there and the metal wire still on, you were able to take the metal wiring back off?

5.0 MPG

The front end of the car has to be on jack stands first. Then dont wrap the wire all the way from top to bottom. skip a bar on top and bottom so you can snip the wire when your done. this is dangerous though, make sure not to compress them too much and after you install both springs and tighten the strut securely use a jack to lift the control arm until you have equalized the pressure. Then cut the wire. This way there is no pressure on them. Then put your tire back on, and let the jack down slowly. Repeat for the other side.

83gtragtop

Just put the wire on one side of the spring, because thats all you need. So the spring will look like this. ( Make sure you wrap it atleast 5x times. After wrapping it vertically 5x wrap the wire around itself horizontally 5x to make sure that the wire does not come lose. Like 5.0mpg said, skip the top coil and bottom coil or else you will not be able to pull the wire out after clipping it. Don't unclip the wire untill the strut is reattached to the spindle and strut tower. Be slow and safe. I used everyday bailing wire.

mcfomco

If you Jack the car up and secure it on jack stands. Take the bolts out of the control arm to k member. make sure the spindle and strut is attached at this time. Put the spring in from the backside and place a jack under the control arm and jack it up into place. This will compress the spring and keep it secure at the same time and the wire is not needed. Reinstall the lower control arm bolts and your done. This may not be a good description of eveything but if you know a little about the front suspension you can figure it out on what I am trying to say.

83gtragtop

I tried this methoed and it did not work for me. After a certain point the spring stopped compressing and the car started getting lifted off the jack stands. The jack wanted to walk out from under the car.[] My springs were eibach pro's so a stock spring may be softer and may compress far enough to get the bolts in. He hasn't taken the control arms off yet and so imo this method is much harder. If he doesn't have a impact wrench then breaking those control arm bolts can be a pain in the a$@. Then reseting the torque can also be tough if you don't have a torque wrench that goes to 200ft/lbs. Anyways that all i got.