Well atleast you know its fairly simple to do but youl need a spring compressor

 

Yeah, you can get a simple one for $25 from NPD or Harbor Freight, but the tension in them can be scary.

 

I pulled my front springs out by banging them with a hammer... sad, sad springs. Putting the new 620's back in... not as easy or as fun. Scared me.

 

I put the jack stands under the suspension arms when changing shocks. You definitely want weight on the spring so that the shock isn't what's holding the arm up.

 

Do you necessarily need a spring compressor to change the shocks?

 

mike no a good spring compreesor goes in the coil spring the shocks in the way gotta take it out first.

 

You don't need a spring compressor. Just put the jackstand under the lower control arm.

 

Then how are you going to safely decompress the spring after you remove it? If you just pull it out it will shoot off with the force to cause some serious damage.

 

You don't need to remove the spring to replace the shock. The only reason for the jackstand is so the spring will stay put when the shock is removed. As said above (although difficult to decipher), spring compressors (decent ones at least) go INSIDE the spring, necessitating shock removal first anyway.

 

Oh, I though we were still talking about the coilover conversion. Yeah I was going to do exactly what you said when I replace the shocks, I already have it on jackstands and now I'm just waiting for fed-ex to deliver.