bronxbomerss2

ok so i thought this was going to be a relatively difficult project, but so far its rele straight forward, im 20 and ive never done any sort of mechanical work except for changing my brake pads, and recently just did my exhaust set up. so everything was just taking bolts off for the most part. i have only done the front so far and i ran into 2 issues when doing the front...
1) the bolts to which the struts hold to the brake frame are a PIA to get off, i had to use a breaker bar and they eventually came loose with come PB Blaster (BTW a little side note, PB Blaster is FTW!!) anyways, ok so when those bad boys came off i was golden for the struts as im putting in new tokico shocks and struts and FRPP C lowering springs.
2. getting the springs out, a lot of people use the spring compressors which i rented from advanced auto, its free once you bring it back u get ur deposit back, but any how i tried using it but to no avail it really didn't help much, i ran out of room while winding up the end of the spindle for the tool, so what i ended up doing is the A arm was already on the jack to preload the suspension so all i did was unbolt the end of the front sway bar, and slowly let the A arm down, this allowed the A arm to completely come all the way down, now that it was all the way down the spring was 95% unloaded, i then just used a pry bar and it came right out, no spring compressor was needed, it was that simple, i haven't yet installed the new springs yet but i can't imagine it being harder than uninstalling the stock crap, the springs are obviously lower so i don't think ill need to use the spring compressor to put it in, but ill find out tomorrow, i just thought i would share my thoughts so far and so far so good! btw air tools mike life a hell of a lot easier lol

2000BlkGtConvgobucks

Lol, I'm sure you were pleasantly surprised how easy the job was considering you went into it thinking it would be difficult. As you found out, there is no need for spring compressors on our cars. You should really read some of the write-ups online for this install, it could've and will make your job a lot easier! You definitely will not need to compress the new springs to install them, just make sure they and the isolators(if you are reusing them) are in the exact orientation as the originals. I actually had more trouble with my rear springs than my fronts. I was on un-level ground so it actually took 2 jacks on the rear end to position everything correctly so it would bolt up. Btw, like you said, this job is almost impossible without air tools, especially the top strut bolt! Good luck with the rest of the job, it sounds like you'll be just fine