going to be changing the bushings soon on upper and lower control arms and was wondering what type spring compressor i should use… or if the ones that autozone loans out would work good?
just got a full energy suspensions kit and wanted to do everything at once one wheel at a time
Hey Rad!!! Yeah that is good enough.
i was looking in helms and was wondering this… does the spring and strut come out as a assembly that u dont have to compress to get out (like a coilover setup)
it seems to show the spring is clamped down with the strut, but diagrams arent that good on it
:think: why would you need a spring compressor if your changing the upper and lower control arm bushings? i never knew what came with the kit but i know that you dont need a spring compressor for the upper and lower arm bushings. you dont even need to take off the spring/strut.
Yes, you can remove the spring/shock as an assembly so you don’t have to uncompress the spring. However if you plan on replacing the shock bushings located in the top hat of the spring/shock assembly you will need to uncompress the spring.
Oh, and you can easily uncompress the stock springs w/o a spring compressor. However I assume you’ll need one to re-install them, but I’ve never put stock springs back on a G2 before so I can’t be certain of it.
thanks… im gonna compress it outside the car to change the strut and strut bushings
any idea how long it takes a wheel?.. i got some experence with the front suspension as ive done axles before
ive heard about 10hours a side… sounds a bit much…
im doing upper and lower control arm bushings… swaybar endlinks and frame bushings… ball joints… tie rod ends… struts… strut fork bushing… and axles
after all this a alignment and a good set of tires i would say its pretty close to being able to handle some heavy auto-x
Pep Boys has a spring compressor that will work. I bought one at Sears and the part that clamps the spring was too big. The clamps would hit the dust shield on the shock. When you put the springs back on the shock make sure that the damper mounting plate is in the right orientation to the shock.
you know how much the pepboys one is?
It was $45.00 dollars.
You never mentioned changing springs… if you’re not changing springs then you’re probably not gonna be all that setup for autoX. It seems like you’re spending a lot of $$ and time on suspension parts and alignment. It would be a shame if you changed all that you listed but kept the stock shocks. Especially since a good set of springs or coilovers could be installed at the same time for not much more $$.
If you are changing the springs (or already have aftermarket springs) you won’t even need a spring compressor. You can easily decompress the stock springs w/o a spring compressor. And you won’t need to compress the aftermarket springs to install them.
As for the time thing… that can’t really be answered. Six years ago when I was young and didn’t know anything about cars it took me a weekend to lower my car (mainly it took so long because I thought I had to decompress the springs w/ a compressor and no where in town had a spring compressor that worked for our springs, so I had to have a local shop do it). Now I could change springs/shocks out very quickly seeing as how I’ve taken apart DA suspension countless times. Recently when I installed my ES master kit and mugen rear trailing arm bushings it took me a weekend to finish the install. But again, that was because I’d never done it before and I was taking my time making sure everything was perfect and learning the best way to go about doing each part of the install. Some people could do what you want to do in a day, easily… but others may take a week of off and on work to finish the job… it just really depends on your situation.
i dont plan on auto-x the car… maybe on a weekend for fun or somethin but being i aint paying for none of these parts… (my dad is currently driving the car as his truck got totaled)
the car has 170k miles on all the bushings… so changing all of them out should make a big diffrence… its already got new pads,calipers,rotors all the way around too
the weekend job u spoke of… most of that work was with the trailing arms right?.. ive read a whole weekend just for them on other posts
no, i spent a lot more time on the ES bushings than on the rear trailing arm bushings (well, actually the tough part is removing the old bushings, putting the new ones in is cake). The rear trailing arm bushings pop right out w/ a gentle whack of a hammer, and go in nice and smooth with a press.
how long did it take u just to do the front?
we wont be doing the back untill we get the trailing arm bushings in which we havent ordered yet lol and being ive had the front of my car apart b4 i would know part of what is needed on the front (ive never touched or even looked for the rear control arms before)
also when u did them did u change anything else at the same time?
I don’t know how long it took to do just the front, I had the whole car up on stands the whole weekend and just sorta worked on it bit by bit, I’m not sure of exact times.
I changed all the bushings, my tie rod ends, and maybe an axle too… I don’t really remember.
either way… its sorta useless to ask how long its gonna take, because what takes one person 1hr may take another 4hrs… Different situations, different cars, different tools…etc…
the car maybe, but definitely not the driver.
as for the tools and all thing… last time when we did the axle on my smoker… we realized ur basic harbor freight impact wouldnt get the nut off (atleast on mine) so we got some thing its called earthquake or somethin… it was like $200… and it pulled it right off
i can drive the car good… i just dont go fast or race it cuz mine (the smoker) is out of repair… its got a dead balljoint… tranny grinds a little 1st to 2nd (it was auto-x by the last owner) and i cant afford to feed it 
if you do plan on doing shocks/springs:
I did a lot of research and tried a few different compressors before i found some that would fit between the spring coils AND not hit the metal dust covers. Advance auto has them under “AC838”, they are Performance Tool W80555. They work great. i tried to compress the assembly using a jack under the control arm and just didn’t have much luck. These spring compressors are easy, safe, and let you get everything lined up nicely. Also, you won’t risk damaging your upper mounts or the threads on the damper shaft.
This is only neccessary to install OEM springs on shocks. If you use shorter lowering springs, you may not need a compressor.
Holy 7 year old thread!
Don’t think radzer0 will be needing any help as he has been banned and inactive.
Nice find!
[QUOTE=spikeymike;2273100]Holy 7 year old thread!
Don’t think radzer0 will be needing any help as he has been banned and inactive.[/QUOTE]
this will help others with the same question, i hope.