Axeman82

1988 EA Falcon GL..

How hard (and how do you do it?) is it to replace the std rear springs with King spring Lows using existing Monroe GT shocks? I was told it would be easy but exactly what is involved?

Jacking up the chassis, undoing the rear shocks (will the old springs just fall out?) and then re doing up the old shocks and let the car down??

Thats what I was told.. Would I need spring compressors? I wanna replace the old ones to give the car a level look and increase handling a bit.. I won't be back til Monday (going to Ballina, NSW) but any advice would be great..

Also can it be done with simple tools or are torque wrenches and stuff required?? Me and my mate (he's real keen) are thinking of giving it a go..

Dan..

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Walkinshaw

get a Gregories/Ford manual and treat it like a bible. removing rear springs is easy as pie. involves a tad more then undoing the shock bolts but not to difficut

Raise car on chassis stands
Remove road wheel
unclip break splitter box from diff
remove diff breather hose
undo top mounting shock bolts
undo lower shock bolt
remove shock/spring

reinstall.......

iirc thats the process

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Ive been described as a vault of usless random knowledge.

Ill take it as a complement i think.............

b-juggles

Dont need to do this, even though I know the gregories manual says so....use a trolley jack to slowly lower the diff enought to remove springs. Dont let it drop too far or too fast or you will split bushes...I learnt the hard way..twice (I dont catch on too quick!)

Tighten till just firm while car is on stands, then make sure you tighten everything up really tight as the car sits on the road (ie with all cars weight on wheels) and thats pritty much it.

SiX_iN_a_RoW

will replacing just the lower springs bring the car level?
Im wanting to lower mine all 'round but wont be able to afford to do it in one hit, if it wont look ridiculous ill do the rears first

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Lowered EF Futura
Black Steelies ( too cheap to buy proper mags )

b-juggles

Depends...if you have fords 4wd suspension(tm) in it may look a bit dicky...but not too bad....we did my mates ED with rears first (only lows not superlows) and you could tell it looked a bit odd..but then again the normal jo wouldnt know the difference...superlows the difference would be more noticeable....but heck..if any says it looks stoopid, tell them you are carrying 10 bags of cement in the boot!

It is REALLY easy to do...not worth paying suspension shops to do it IMO

Axeman82

Okay I was talking to my gf's brother and he has all the stuff required included to do it and reckons he can get me a really good price on the springs. If I can get a good price than maybe I should do the fronts too!! However the front will need a wheel alignment right?

How about the front springs? I was told that it isn't much harder but you need spring compressors? (which I have access to)

How about another Gregories manual excerpt Walkinshaw?

Thanks guys for all the advice...

Dan...

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b-juggles

you need to undo bolt at bottom of strut, radius rod and upper ball joint. Then undo the three nuts at the top of the shock tower in the engine bay and remove spring and strut in one piece. Compress the spring and undo the bolt at the top of the shock that connects it to the mount...

(when I say undo I mean undo and take right off....you may get away with just loosening the radius rod though....)

Get walkinshaw to give u a full rundown though cos this prob doesn make too much sense!

you can get springs for $200 all round (PM me for details if u want) and at super cheap atm you buy 3 shocks and get one free (front struts are $89 each and rear are $43 each) this is for gabriel performance gas shock with VST (just like sensatracks) nb: these shocks will suit low kings only...not superlows

Axeman82

Yeah that makes a bit of sense.. Does the wheel at this point just lower down to the ground (assuming that you jack the chassis up behind the wheel you are doing... And I am guessing that you need to be careful of the brakelines going to the wheels! And also are the nuts all nylex nuts and need to be replaced or just plain nuts (loctite??)

I would only be getting springs, not worried about shocks as the current ones are just 18months old with not a lot of k's on them.. Then again I may just get the front ones professionally done and put the rears in myself.. Depends on the price I pay for the springs.. I got about $300 right now with more coming in a month or so.. I know I could just wait and get it all done at a suspension place but I really want to do something myself rather than just keep shelling out money for labour (I am a uni student and spare time is something I have plenty and plenty of..)

Thanks again..

Dan..

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b-juggles

as soon as you undo the upper ball joint, the hub and disc will fall toward the ground, so be careful of brakelines and stuff. (make sure you have something supporting it is best way) when removing the strut and spring (it comes out as one unit) you may have to do some pushing and shoving to get it completely free. If you disconnect the radius rod completely, you shouldnt have to push and shove as much as the lower arm should fall straight down. (we never disconnect the radius rod fully - only loosend when we did ours so we pushed downward on the disc to get enough clearance to remove and install the spring/strut unit)


Brendan