Installing new springs, any tips on the rears?

[Choochoochoo]

Got the fronts installed, having a hard time seeing how I'm going to get the rear springs out of such a small area, guess I'm just used to struts on all 4 corners.. Any tips? I will have spring compressors on hand when doing this, it just looks like the spring is way tall for the amount of room I have to work with.

[Ghost]

You have to lower the subframe to get them in.

[Mike McCreight]

Or disconnect the brake hoses, and the inner (IIRC) CV joints, and pry the trailing arm down.
I'm REALLY leery of dropping the subframe on an older or rusty car. If you strip/rip/snap those long bolts, you're really in for a disappointment.

[Choochoochoo]

I'm leaning more toward dropping the subframe... I'm just going to load all the bolts up with pb blaster for a while before I start undoing bolts. I would go the route of undoing the brake lines if i had all the stuff to swap out the drums. Someday.

[Matt01]

no, like he said the easiest way is to:

1. disconnect the brake lines
2. disconnect CV axles (ive heard a ton of crap about those torx bolts, but you'll have to deal with them 1 day) Mine came off like butter
3. disconnect lower shock bolt
4. pry down on control arms and the springs will come out.

[espacef1fan]

Ill add disconnect the diff mount. Dont worry about touching the beam mounts though. You sohuld get plenty of droop with the above mentioned techniques and disconnecting the diff mount

[DPDISXR4Ti]

It depends a lot on what spring you're taking out and/or putting in. i.e. a short, stiff spring will be much easier than a soft, tall spring.

I wonder if this type of spring compressor could be used? I've used the cheap, low-tech ones, and felt like I'm playing with dynamite the whole time.

[Choochoochoo]

I'm taking the stock springs out, and replacing them with some hypercoil 550s, believe they came from mc2racing originally. Installed some 200s up front and could tell a world of difference from the stock cut springs that were in it originally.

[merkurdriver]

I'm not 100% certain but I think I've seen someone put the car on stands, let the rear arms hang down, and then use one of those $20 spring compressors to go in and compress the spring and pull it out.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I'm not 100% certain but I think I've seen someone put the car on stands, let the rear arms hang down, and then use one of those $20 spring compressors to go in and compress the spring and pull it out.

I just put a pair of Scorpio springs (less one loop) in that way. No axles, shocks, brake lines in the way. I'll use a better quality spring compressor or drop the whole assembly before doing it that way again. I've made it this far in life; it doesn't seem like killing myself with a $20 Chinese spring compressor would be a worthy way to go.

[merk23literturbo]

Whenever I play with any spring even with the best professional spring compressor I wrap a chain around the spring and attach that to something that will hold it in any worse case scenario.
(Why? Ever seen a Cadillac front spring go completely through a fender?)