[JC455]

"It’s gonna take me a long time to save up the money to do my chrome and paint since this last batch of bodywork depleted my funds. In the meantime I have several things I’m gonna do and one of them is rebuild my front end. Anybody got any tips or techniques for doing the springs without the weight of the engine? I want to do as much as I can while everything is off the front end. The reason I am retired from the military and police so young is because of rheumatism and I can only do so much bending leaning and stooping before I start hurting."


Get an INTERNAL spring compressor- there is only one screw for this tool; the two screw, twin hook compressors are for external strut springs- and unthread the hook. Then remove the lower hook (the one that slide along the screw shaft). Get a washer that the screw shaft will fit through. put some grease on the washer, then slip the screw shaft through the washer and into the UPPER shock mount from above- it is now hanging down into the cavity where the coil spring resides.
Thread the first hook back onto the screw shaft, then seat the coil spring in the upper helix mount of the frame. Tighten the compressor enough to hold the spring up to the frame.
hang the lower control arm from its frame mounts, then gauge where the lower spring pigtail needs to be so it lines up with the pocket in the lower control arm (the end of the spring needs to cover one hole, but not the next hole), then adjust the spring so the pigtail falls into this location.
Tight then spring (not a bad idea to put a cable or chain through it- just in case), then move the lower control arm into place with a floor jack.
Assemble the control arms, spindle, and balljoints, then loosen the spring compressor.
Torque the balljoints and cotter pin them in place.
After the weight of the vehicle is loading the control arms, torque them.... Or use Global West Del-A-Lum bushing and just tighten everything up when you install the springs.