Front Suspension Leaf Spring Compressor and Removal
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I can check this weekend, but I am pretty sure the 2 x 2 tubing I used was 0.125" wall thickness (wt). For sure the 0.250" (1/4") wt is over-kill. I suspect that what you have is actually 0.095" wt, which I am using as the length-wise tie bar for my GT body rotisserie. I would be a bit hesitant as I have already seen how easy it is to deform. The problem won't be "bending strength", but rather "crush strength" at the load points. You will at least need to used a very large thick washer or metal plate at the threaded rod hole, and possibly also at the ends where the bars contact the A-arms.
HTH
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I already went through and made it out of .250" I am sure it is overkill, but for this job I would rather be safe than sorry. Also I already had the material and buying 1/8" would be more money out of the pocket and it would take a few days to get here.
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Here is the finished spring compressor, I opted not to use the adjustable pitman arm puller because....well they cost money and shipping takes time and I have never been too patient. So I used 2 pieces of square box tubing which "sandwich" the cross member with 2 bolts, I also feel a little safer with this design. Though because of the radiator and steering rack brackets I was not able to grab the cross member from dead center which I hope doesn't turn out to be a problem. I have the hole that the all-thread goes through in the compressor offset that amount, I also drilled a hole dead center in the spring compressor just in case later on it is used with a pitman arm puller.
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The whole disassembly process was much easier than I thought, most of it took about a half hour, well I think I was just lucky. I had been spraying all of the nuts and bolts of the suspension with penetrating oil every few days for the past few weeks and all of the "bolts from hell" came right out (2 of them needed some persuasion with a brass mallet) the spring eye bolts were tricky because as you can see the penetrating oil wasn't making it to the shank of them, but again some work with a brass mallet and then a drift to finish it off them came right out. Working with the spring compressed was a little scary.....especially when you miss your mark on the spring eye bolt and give the spring compressor a whack, but overall it felt secure; I am glad that I used the .250" square tubing for it though. The fourth picture is a comparison between the stock spring and the 2" sport lowering spring. What do you guys make of the damage in the last picture where the bump stop bracket is partially torn off at the spot welds? Really bad case of bottoming out at some point during it's life?
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Three Feet!
I used a full length of 20mm "All-Thread" - 1metre long .... and it was just long enough! Try a 3 foot length of 5/8" or 3/4" All-Thread studding as it is available at most Engineer's Supply shops or even Hardware stores at a reasonable price.
Trust me - you DO NOT want to run out of thread halfway through the job. :banghead:
Oh! And lube the thread with Diff oil or something nice and Extreme Pressure ...
I used a full length of 20mm "All-Thread" - 1metre long .... and it was just long enough! Try a 3 foot length of 5/8" or 3/4" All-Thread studding as it is available at most Engineer's Supply shops or even Hardware stores at a reasonable price.
Trust me - you DO NOT want to run out of thread halfway through the job. :banghead:
Oh! And lube the thread with Diff oil or something nice and Extreme Pressure ...
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206 Posts
Thanks everybody
:veryhappyI would like to thank everybody who contributed to this thread (especially Kwilford who supplied the photo's of the spring compressor in the first place).
This morning I succesfully finished working on my GT's front suspension according to all the instructions given in this (and some other) thread(s).
I've changed all four ball joints,the bushings of the front leaf spring,the upper control arm bushings, bump stop bushings and the shock absorbers.
Without this tread I would not have managed it.
Shows how usefull this side is!!
And probably without this tread I would not have survived working on the front leave spring (what a strenght is in that spring).
In contrast of most of you I worked on the suspension while it was still mounted on the car letting the spring compressor pulling itself up. It was a little bit of fiddling laying on your back under the raised car, but it worked great.
Had some trouble getting the old lower ball joints out of the A-arm, but with a big hammer, a beam to lay the A-arm on and a lot of brute force (and swearing) I got them out. Tip for refitting a new ball joint: insert it from the right side!!. I was so stupid to refit the ball joint from the wrong side, fortunately I got it back out in one piece.
I also had a lot of trouble getting the new spring eye bushings in. How do you do that, without damaging the new ones?:dunno:
To be certain of my messing about with the car I let everything check by my local garage (one cannot be certain enough about the functioning of the front suspension and steering). They checked everything and found the car in excellent working condition.
So for those who are planning to work on their GT's front suspension: read all threads about this issue and follow their instructions, don't be stubborn trying to find it out yourself: you'll be injured!
And finishing with the legendary words of the Hill Street Blues sergeant: Let's be careful out there!
:veryhappyI would like to thank everybody who contributed to this thread (especially Kwilford who supplied the photo's of the spring compressor in the first place).
This morning I succesfully finished working on my GT's front suspension according to all the instructions given in this (and some other) thread(s).
I've changed all four ball joints,the bushings of the front leaf spring,the upper control arm bushings, bump stop bushings and the shock absorbers.
Without this tread I would not have managed it.
Shows how usefull this side is!!
And probably without this tread I would not have survived working on the front leave spring (what a strenght is in that spring).
In contrast of most of you I worked on the suspension while it was still mounted on the car letting the spring compressor pulling itself up. It was a little bit of fiddling laying on your back under the raised car, but it worked great.
Had some trouble getting the old lower ball joints out of the A-arm, but with a big hammer, a beam to lay the A-arm on and a lot of brute force (and swearing) I got them out. Tip for refitting a new ball joint: insert it from the right side!!. I was so stupid to refit the ball joint from the wrong side, fortunately I got it back out in one piece.
I also had a lot of trouble getting the new spring eye bushings in. How do you do that, without damaging the new ones?:dunno:
To be certain of my messing about with the car I let everything check by my local garage (one cannot be certain enough about the functioning of the front suspension and steering). They checked everything and found the car in excellent working condition.
So for those who are planning to work on their GT's front suspension: read all threads about this issue and follow their instructions, don't be stubborn trying to find it out yourself: you'll be injured!
And finishing with the legendary words of the Hill Street Blues sergeant: Let's be careful out there!
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Ball joints are not indestructible, they should never, under any circumstance be hammered on. You can easily bend the LCA if you hammer on it, and hammering the new ball joints from either direction will drastically shorten their life or ruin them, The stamped steel part on the bottom should not be hammered or pressed on, instead they should be pressed in with a section of pipe resting on the perimeter of the ball joint body.
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100% correct
Jordan, I agree 100% with what you are saying. One must be careful when refitting the balljoints.
Of course I didn't hammer the new ones in, I tapped them in using a pipe with the right diameter (the supports belonging to my garage jack-set turned out to have the exact desired diameter, so I used them).
The old lower ball joints however I removed using brute force since they were not re-usable anyway.
Patrick
Jordan, I agree 100% with what you are saying. One must be careful when refitting the balljoints.
Of course I didn't hammer the new ones in, I tapped them in using a pipe with the right diameter (the supports belonging to my garage jack-set turned out to have the exact desired diameter, so I used them).
The old lower ball joints however I removed using brute force since they were not re-usable anyway.
Patrick
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Good job Jordan. I have used a similar part number for the GT and Kadett front suspensions before. I used to use part number 9.9102, but that's because the part number Jordan listed didn't exist back then. Yes, I am that old....
It goes without saying that anyone who is going to (or already has) lowered the front of their GT needs to either cut the stock bump stops down or install shorter ones. Otherwise you'll find yourself riding on the bumpstops rather than using the spring as the suspension! Ride and handling both go down the toilet when you are on the bump stops.
Bob
It goes without saying that anyone who is going to (or already has) lowered the front of their GT needs to either cut the stock bump stops down or install shorter ones. Otherwise you'll find yourself riding on the bumpstops rather than using the spring as the suspension! Ride and handling both go down the toilet when you are on the bump stops.
Bob
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All Nylocks Now ..
Jeff, All ball joints now seem to be fitted with nylock nuts these days - I guess some cost accountant figured it was cheaper to use them rather than 'castrated' nuts with split pin holes .....the danger is in re-using them after the nylon has been over the thread a couple of times.
A bit of Loctite Super Stud Lock makes sure they do not come undone!
Jeff, All ball joints now seem to be fitted with nylock nuts these days - I guess some cost accountant figured it was cheaper to use them rather than 'castrated' nuts with split pin holes .....the danger is in re-using them after the nylon has been over the thread a couple of times.
A bit of Loctite Super Stud Lock makes sure they do not come undone!
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Well, the front suspension is all assembled and I reinstalled it on the car and it looks great. Though one very serious (I think it is) problem I have is the driver side sits 1/2" lower than the passenger side. Right now there is no interior in the car, or anything at all in the engine bay. I put the rear of the car up on jack stands on the jack points so I could be sure that wasn't altering the stance, no change. The spring perches are both in the same location, I have no idea where to go from here. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Maybe when the engine is installed it will level out. The GT is very light without an engine. I would go ahead and put things together drive it a little and see if it's still not level.
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Things will probably change when you put the rest of the car together.
It would be interesting to see what each corner of the car weighs right now.
With the engine out your front end has to be sitting quite high, when the engine is in your springs will be compressed some.
Also, how level is the the floor your measuring from? When we set up our race cars this is critical, you wouldn't believe how badly a non perfectly level floor will screw you up!
So hurry up and put the engine in, I want a report on the ride height with the lowering spring.
It would be interesting to see what each corner of the car weighs right now.
With the engine out your front end has to be sitting quite high, when the engine is in your springs will be compressed some.
Also, how level is the the floor your measuring from? When we set up our race cars this is critical, you wouldn't believe how badly a non perfectly level floor will screw you up!
So hurry up and put the engine in, I want a report on the ride height with the lowering spring.
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Actually with the engine out and the lowering spring being used the front end is still much lower than stock even with an engine in. I of course still expect it to get lower yet with the engine in. The floor is as level and flat as concrete floors usually go 10" thick highest psi rated concrete available with fiberglass professionally poured.
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Yup, lots of times, but always with a 'loaded' car. Can be one of many things:
*Lower a-arm can be bent (binds front spring and creates a cross-weight issue)
*bolts on suspension are too tight (binds polyurethane). Stock torque specs, no more!
*bent sway bars (if you have them), creates a cross-weight issue
*one of the front spring upper pads is backwards
*broken rear coil spring, creates a cross-weight issue up front
*In odd instances, aftermarket gas shocks can be unevenly gas-charged. So if you have KYB Gas-a-justs, and one leaks the nitrogen out, you have 180 psi pushing on one shock, but no gas pressure on the other.
Bob
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