I was hoping I could get some insight into what I'm doing wrong here
I purchased the Mid America lowering kit for my 92 ragtop
The Rear bolts are in, but I'm having trouble with the front

I have the shocks & lower control arms disconnected
I was able to remove the sprint retainer nuts on the passenger side, but the ones on the driver's side just spin...I can't get to the bolts from the top

I've been reading the forum for a few months now, preparing for this job, but I'm getting somewhat contradictory messages

What do I need to do to remove the spring?
Do I need to remove the A-arms completely?
Do I need to remove the spring retainer nuts completely, or can i manage with them loosened?

Any help would be much appreciated...

TIA

 

Get everything off,the retainer cups the rubber on the spring.The front of the car needs to be pretty high to get the spring out.One A-arm needs to be loose enough to push it down out of the way to pull the spring.

 

Damn I read about this somewhere. Look in the stickies and do a search on lowering kit. I can't remember the exact answer, but I think you are not dealing with studs, but a bolt which when loose will just spin. There is a way to get to the top of the bolt and get a wrench or socket on it. I plan on lowering my car once I am done with the paint so I boned up on this a couple of months ago and have a vauge recollection of someone else explaining how they delt with it. look up in tech's stickies too.

Let us know how you resolved it.

 

http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/foru...ad.php?t=79763

http://webpages.charter.net/khasting.../lowering.html

 

Those links do not really tell me how to get to the top of the bolt on the driver's side. I can't see the bolt, so I don't know what to hold on to ;-)

 

Not to thread jack you, but how did you support the rear leaf spring when you took the rear bolts out? I wanted to lower the rear but don't wanna mess around with the tension of the spring.

 

I used a bottle jack on the control arm...the rear was easy
Well, it was easy once we determined that the stock castle nuts were not coming off, so I cut them off with a sawzall ;-)

 

Have you try to use your arms and reach for the top of the bolt using an open wrench?

 

Yup...the mounting plate for the steering column seems to be in the way...I can't see any way to get to the bolts from above or below

 

They are reachable, keep trying. I've done this job 6 times.

I always tell people to think outside the box.

 

Any tips on which direction to try them from?

 

 

For mine, I had to remove one of the lower A-arms to get the spring out. For those bolts, yes they are a PITA. What I ended up doing was using a pair of needle-nose Vice-grips to hold the tip of the bolt while I used a ratcheting box-wrench to undo the nut to that point. Then I moved the Vice-grips (this is why they had to be needle-nose) to above the nut so I could get it the rest of the way off, and there's barely room for them between the nut and the retainer once you get the nut as far down as possible with the Vice-grips on the tip of the bolt. I used small strips of leather so as not to damage the threads. Voila.

As for answering your questions exactly:

1) The more you remove, the easier it is to get out. While there may be a few things you can short cut, it isn't worth it. Remove one lower control arm as well as removing everything except the 2 attaching bolts on the opposite A-arm (shock, sway bar, ball joint to the knuckle). To get the A-arm out, you may have to remove the engine mount support bracket (diagonal piece) under the car. Don't worry, the engine won't fall on you. Just 2 bolts on each end of it and one in the middle under the engine mount.

2) Depends on what spring you have (different spring rates have different unloaded curvatures, so that they all ride at the same height under load. Weaker springs will be harder to get out because they deflect more under the weight of the car and therefore are more curved unloaded), but I had to remove one A-arm. The car has to be fairly high off the ground too.

3) As hard as the spring is to get in and out with them out completely, I would do my best to do that. That being said, I've never tried, so it may be possible with them just loosened.

Good luck! It will be well worth it. Lowering is, aesthetically, one of the best mods to a C4 you can do in my book.

 

No?

From 1st link

"What I did was I took a 15mm socket and attached it to a universal, then attached that to a long extension. From the top on the driver side you wiggle it onto the bolt coming down through the engine compartment and wedge it onto the bolt. Then you can go back under the car and use another socket driver to loosen the nut. On the passenger side there is about a one inch diameter hole in the frame rail that you can squeeze your extension with universal down into and do the same as on the driver side. The other bolt you can reach with a wrench to keep from spinning. Remove these brackets and set them aside"

 

The easiest way to get the nuts off are with an air impact gun,same for tightening them up

 

Thanks! I guess I'll try it again this weekend

 

Like PLRX said, you've got to study a bit then get in there with an open end wrench, it can be done. Not an easy way to get to them. I bought my wedges from MAM also and did the job without taking the spring out. Apparently since I did mine they have changed the directions. IIRC I did mine the same time I did the poly bushings so the spindle was out of the way and I just let the spring down all the way.

 

I find that's usually true in most cases too.