Why is it always easier the second time??? long

[LanceM]

Spent an enjoyable weekend working on the Z, well sort of, enjoyable in that it was finally warm enough to pick up a wrench and not have it stick to your hand!!!

I had read that you could change the rear springs with out pulling the lower pin by pulling the shock bolt and lowering the a-arm and by using the same method to compress the new spring during the install. Sounded easy and looking at it, a real good possibility that it would work.

So after a long day of finishing my 4 wheel disk conversion (280ZX front and rears, another whole story) and maybe too many refreshment breaks inbetween I decided to have a go at a spring starting around 6 PM.

Well I start by pulling off the caliper I just put on, that was easy the bolts were new stuck the floor jack under the a arm and pulled the shock bolt and slowly let her drop. $hit the sway bar is holding it up, nuts rusted can't get off, get the sawsall. Lower some more, $hit the sway bar is hitting the axle, mount bolts rusted, sawsall time. Lower more, the axle is at it's limit and the spring is just growing, must be 2 feet long!!! Work at getting the axle bolts loose, tough job they haven't been off since they were put on in '72! Finaly they are off, with out the sawsall!!! The arm is now down as far as it will go, damn spring is still up in the tower an inch, needless to say it is around 8:30 and I've about had it with this "easy" job, so in a fit of real pissed off I pretty much rip the spring down out of the tower and out... Yeah half way there!!!

Luckly the Einbach springs are about an inch shorter so no fight getting them into the tower. Now how to align the shock so that it goes through the hole??? Well lets just say that 2 hours later, two tie down straps from out of my truck, and a developing skill of operating a floor jack with one foot while standing on blocks so that I could look down from inside I got it back together. Got into the house around 11 PM looking forward to the challange of doing it again Sunday.

Sunday, out in the shop ready to go, big cup of coffee in my hand. Get everything out of the way and have at it, 45 minutes later I'm done!!!!!

Why the hell is it always easier the second time??? Oh and if any of you are wondering about how hard it is to do, it's a breeze

[Ed]

Good story, had me rolling..

Why didn't you use a spring compressor? Autozone loans them out. Live and learn. :classic:

[LanceM]

To use spring compressors you have to pull the link pin out and I've heard enough horror stories about that pin to fill a book, so that was what I was trying to avoid. I have spring compressors but there isn't enough room in the tower to put more than one on, and after getting the Einbachs on I see that the ones I have wouldn't have worked anyway even if I pulled the strut, once those springs are compressed the top 4-6 coils are almost touching!

[2ManyZs]

Those Eibach progressives are a PITA aren't they??

I ended up using 6 large 3 inch hose clamps on mine to compress them enough to mount them.

FWIW, if you had unhooked the brake line(yeah, I know, gotta bleed them again) and unbolted the half shaft from the hub, you could have unbolted the top of the strut and swung it down and layed it on the floor and used your compressors on the old springs.

Reminds me of the time a buddy of mine and I were putting lowering springs on my old Monte Carlo SS, way back when I didn't have nearly enough tools to work with. Took us 2 hours to do one front spring, and only took 30 minutes on the second one... talk about stiff springs....:cross-eye

[LanceM]

Man I bet that took a lot of cranking on those hose clamps to get things compressed, sounds like a tired wrist to me I was wondering if I could drop the whole strut out of the tower but seeing what those Einbachs took to compress I'm glad I did it the way I did now. If I ever have to do it again it would really be a breeze

The real sad part about the whole tale is that if that lower suspension pin would just pop out I could have walked the strut over to the neighbors and used their wall mounted comercial spring compressor and did it in 5 minutes like I did the fronts

[2ManyZs]

Nah, 3/8 air wrench...... :devious:

[LanceM]

Cheater

[Ed]

Glad you got it done. Hope I never have to jump through that hoop.:classic: