coil spring retaining bolt.

[jbakerinc]

ok made steel spacers at work for my front coils (1996 SC 4x4 4.0). unbolted the shock, unbolted sway bar, unbolted the caliper. went to drop the suspension ahhh nothin happened. it sagged down but i couldnt get the spring out. stepped down on the hub nothin. it looks like it still has a good deal of tension on the spring. i know the guy i bought it from replaced the springs maybe 5-8 years ago.

do i need a spring compresser??? am i doin something wrong???

if i have negative camber now ( chops the front tires but what ttb doesnt) will i need camber adj bushings??? or will i be able to make it with my stock.

one of the main reasons im leveling is because of the neg. camber.

 

[99offroad]

did you take off the shocks and sway bar?

 

[Combs Customs]

There are "fingers" on the coil bucket that keep the coil spring from falling out. You need to bend these straight down. Also, you did take off the nut holding the spring onto the beam correct?

 

[4x4junkie]

You don't need to bend anything, just rotate the coil to get it out past the tab.

No a spring compressor isn't normally required on these things. It sounds like something may be limiting the suspension from dropping down enough (maybe try loosening the radius arm bushing nut, and/or maybe the axle pivot bolt).

 

[TrexMex]

When reading through your explanation I didn't see if you unbolted the nut that's in the bottom of the spring right at the center... did you?

And like junkie said, just rotate the spring until it literally falls off the bucket.

 

[TRX501RYAN]

Unbolt the coil sping from below if your installing spacers only its just as easy to leave the spring where it lies, and let the axles drop install spacer and go from there,


Ry

 

[jbakerinc]

i didnt unbolt the spring yet because i couldnt get a socket inside the spring. i tried with just a 1 1/8 in wrench but it would not fully seat itself on the nut. so it tried to strip out the top little bit of the nut so i stopped. thats not a road i wanna go down. so i thought if i could get the top of the spring out of the perch i could drop the socket down inside and then get it on the nut. the socket will not fit though the spring coils as it sits will suspension sagged down.

 

[TheCiscoKid]

I had the same problem on my 84. My socket almost fit through the coils, so i just stuck a pry bar in between the coils and pryed them apart until i could get the socket in. I still couldnt get enough droop for the coil to "just pop out" so i had to use a buddys spring compressor.

edit: make sure your sway bar, shocks, caliper, anything else attached to the beam is removed or has slack

 

[CJREX]

The socket will go in through the hole in the top of the coil bucket.

On my truck, you can use extensions and use an impact gun to loosen the nut by going past the inner fender liner from under the hood. This works on the driver side.

Passenger side the fender liner sticks too far over and so it has to be loosened manually.

And on mine, the radius arm bolt/bushing has to be loosened to allow enough droop to remove the spring.

 

[4x4junkie]

I was able to use a (Craftsman) box-end wrench on the coil nut by going in between the stock coil windings on mine.

Or you can just go through the top of the mount with a socket like CJREX mentions.

 

[TrexMex]

My approach to this:

Drop the socket through the hole on the top of the coil bucket. If the suspension is hanging, it will NOT be aligned to the top to attach the extension you need; what to do? well, for once, take advantage of the TTB mechanism and jack up the arm until the stud,nut and socket align enough with the top hole so you can plug an extension and breaker bar to the top. Also this will compress the coil so you have slack depending on the length of your extension.

Have fun loosening the nut depending on your level of rust.. remove the coil and you're good to go. IMO this would be much better than trying to remove the coil after you get it free from the coil bucket.

When are you planning on doing this? I'm putting in some steel spacers sometime this week and I could take pics of how I do it, if you think it could help you.

 

[jbakerinc]

sure that would be great man. im planning on friday afternoon. i didnt even realize there was a hole in the top..lol shouldnt be too bad coils were replaced 5-8 yrs ago. so at least it wont be 13 yrs of rust.

 

[TrexMex]

sure that would be great man. im planning on friday afternoon. i didnt even realize there was a hole in the top..lol shouldnt be too bad coils were replaced 5-8 yrs ago. so at least it wont be 13 yrs of rust.

Dude, really sorry.. had to push this job to the weekend due to work overload... Damn chief engineers...

I'll still post the pics after doing the job, in case you need them.....

 

[jbakerinc]

well today i got sidetracked with a broken shock stud. sux. but i will get my spacers in someday...lol

either i have the hardest nuts and bolts to remove ever in a ranger or im a jackass.

even after prepping the area for another shock stud, and pb blasting for almost 4hrs now. i still cannot get the retaining nut loose. is there a trick to getting this little bastard off or what??

 

[CopyKat]

Article from 2002.



http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Winter2002/coil_spring_install.htm