Safest way?

[SLR_dave]

thanks for the reply last night i had a similar idea pop into my head i understand what way your thinking and i read the thread you linked there, im not 100%sure if my idea will work but i was thinking of using threaded rod but rather than compressing the spring as when i release it it may not be in the correct position, if i use the threaded rod from the top of the shock tower to the underside of the lower wishbone with a plate, position the spring and wind the whole lot up together, i think it should work and might be safer than having the spring compressed up there whilst im lifting the control arm up to tighten the ball joint

You'll have to do a try it and see on that I think, but you may find, that due to the angle of the lower wishbone as it comes up, the spring will bend more on one side and you mightn't be able to tell if it's straight without getting in a bit close. With short springs though, it might just go in easy.

Otherwise, the way described in the link should work well, or an aftermarket internal compressor for Holden, (my Kingchrome one is for Falcon I think) but it only cost me 40 bucks. Line it up first, compress slowly just mildly to start with, watch the angles under mild compession, note that the lower end of the spring actually travels up the spiral a bit with compression, release it, turn it to a guestimated position and you'll get it straight, and clear that drain hole reletively easy enough on a couple of goes.

Remember its not just your head and hands to worry about, keep the toe of your foot (and everything else) out from under that lower wishbone!! Very easy to let your foot stray under there.

Also, best practice is not to torque the wishbone pivot bolts untill the car is sitting on the ground with engine and cab weight, it can chew out the new wishy bushes if they are torqued without load, because they then have to twist beyond limits as they take the load up for driving (a tip some miss).

You can also compress the springs a bit using the threaded rod and plates, then tie some (strong) wire around the coils 2nd from the top to 2nd from the bottom in a couple of places. Then insert them in place, replace the balljoint and cut the wire. I've done it a lot and it works fine. The wire is removed from under the spring by prising the coil with a flat screwdriver and pulling the wire out. Piece of cake!

Yes it does work, and many do it that way, but awh geeze, is more effort, (personally I only managed it that way once on at Torana) with HJ/ HX I couldnt get enough compression/self confidence without tieing up the bottom and top coils as well, (hence the wire getting stuck under the spring as Big Rob describes). Even then, dealing with a compresed spring bound up with tie wire gives me the shaking jellies, its like holding an unexploded bomb!

The other thing is that if youve painted your wishbones and springs all nice, scratching em up with wire is a bit of a shame. After messing around a few times with it, I'm glad my wire tie days are over! (No criticism of Big Rob or V8VAN intended here).