I bought a spring compressor from VBP and after a couple of hours today I had to give up in frustration. It's the one in their catalog and I couldn't get it to tighten, it kept slipping and breaking loose. Any advice as to how to get it to where I can tighten it up?

A few years ago, I borrowed a spring compressor from an acquaintence. It consisted of a large thick aluminum disk that was positioned above the frame spring tower, and another similar aluminum disk that was positioned under the lower control arm. A all-thread shaft connected them and with the spring between the upper and lower conrol arms you just tightened nuts on the outer surfaces of the aluminum disks to squeeze the spring together. Anyone make a spring compressor like this? (Lost contact with the owner of this compressor.) Installing the spring with this compressor wasn't exactly a piece of cake but it was reasonably easy.

 

Look up Lars' article in Other->Tech Tips on removing/installing springs. You can do it without a spring compressor for the front springs if you follow his instructions. This is assuming you are working with an assembled car. If you are installing springs on a bare chassis you will need a compressor of some sort.



Rick B.

 

Yes. I putting a front suspension on basically a bare frame. I have an empty aluminum engine/lakewood scshield/richmond 5 speed on the otherwise bare frame. The springs I need to compress are 550 pounds/inch and they probably need to be compress 3 inches to get them in place.

 

Yeah, I went thru this when I rebuilt my front suspension (ball joints, etc.). I used a regular spring compressor (jaws) and it was on the brink of slipping off with me under it (very nervous), but I also had it on a lift with another person helping me...have one person compress the spring and someone else hold it in place with large channel lock pliers (be careful), then gently and SLOWLY move it in/out or back in place...it will feel that it's not seated right, but you will see a slight notch on the lower A-Arm where the spring can twist up against it...mine was a 78, but all the C-3s are the same on the front suspension/spring...good luck...DDBS

 

I must be having another 'senior moment' ... I looked, but couldn't find Lars' article. I clicked 'Other' ... 'Tech Tips' ... 'C3' ... I looked through the list of articles and opened 3 or 4, but couldn't find the one by Lars.

Can anyone please steer me in the right direction?

Thanks.

 

If it's slipping then you have to be very careful I would also chain it if you do get some success with it. This kind of thing is very dangerous

 

They usually don't slip unless there is grease on the spring or the compressor tool. Try to clamp it at the end where it is slipping with a small pair of vice grips but be careful and wear safety equipment. It also don't hurt to use safety chains through the center of the spring. Another thing that could be causing your problem is not having the jaws turned so it is pulling straight up on the spring. Sometimes if you have the jaws turned wrong , it will want to make the spring twist and bulge in the center, causing the jaws to be on an angle and creating a slippage.

 

Pulled mine into place with straps and jack.



Michael.

 

I did the same thing with VB&P 550# springs on a bare frame. It sounds like the spring isn't getting all the way up into the pocket, assuming you have the same springs. It's a little tricky to get it seated but here is what I did:

1. Have a person or 2 sit on the frame. The weight of the engine/trans might be enough.
2. Raise the lower arm with a jack until you feel a little resistance.
3. Put a crowbar in the pocket (outer side) and nudge the spring toward the center of the frame. The spring pockets don't line up in a straight line.
4. Continue raising the lower arm and nudging the spring. You will feel it pop into the upper pocket.
5. Line up the top edge of the spring so that it covers ~1/2 of the small hole in the upper spring pocket. I put a screwdriver into the hole so the spring wouldn't slip past and cover the entire hole.
6. At this point with the 550# springs I only had to compress the arm ~1/2" to be able to get the nut onto the upper ball joint. My son was ablt to lie on the upper arm and just pull up on the lower arm while I screwed the nut on.



Rick B.

 

The springs in a Vette are very short, I put a metal bar across the lower Aarm opeining and just use the upper part of the spring compressor to collapse the spring and get it into the pocket. You could also probably accompish this using a stack of washers but the bar would be cheaper if you can locate one.

 

If you are using the heavy duty springs (550#?) these are much shorter than the stock small block springs and can be done quite easily with little more than a floor jack. I did this about a week ago and had no difficulty. With the control arms assembled on the frame and the lower ball joint fastened to the spindle, insert the spring and raise the lower control arm until you can fasten it to the upper control arm ball joint.

With a fully assembled car, the weight of the car is enough to jack against. If you are dealing with a bare chassis there is a pretty easy technique we've used very safely and successfully many times. Just take a chain and bolt it to the front bumper bracket. Take the other end and with a floor jack under the lower control arm, drape the rest of the chain under the floor jack and up to the the frame behind the control arms. Use some good padding (a large beach towel folded a few times works well) over the frame to protect the finish from the chain and wrap it around the frame and secure it to itself. Position the spring and then have someone raise the jack (raising the lower control arm) until you can attach the upper spindle to the upper ball joint.

I have found that if I position the spring into the upper spring pocket first, raising the lower control arm will get it to seat in the upper spring pocket and the lower control arm best. If you try to seat it in the lower control arm first, many times the top of the spring will not seat correctly in the upper pocket. Once the control arm is raised it will be very obvious if it is seated correctly. You will be able to see the lower seat clearly, but the upper seat is more difficult. If the spring is not seated correctly it will be tight against the outboard side of the pocket on the frame and you'll get some binding and some neat noises as the car travels over bumps.

Once you've tried this a few times you'll find it works very well and with the shorter spring it's quite safe. Doing this with the longer springs is more of a pain (getting the springs seated in the upper pocket especially) and a spring compressor would undoubtedly make this much easier to accomplish.

I am not suggesting that you shouldn't use a spring compressor, I am only saying that particularly with the shorter springs it is usually not necessary. I would also suggest this is a job best accomplished with a helper.

Good luck... GUSTO

 

Gusto ... the next time you do this ... any chance you could take pics of your chain configuration, and also as the installation progresses, and post them here in the forum?

Much appreciated if you could ... thanks.

 

Is it this spring compressor?



I installed the same springs on a bare frame also. I removed the top jaws, dropped the threaded rod down the top spring mount hole, held the spring up and installed only the lower jaws. Put a little grease inbetween a couple of washers & the spring pulled up very easily.

Jim

 

you have to position the arms in such a way that the rod is vertical...when vertical, then you should have no problem compressing the springs...also put a little oil on the threads....

 

Yes, I will do that. It is much easier to describe than envision and a picture is certainly worth a 1000 words. We use a similar technique for connecting the rear spring on a bare chassis and I should be able to get pictures of that soon.

GUSTO

 

GUSTO, i would also appreciate some pics of your method with the chain, etc. i will be installing front coils and rear leaf very soon on a bare frame, and could use some tips!! thanks, rick

 

Thanks for the good ideas on how to use the spring compressor and expecially the jack/chain technique. I'll be trying this coming weekend.

The suggestions as to use just one of the spring compressor clamps along with the control arm or upper spring tower makes the spring compressor look a lot more useful.

I like the jack idea particularly since the springs come powder painted and I'd like to get them in without damaging the paint. Yes, I like to see a photo also!

 

I did this years ago on my 68 skylark and if I remember correctly, the spring compressor had 3 claw hooks on each end, not 2 like the pic. Borrowed it from the local parts store and worked like a charm.

 

I used the same compressor on a set of shortened coils. The jaws seemed to get caught between the coils when loaded in place. Instead I used 5/8 or 3/4" redi thread or running thread stock. Welded a nut to one end and used that on the bottom with piece of flat stock about 3" square as a washer. Run the stock up through the shock mount hole. Make sure the rod is long enough to reach through unloaded coil and both "A" arms. Thread a nut down from there with a couple of greased washers under it. Start crankin'!


Underside view; Notice the carpet to protect the powder coat. The nut is welded to the rod and the flat stock welded to the nut. Just big enough to catch in the arm and stop it from turning.

 

I decided to try GUST014's technique. (Thanks everybody, some comments of others also were helpful; i.e crowbar)

My frame is perhaps 14 inches or so above the floor. Approaching from the front of the frame, I positioned the lifting pad of the jack under the "socket" of the lower control arm where the anti-sway bar is to be attached. I had a hockey puck in the lifting pad of the jack to prevent scratching the paint. The jack itself was parallel, to the frame and the frame extentions, and directly underneath the frame/frame extentions. (The frame extentions are brackets that the bumper attaches to - look at the AIM to see them).

The idea is to use the jack to jack up the lower control arm to compress the spring. However, at this juncture, the frame will simply move up not allowing the spring to compress. Using GUSTO14's technique, run a chain around the top of the frame/frame extention and run the chain under the jack. Make a chain loop encompassing the frame and the jack. Use a bolt/washers/nut to link the chain into a loop. Now use the Jack. It will compress the spring.

When you first start to compress the spring, there's a problem. If you seat the spring in the lower control arm, it won't really fit in the frame tower, the spring coils at the top will bind against the frame.
What I did was try to fit the spring in the lower control arm with a little tilt to try to head it into position in the upper frame tower. Then I compressed the spring very slightly. Looking at the top of the frame tower, I could see the spring coil and it wasn' quite positioned correctly. I got a crow bar and pushed the coil so that it snapped into position. In position, I couldn't see the coil since it was resting in it's slot in the upper frame tower. Then I used the jack to compress the spring and then installed the spindle to hold the control arms together.

One thing you have to take care is to "clock" the spring so that it sets in it's pocket in the lower control arm. If you start to compress the spring when it's in a counterclockwise position from the pocket, there's no way you can move it clockwise into the pocket because of spring forces. If you can't set the spring exactly in the pocket, then its ok to put it a little clockwise of the pocket. Then you can take a punch (drift) and tap it back into position before you really compress the spring. (Of course doing this on one spring, I hit my thumb instead of the punch - amazing how your thumb can bleed).

Using this technique probably caused me to take about 10 or 15 minutes after I chained in the jack to get the first spring in. (I was slowly feeling my way along.) I think I got the second spring in in about 5 minutes. The second seemed easy.
...............

Before this weekend, years ago I installed a pair of C3 550# springs, removed them, and reinstalled them using another tool. The jacking technique I used this weekend I really much, much more easy. I'm tempted to say it was fun, but it was certainly easy and also I felt it was very safe.