changing front spring

[bonehead]

Thinking of changing my front springs on my 66', the PO cut the stock springs and the truck sits crooked. For a simple spring swap do I pop the lower joint or the upper joint to change springs only. Already have lowered spindles and disc brakes. Thanks )bone(

[Tx Firefighter]

Lower ball joint is easiest.
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[Reyals Bemus]

Pop the lower ball joint. That's all it takes! Control arm swings down and away.

Be sure to leave the nut on by a few solid threads before taking a whack at that lower ball joint. You do NOT want that spring ejecting out from under the truck. When the ball joint is loose, put a jack under the control arm, take the nut off, and then slowly and carefully lower the jack until the spring is free. You will need the truck up fairly high off the ground to do all this.

Changing out springs in these trucks is really quite easy. I've got it down to a 30-minute operation!

EDIT: Some balljoints can be a real pain to break free though. Don't be afraid to swing that hammer.

[Trsmotrhed]

Make sure the springs sit in the pockets correct. That will cause it to sit crooked.
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[Sharps40]

Here is the whole post. Take a good look around number 19 or so for one way of gettin the spring out and gettin the new one back in. I ecommend you have some good jack stands and at least 2 jacks. A buddy is a boon too. But a spring compressor would be the safest method - just be real careful either way. The spring has a lotta power, mush fingers and arms and heads right off if yer under it when it unsprings by accident.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=556867

[bonehead]

Thanks for the tips and info guys. I have changed springs before on my 72 chevelle, but on some vehicles its easier to crack either the upper or lower joints. I will crack the lower on the truck to change the spring based on your comments. )bone(

[Tx Firefighter]

The reason the lower is easiest on these trucks is that the upper control arm will hold the spindle and brake so you don't have to worry about over extending the brake hose or any of that. The lower just swings down and let's the spring fall out.
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[Sharps40]

As long as you have the spring out you might as well drill out the lower control arm shackel bolt holes to 9/16" and put in the upgrade ubolts. Keep ya from havin a broken lower shackel bolt in the future.

[bonehead]

oh, any special spring orientation when I stick it in there??

[Trsmotrhed]

Originally Posted by bonehead

oh, any special spring orientation when I stick it in there??

You'll see the spring pocket on the lower control arm that the end goes in. Also make sure the top is over the pocket. You'll see what I mean when the spring are out.
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[bonehead]

Got my springs changed out today, only took about 2 hours including greasing the ball joints. Everything went as planned. Some wacks from the hammer and the ball joints let loose as described.

Installed the 1" lowered springs with the drop spindles, looks good will attach some pics later.

Thanks for all the advice.

[Sharps40]

Cool. Nice it worked out for ya.

[mark 66]

Originally Posted by Sharps40

As long as you have the spring out you might as well drill out the lower control arm shackel bolt holes to 9/16" and put in the upgrade ubolts. Keep ya from havin a broken lower shackel bolt in the future.

where did you get the new u bolts from?

[Sharps40]

LMC sells upgraded 9/16 ubolts for these trucks front ends. They also sell replacmeents in the original size for the rear.

On this site are threads with napa part numbers for the upgraded 9/16 u bolts in case you want to purchase them local.

Here ya go from the Ol John Lee gets a new front end thread...

Tonight I did some finish work. Adjusted the steering wheel position, tightened up the rear suspension installed with Bigten last winter, upgraded the lower control arm shackels and cracked the code on the idler and pitman arm. Shy of a a rag joint and alignment check, the entire suspension is done. (We won't discuss yesterdays debacle with leaking rear intake manifold gaskets, replaced, slipped and still leaking...a do over for sure). But the front is done. Here is the shackel upgrade and the idler/pitman arm installation.

These are the new 9/16" shackles from LMC for the lower control arms. The originals are 48 years old and 7/16" and known to break...its why Chevy upgraded to 1/2" and then finally to 9/16". Some drilling is in order to open up the holes for the stronger parts and at one spot, a dimple was needed in the cross tie to make clearance for a socket on the much larger nut.



The old and the new side by side.



I would have prefered to do this upgrade before the control arms were installed but is was the devil to find a 9/16" drill bit with a 3/8" rebated shank for my drill. So supporting the control arm against spring tension and only removing one shackel at a time for drilling, here is the drivers front shackel ready to be bolted down and torqued. The original small shackel hanging there for comparison....hard to believe a 4200 lb truck road on those shackels for 49 years.





Again, the drivers side rear, harder to get to but pull the shock and theres just enough room for wrenches and establishing a good even torque.



And here, the drivers side is done, upgraded to heavy duty shackels.



And about 20 minutes later, the passenger side looks just as spiffy. And, with 100 miles on the new suspension, I went ahead and hit every zirc fitting with another good dose of greese. Much easier to get the greese in this time, parts are starting to limber up and more accepting of a shot of greese than the first go around.