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front suspension rebuild [spring refit specificall

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77MidgetMkIV

77MidgetMkIV

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Hello all, New poster here...
I am in the planning stages of front suspension work for my 77 Midget, and have a question concerning removing the coil springs. In a former life, I replaced the coils on my 78 chevy nova, which required the use of heavy duty spring compressors and a lot of hitting. I have read that on midgets, you can just use either a floor jack to lower the spring plate after freeing the top trunnion, caliper, etc etc, or also use slave bolts to gradually let the spring down, againd after freeing the caliper, trunnion, etc etc. Any thoughts as to either of these two methods?
 
Re: front suspension rebuild [spring refit specifi

Welcome aboard! This Be the Best Forum on the web. Lots of knowledgable And Friendly Folks.

Having done what your asking about several times i do it this way. Support the front of the car safely on stands. place a floor jack under the spring pan. I have a large impact socket that fits very nicely on top of the floorjack swivel and slides up inside the spring pan. take up the slack on the jack, and slightly compress the spring. carefully remove the four bolts, i do cross corners. Then slowly let the spring down. This only works well as long as the engine is in the car. there is no need to to pull the trunion , in fact i would leave it assembled till the springs are removed. an alternative way is to use long 5/16 bolts and going cross corner again remove the short bolts and replace them with the long ones tighten them up , remove the last two short bolts, and evenly unwind the long bolts. for long bolts you will need a fair amount of thread to accomplish this. BE SAFE.
if you have done the springs in a nova, then a midgets springs should be a piece of cake.

Once again Welcome aboard to a fellow New Englander!

mark
 
Re: front suspension rebuild [spring refit specifi

thanks for the feedback. when you use the jack method, do you run into problems getting the spring pan bolt holes to line up upon reinstallation?
 
Re: front suspension rebuild [spring refit specifi

Just use a couple of longer bolts, cross corner again to help you get things lined up. after all is seated and the other corners are tight you can replace them with the shorter ones.


mark
 
It is easy to use the floor jack method. Just be sure of two things:

1- Wrap a safety chain or cable around the spring when you lower it, just in case it slips, it won't go far

2- Make sure you raise the body high enough to allow clearance for the pan to be lowered far enough to extend the spring. I had to raise the body in the middle of the operation...not fun...glad I had 2 floor jacks handy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I agree that you should keep the trunion and spindle intact while you drop the pan, but you might want to loosen the nuts while the assembly is still together...easier to apply the torque you need to break those old bolt...Kroil will help there too.

Finally, make sure the Brake calipers are off and secured...I made a small hanger out of an old piece of copper wire and hung them on the brake line support /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Good luck!

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
I plan on replacing all of the bushings, brake lines, worn parts, etc while I am in there, also. do you still recommend leaving everything intact until after I free the spring?
thx again
 
When I replaced mine on my 76 with Uprated comp springs, I used the Long Bolt method and it worked perfect, It couldnt have been any easier. Good Luck. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif
 
I am thinking now that I might try both methods, to see which works best, since I have time. Don't need to have it done until the spring since I do not drive the car in the winter (New England Salty roads-you can hear your car dissolving!!)

I will report back with my findings! I appreciate everyone's feedback. I am new to this forum, and it has been great thus far.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I plan on replacing all of the bushings, brake lines, worn parts, etc while I am in there, also. do you still recommend leaving everything intact until after I free the spring?
thx again

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, I would...but as I said before, it is easier to break the bolts while it is still in place and stable enough to get torque on the nuts to loosen them. A good manual will give the proper sequence, but the important parts are to dicsonnect the sway bar before raising the body and then do the steering tie rods. The rest makes sense as you go along, but loosening everything requiring torque is easier when it is all still assembled. Then drop the spring pans as described, remove the a-arm assempblies and spindles, and then whatever else can be done on the bench.

I saved the wheel bearing and brake hoses until last to avoid having critical parts open to comtamination for long periods of time...there will be a lot of dirt and grease on this job. I disassembled everything, including the crossmember, and gave it two coats of POR15. Then reassembled everything, replacing bad parts as I went...took a couple of months last winter, but then I don't drive her in the winter either /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

Good luck...write back if you get stuck with something.
Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Thanks Bruce, that sounds like good advice
I am sure that I will be back at some point, with a "what the %$^& do I do now?!?!?" type of question...
 
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