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Cant get the Rear Spring

2K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  1995 cougar xr7 
#1 · (Edited)
I cant get the damn thing, what bolt do i need to undo to get it?? Pictures please lol, rear control arm right? is this the one closest to the drum or by the Rear Diff???? Best place to have the jack?



Nevermind got it, closest to the drum for anyone else having trouble, just get some wire to support the drum.
 
#2 ·
guess you have the Rear up, secured on stands and the tires off.
If i remember right, place jack under LCA, unbolt the Sway-Bar Endlink, lower Shock bolt and UCA to Knuckle bolt. The jack will help you adjusting the LCA up or down to remove the lower shock bolt more easy. With this you should be able to remove the jack and push the LCA down far enough to remove the Spring.
Note: You may have to unbolt the Brake Caliper but I'm not sure.

-Maic
 
#3 ·
Didnt have to upbolt the caliper, just had a stand on the absorber and removed the jack after removing the bolts that held the drum to the LCA. Had to raise it a bit more beside the jack then pushed on the LCA with my foot then pulled on the bottom of the spring to remove it from the set up.

O and i had tied the Drum with a piece of rope around the UCA and then attached it to the trunks arm. After i figured out how to do it, the other side took me about 40 minutes max from tire off to tire on.

PS

Def need a new sway bar im missing almost a complete inch from the drop.
 
#4 ·
Didnt have to upbolt the caliper, just had a stand on the absorber and removed the jack after removing the bolts that held the drum to the LCA. Had to raise it a bit more beside the jack then pushed on the LCA with my foot then pulled on the bottom of the spring to remove it from the set up.

O and i had tied the Drum with a piece of rope around the UCA and then attached it to the trunks arm. After i figured out how to do it, the other side took me about 40 minutes max from tire off to tire on.

PS

Def need a new sway bar im missing almost a complete inch from the drop.
Good to hear it's done.
Didn't know you have drum Brakes, so there are no Brake Calipers.
Cant follow you on the sway bar :confused:
 
#5 ·
Well the car isnt sitting all the way down as it should, and from what i hear is that the sway bar end links are to tall and the sway bar itself will restrict how low it can be lowered because at some point (at which im at) the sway bar goes under load.

So basically the sway bar is hold the car higher then it should be.

LoL and was a little drunk last post so ya there was no caliper, meant to say i didnt have to take of the E-brake line (haynes will tell you to though)
 
#6 ·
yes, yes, them Corona's ! Just get a new end link then.
Don't quote me on this but you may have to elongate the holes on the LCA to Frame to be able to get a correct Alignment. Somewhere was a Thread/write up about it a while back.

-Maic
 
#7 ·
yes, yes, them Corona's ! Just get a new end link then.
Don't quote me on this but you may have to elongate the holes on the LCA to Frame to be able to get a correct Alignment. Somewhere was a Thread/write up about it a while back.

-Maic
More like Irish car bombs.
 
#9 ·
Same here, at least the front didn't. The bar in the rear was slightly lower with the stock links.
 
#10 ·
i just did mine i looked at it for a day and get ir done. the biggest pita swapping out the sprinsg is keeping the damn calipers out of the way on disc brakes while still keeping the brake lines attatched so i didnt have to bleed them.
 
#13 ·
Installed Eibachs at home

Just recently wanted to lower my car, went with Eibach springs. I was gonna just have Tire Pros install them, but they wanted around $400 to do it. So I decided to do it myself, being someone who has a decent armory of tools, and know how, I was up to the task. Believe me, it wasn't easy for a first timer with replacing springs, but it is do-able, just a bit time consuming. There may be some ways to do this a little easier, but with no proir knowledge for this car, I think i did just fine. Here's some pictures I took during the process, maybe could help anyone curious about the process.




Rear Passenger spring not yet removed. Shock, UCA, emergency brake cable, and sway bar disconnected. Brake caliper also removed, the more room, and more drop in control arm, the better.




Rear spring removed from driver side. Definitely had to use spring compressors to get it out. The Eibachs go in pretty easy compared to removing the stock ones.




Eibach vs. stock Rear.



Eibach vs. Stock Front



Front driver side steering linkage disconnected. Hardest part was breaking it free of the spindle. took some hard whacking with a big hammer, but it will break free. Just be careful not to mess up the threads.



Front UCA disconnected. Very easy actually, all these things need to be out of the way to do this properly.



Compressors on stock front spring.



Stock front spring out. took a little pulling and twisting but it came out just fine after compressing.



Spring compressors on front Eibach. not compressed yet.




Front Eibach installing (at night), went a little into O.T., but got the hang of it eventually.




Front only Eibachs installed.




Car with all springs installed. Sorry about night shot, was a long 2nd day.



This wasn't mean't to be any kind of tutorial obviously, just a small pic. reference during my install.
I did the job over a span of two days, both days starting in late afternoon, about 8 hours total, but I got it done. And I saved myself around $400 if had taken it to the tire shop.
A lot of work, only paid $40 for the spring compressors, so in the end, if you have the tools (which are pretty basic), well worth it.
sorry about the long post.
 
#16 · (Edited)
That rust free California car almost made me cry!

You need a new UCA as well..the boot is torn.

This tool works wonders for the tie rod and sway bar link, 2 turns and it pops off:



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=99849

I paid around $10 with coupons, I keep it in my toolbox now. I found other uses for it too (holding bolts so they dont spin.)

Ironically it is a ball joint tool but it is a bit small for the ball joint, but you may be able to dremel it to fit (although it may weaken the tool - I dont suggest that).

Otherwise you can risk ruining threads or boots. Whacking will not work on some rusty cars.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Rear sway bar

Thanks for the Pos. feedback. I removed the rear sway bar because I thought it might get in the way of spring removal and I didn't want anything in the way at all, and it was very easy to remove & replace. And yeah, I know the boot is torn on the UCA on both sides, I'll get them replaced eventually. For now my next step is installing my new Saleen Speedstars (18x9) and tires which just arrived. Can't wait to see how it looks!
 
#18 ·
I'm wondering a couple things. What drop is that on the eibachs? I can't even reach my arm in anymore to tighten my bolts on my STB while the car's on the ground. My eibachs also had more coils near the top and then spread out like yours aout a third of the way down. I don't have any pics but I wonder what the difference is? I assumed the difference in the coils on mine is because of the progressive spring rate.
 
#19 ·
nice post, i want to do this but not sure if i have all the tools, and you make it look easy haha
 
#20 ·
The drop, according to the official Eibach Website, is 1.2" rear, 1.0" front, with the Eibach Pro Spring kit for the 3.8l (non SC). Seems like not much, but it was clearly lowered, but subtle.

As I said In my first post, the pictures are not a tutorial. To "danalba", no it's not easy of course, I didn't have any pictures of my time-consuming wrenching on the springs to compress them, or disconnecting control arms I didn't want to do for fear of not getting it back together in time for work the next day. But I did it with little problems, on an upward slanted driveway, with a good jack and a couple jack stands.

Of course this job would have been done much easier with power tools when it came to compressing the springs, which takes quite a while and patience when doing it with wrenches, not to mention doing it by myself. But, most people with experience, a decent tool box, I recommend a helper, and knowledge of cars can do this at home and save 3 or 4 hundred dollars.
 
#23 · (Edited)
d00mbuggy ... Thanks for posting those pics.

I did mine sometime back in the early Fall, maybe earlier ..... the pics would have helped me plan so they'll help someone else as well. I got too involved to think about pics myself.

I see you placed the new shorter & stiffer springs on your stock shocks,

If I may ask ... how is the ride ?
... and how many miles on those shocks?

In my experience, Ford used decent lasting shocks even if they were soft. Just curious how it worked out for you.

Looks good! , that 1-1/2 inches or so really do make a difference.

Later ...... ;)
 
#25 ·
anyone make a guide for the front sets? on hwo to do them if not i guess i can put my phone to use and take some pics and what not and do a small right up.
 
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