First off, a little background. You may remember, my rear spring broke not too long ago. Tuesday, I ordered a replacement spring from Van Steel and opted to have it shipped 2nd day air. Well, 2 days later it doesn't get there, I figure okay, probably didn't get shipped that day. Waited, and waited... Sent a PM to Van Steel, nothing... hmm... Tuesday I email them to see what's going on. I had always heard good things about Van Steel on the board so I figured I would take it up with them personally to see what was going on before I started bashing them, and I'm glad I did because I'd have to be apologizing for it now. :D Long story short, Internet stuff was down on their end, other things happened, he was out of town, blah blah (not giving away all the details). He apologized thrice (twice by email and once on here), shipped the spring by next day air and covered all shipping costs (including the one I already spent) and gave me that added 5% discount for being a member I didn't know about until after I ordered. All is well with Van Steel and I.
Anyways.. 10am the big brown man arrives!
:party:
Step 1: Open the box and see that everything's there.
This image shows that the new spring is a tad thicker all around than the older spring.
Unfortunately, without the spring on the car to help lift the rear end up any, my jack was too tall to fit under there. So, what's a guy to do?
RAMPS! I drove the car onto ramps, jacked up the rear end a little bit... At this point I would also like to show off my paintjob. :D I waxed it once a year ago (Zymol, great stuff) and it still looks like that. Need to wash it though.
And this is the point where I broke the lug wrench. :mad
So I had to fashion my own. Back to the car...
I took the lugnuts off, and with no spring there it was easy to slightly lift the tire so I could get if off. Then of course I supported it with jackstands and did the same thing on the other side.
That little rectangle to the right is where the new spring will attach...
And this is where the middle of the spring attaches.
Told you it attaches there. All's I can say is thank GOD it's 8-pound fiberglass instead of 50-pound steel.
To be able to get the bolt on, you have to jack the spring up a bit. Fortunately they provide a nice metal lip that the jack grabs onto quite easily.
This is an outline of the nut attached.
Here's the other side (and a better picture), just don't forget to take the wrench out that you used to hold the bolt in place.
Alright, tires back on, car coming back down now...
Or so I thought. :eek: I was hoping after some riding around and parts shifting and what-not, that it might lower some.
But, it didn't. It's kinda fun being as high up as I am now, but I'm going to get longer bolts in the near future.
Then I came inside to enjoy my high-quality H20 I had cleverly prepared for myself before I began anything, and of course ate lunch.
Dante was feeling a bit jealous of me taking all these pictures and not getting any of him, so.. I had to include this one for him.
This is DEFINATELY a very simple job to do and most anyone could do it. The only problem I had was the rusty bolts with the old spring, they took a bit of "convincing" to get off. The car rides great now, albeit a bit ... high.
Nice job, but it does seem to sit a little high. Kind of looks like how kids make thier 82 Regals and Cultass look :thumbs: only not near as ugly. You should do yourself a favor and go get a 2 1/2 or 3 ton floor jack though. I got a new one a can't beleive I used to work with one of those smaller ones (deathtraps). Anyway good job, and I like the post.
Nice Writeup! Care to put it in a word doc and submit to corvettefaq.com for posterity? (or I can whip it up).
Wow, rear looks REALLY high. Looks like you have the nuts on the bolts as close to the ground as possible, wonder why its sooo high? Good install though.
-terry :thumbs:
Looks great, but I hope for your sake the bolts work for you. I had the same problem with my fiberglass monospring and ordered the lower bolts. It dropped the car MAYBE 1/2 inch. I am not anlone with this problem there are several of us. BrettMC, is among the group as well.
Great job. You made it look easy. Now I'm going to tackle changing out my gear and spring. I'd like to know if the car came down any more with the longer bolts, because man thats high. :cheers:
Re: Installing a rear monoleaf spring (vincevette)
Just out of curiosity, what spring rate did you get?
I'm thinking I will my change over to the composite once I start redoing my suspension someday. You made this job look pretty easy and straight-forward.
Gotto go light off some fireworks now :) Happy fourth everyone.
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Installing a rear monoleaf spring (BIG pictures)
