BAD-L88

Well I spent the afternoon installing the springs and stabilizer bar on my car. The left side went on quick enough using the "jack the lower control arm up" method. But, I fear the spring may not be properly set at the top. :confused: I just get a bad feeling about it.

The right side was another story. It seemed like the spring would not compress enough. It doesn't help not having the motor in there to push down. I thought I was going to jack the car over on to it's left side! At one point I had the misfortune of the jack slipping out and the compressed spring EXPANDING. It was scary and I am glad I set up extras jack stands when the car came up off of the originals. I then decided to use the "coil spring compressor" method. I didn't like that tool when the springs were coming out but I had no choice but to try it. It actually worked very well and within half an hour the wheel assembly was installed with the spring properly seated.

And what's up with the stabilizer installation. I thought that should have been the easiest part of my day. Those brackets are stubborn with that fresh rubber in them! There seems to be a top and bottom to the bar, the bar is angled at the eyeholes. I took a guess.

One part of interest that I may have a problem with is the round rubber bumper that sits on top of the frame below the upper control arm. I was missing it entirely on the left side and the right side bumper broke off in my hand. On the left, I just put some soft towels between the frame and upper and was hoping to be able to slip a bumper in there later. On the right side I went with the broken bumper as a spacer. Right now they both seem to be in there pretty tight, the broken bumper and the towels. Does anyone know if the load comes off of this area when the car is back down on the ground or do I need to remove the upper steeing knuckle from the ball joint to get these round rubber bumpers installed?

One step closer, two steps back,

BAD-L88





[Modified by BAD-L88, 5:41 AM 12/26/2001]

BAD-L88

Right Front installed:
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/badl88/vw...c=ph%26.view=t

lbell101

It's hard to tell about the spring from the picture. If the spring is touching the side of the pocket on the bottom of the frame then it's out of position. I found mine was out of position when I tried to put the shock in. You can't if its pushed over. You can also see the springs from the top through the holes in the pocket by the shock mount. The top coil shouldn't be visable as it should be seated all the way around that hole. I was able to put a tire iron in through that hole and pry on the spring with it out of place - you can't do that if it's seated properly. (BTW - don't pry on it unless you compress the spring first). The side that I installed incorrectly was much more difficult to install as it must be compressed more. Maybe compare the two sides from the top to see if they look to be seated the same.

The sway bar looks right to me.

daves 72

BAD-L88
once your whole front susp. is in correctly install the small round rubber bumpers by putting a small loop in the end of a 2 foot piece of bailing wire not overlapped, squish the wire around the smallest diameter of the bumper , put the wire down the hole from the top under the upper control arm and feed it out near the bottom of the spring.
pull stright down it will pop into the hole and the wire will pull right off.be sure to use only baling wire it must be soft to pull off. i hope you can understand this.i did this, worked first time for both.
Dave

BAD-L88

lbell101,

I might be putting the shocks in tomorrow. If they go in, am I OK? I think one side is close to the outside of the pocket on the frame, the other side is close to the inside. I was hoping at least one is right. I might drop the car on to the tires tomorrow and see if anything clicks into place.

daves 72,

Thanks for the tip, just the type of info you only pick up here, the stuff they don't teach you in Corvette school.

Looks like your car underwent quite a transformation. Looks great, I love before and after photos.

Jughead

I found out the hard way that the spring must be seated in upper spring socket. With the spring out of the CA's look up into the cavity and then feel around for a coil indentation. This is the section which must match up to the spring. Otherwise the spring is not "seated" properly. The bottom spring fitting into the indentations isn't as critical as the top. In fact, my bottom CA didn't matchup perfectly with the spring. If the top part of the spring is not seated properly, when you lower the vehicle to the ground your front end will look like its on stilts. :eek:

I positioned the upper part in the socket properly and then slowly angled the spring to meet the lower CA as I slowly raised the CA. The most important is that the upper spring not move out of the pocket once you have it positioned.

Are you using the shorter replacement springs? They're easier to install than the taller original springs.

Good Luck. It took me about 6 tries to get the upper seated properly.

Len

lbell101

Thanks for the good words!
The short answer is - I'm not sure if just getting the shock room would guarantee the spring was positioned correctly. Mine popped into place when I compressed it from the bottom and gave it a little pry from the top. '1970 stingray' is correct - the ride height will look screwy if it's not in the pocket correctly. It did seem that once the spring was out of the way of the shock it had to slide into the correct position because of the shape of the pocket. With a little effort it should be possible to see or feel that it is correctly placed in that pocket. I would do that and possibly place a shock up in there. If it's in correctly, the shock should look centered in the spring.