Coil Spring Install

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Darren 72

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My Car
1972 Mach 1
Can someone give me some advice about reinstalling the spring coils on my 72. I installed new control arms upper and lower and am trying to get the coils back in. I have a dual coil compressor tool. That's probably the first problem. What is the proper tool to have? Also do I install the upper arm first or do I get the spring in compressed and then install arm. Seems like I need another set of hands,

Also does the coil seat on the upper arm actually move back and forth. It seems like it needs to go towards the shock towers. Its leaning forward a bit. I assume the spindle goes on last.

Thanks

D. Rolls

 
I found that the easiest way to remove and reinstall coil springs is to pull the coil up into the shock tower with the coil compressor.

When you install them, put them in their deisgnated spot in the shock tower, put the shock absorber brakets on on top of the shock tower inside the hood and use the compressor to pull the coil up aginst the shock absorber bracket. That way, you don´t need three hands, the coil holds in place and you don´t need to handle the compressed coil, which can be very dangrous.

Once the coil is in place and compressed, you then bolt on the upper control arm and release the coil until it sits on it. Voilà!

For removal, you do it the other way round, pull the coil up, remove the upper control arm and release the coil until it comes out on its own.

Edit: I should have read Don´s pdf first, as it is basically the same procedure that I described here, only I don´t remove the hub and stuff. You can simply tilt the spindle with the brake drum (or disc) out of the way.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I found that the easiest way to remove and reinstall coil springs is to pull the coil up into the shock tower with the coil compressor.

When you install them, put them in their deisgnated spot in the shock tower, put the shock absorber brakets on on top of the shock tower inside the hood and use the compressor to pull the coil up aginst the shock absorber bracket. That way, you don´t need three hands, the coil holds in place and you don´t need to handle the compressed coil, which can be very dangrous.

Once the coil is in place and compressed, you then bolt on the upper control arm and release the coil until it sits on it. Voilà!

For removal, you do it the other way round, pull the coil up, remove the upper control arm and release the coil until it comes out on its own.

Edit: I should have read Don´s pdf first, as it is basically the same procedure that I described here, only I don´t remove the hub and stuff. You can simply tilt the spindle with the brake drum (or disc) out of the way.

Thanks....Big help! I need to go out and buy the right tool tomorrow.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
One thing you might want to look at before you put your springs back in is to ensure your new control arms have free movement up and down. Last year I bough a pair of new 71-73 Scott Drake control arms from Mustangs Unlimited - I was installing the second side when I noticed the control arm only had a small amount of free movement in either direction before the back edges of the arm were hitting the tower. I had to grind off part of the new control arm in the two places (on both sides of the control arm) circled on the attached photo to get clearance. In the photo you can see the top of the arm is resting against the body, and if I had of left them that way the leverage of the control arm under load would have damaged the tower. I was wondering if Mustangs Unlimited had sent me the wrong arms but they were clearly bagged as 71- 73 parts.

Most likely your arms won't have the fault mine did, but might be worth checking out anyway...

1VMKn.jpg


 
Last edited by a moderator:
One thing you might want to look at before you put your springs back in is to ensure your new control arms have free movement up and down. Last year I bough a pair of new 71-73 Scott Drake control arms from Mustangs Unlimited - I was installing the second side when I noticed the control arm only had a small amount of free movement in either direction before the back edges of the arm were hitting the tower. I had to grind off part of the new control arm in the two places (on both sides of the control arm) circled on the attached photo to get clearance. In the photo you can see the top of the arm is resting against the body, and if I had of left them that way the leverage of the control arm under load would have damaged the tower. I was wondering if Mustangs Unlimited had sent me the wrong arms but they were clearly bagged as 71- 73 parts.

Most likely your arms won't have the fault mine did, but might be worth checking out anyway...

1VMKn.jpg

Thanks I will inspect it and make sure I'm good...

 
The installation/removal section of my '71 manual is attached.
I feel like I just got schooled, spent hours trying to get one coil in and never did, now I know what I was doing on the install, Thanks for the info this will help a lot.

 
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