Thanks for all the help guys! A friend here locally is telling me I could just merely place a floor jack under the A-frame....pump it up....remove the lower ball joint..then release the pressure on the jack, thus lowering the A-frame and the spring dropping with it.
Sounds like it should work. What do ya think?
BTW....I'm installing new coils springs.....I take it I just have to place these new ones in the same configuration, location in the mounts, as the old ones?
I say that because everyone is saying to mark the location of the old ones in their mounts and to mark which side they came off of. The which side part shouldn't matter at this point huh?
I wouldn't risk it, you're betting your life that jack won't slip or the car won't shift. Probably 99% of the time it won't. Getting the new spring up will likely be riskier.
Yes, just make sure the end of the top coil on the new spring sits in the same exact position in the spring pocket of the frame as the old one... the end of the top coil should be positioned about 3/8 inch away from the coil stop in the spring pocket.
I dunno, why are you? ...your original post said: "got a 75 and want to do front end work"; most of us interpret that phrase to mean you were replacing bushings and ball joints, which is more often the case than replacing springs alone. If you only want to replace the springs, either the ball joint or the pivot arm bolts can be released to get the lower A-arm out of the way so you can extract the spring.
If you are changing bushings, you need to remove the a-arm from the chassis. If you are changing ball joints, then there is a semi-dangerous method to do it easy. However, you assume full responsibility of any damages if you follow it.
Lower ball joint removal
Do not compress the spring.
Jack car up under a-arm and remove tire.
Remove cotter pin and loosen ball joint nut a couple of turns so that there is a gap between it and the a-arm. Be sure the nut is on by its full width still.
Lower car down and rest rotor or drum on a large block.
When you are sure the rotor / drum and the block are stable, lower until full weight is on the block.
Take a large hammer and drive the end of the ball joint down (hit the top of the stud where the nut is).
When the ball joint releases, it will scare the heck out of you and the nut will suddenly be flush with the a-arm.
Now compress the spring with the threaded rod.
Jack car up.
Remove nut on ball joint and hammer ball joint out of spindle.
Move spindle out of the way.
Drill out rivets if original or remove bolts if previously replaced, and remove lower ball joint from a-arm.
Upper ball joint
Do all of above first.
With spindle loose in step 11, remove cotter pin and nut from upper ball joint.
Place a solid block under the upper a-arm and on top of the frame.
With a big hammer, drive the spindle off the upper ball joint stud.
Drill out rivets if original or remove bolts if previously replaced, and remove upper ball joint from a-arm.
If you are only removing the spring, you have to compress it to get it out without unbolting anything. Thus you have a spring under compression, a lot of compression, that you have to deal with. That is why the threaded rod, compressing and removing the pivot bolts, and then slowly uncompressing is the safest method. The threaded rod cannot slip. Spring compressors have, especially if very used or damaged.
Like Wayne said MAKE DAMN SURE you get the spring (end of coil) in the EXACT same place as the old one. I believe on your car there is an indent in the upper cup, but not sure.
OK.........got it........and yes I am replacing nearly everything in the front end, so I am going to compress the old springs using the readybolt method and get them out of the way first.
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