I searched this, but never found the basics in a concise posting. How hard is it to cut front springs? Can someone please post the basic steps with a notation on the particulary hard/tricky steps? Like I don't know if you remove the upper A-arms. Or if you remove a certain bolt, the system flies apart killing the participant. Any help, please, without a flaming for not finding it elsewhere? I will be doing this and I am just starting my investigation.

the system flies apart killing the participant. Any help, please
LOL
There's several ways of going about this, but I put the front of the car up on stands, remove wheels, shocks and swaybar, put a jack under the lower control arm, jack it up a little, loosen the lower ball joint nut about 1/4" then (if you don't have a ball joint tool) lower the jack again and give the spindle a good hard whack with a hammer where the ball joint is and the spring tension should loosen the ball joints tapered end.
leaving the nut on but loose, prevents the assembly from flying apart
Then jack it back up a little and remove the nut, lower the jack slowly letting the lower control arm down and you'll be able to remove the spring.

LOL
There's several ways of going about this, but I put the front of the car up on stands, remove wheels, shocks and swaybar, put a jack under the lower control arm, jack it up a little, loosen the lower ball joint nut about 1/4" then (if you don't have a ball joint tool) lower the jack again and give the spindle a good hard whack with a hammer where the ball joint is and the spring tension should loosen the ball joints tapered end.
leaving the nut on but loose, prevents the assembly from flying apart
Then jack it back up a little and remove the nut, lower the jack slowly letting the lower control arm down and you'll be able to remove the spring.

I also put loop a small length of chain through the lower control arm and the bottom few coils of the spring. If the spring does jump out it is retained.

http://216.178.81.108/forums/showthread.php?t=386527&highlight=coil+spring+install

david

Doh! I was the one who installed the spindles when I put discs on about 8 years ago... crap, I am getting old! Thanks for the reminders! When I did the spindles, I had a jack under the lower A-arm to prevent any extreme excursions, I never let 'er fly. I think I have a handle on it now, use commons sense and take it easy.

Rats, now I wish I had gotten the 2" drop spindles. But see the pic of my car? You can see my collector side dumps. I don't want to be scraping them or smashing the headers. I just got the car's rear wheels to where I could do extreme approaches without cutting the sidewalls, it's been kinda fun to go 'wheelin into driveways without caution. Now I will have to worry about understuff.

The paranoia comes from changing springs on coil-over struts on my old Honda. Man, that was terrifying.

I never liked the idea of cutting springs. Too many things can happen. I just bought the Hotchkis springs, front and back. Car now sets 1 inch lower in front and level all the way around. Nice firm ride cause of the thicker spools. I love the ride.

Cutting the springs sounds goofy to me, too, but at least I can predict what's going to happen with the resultant height. I woudn't know where to start picking some out of a catalog. I have had rubber bumpers in the rear coils forever to keep the lips off the sidewalls, but with new wheels with deeper backspacing, I can take them out. It's brave new world.

I guess I don't really care how it rides, it's so rowdy anyway. The daily drivers are for nice.

several methods available, some take longer than others...put the springs in a 5 gallon bucket of water, if possible, to keep the heat down in the rest of the spring

I would just buy lowering springs, but I guess if you need to save money, cutting them would work just as well.. My 66 had cut down big block springs in it (it had a small block). The ride was STIFF.

I have stock BB SS springs with a BB, so I think my starting point is OK. I plan to just use my angle grinder with a cut off wheel, no heat, really (compared to a torch). What are the spring pockets like? Are they spiraled to fit the wind of a cut off spring?

I cut mine w/ my trusty CHEAP HFT 4.5" angle grinder w/ a thin cut-off wheel on it fine by wiping them down every so often w/ a wet rag.

pdq67

What are the spring pockets like? Are they spiraled to fit the wind of a cut off spring?
The lower one is, but I'm not sure about the top. It won't really matter anyway.
I would try cutting half a coil first. I know it's a PITA, but better not enough, than too much.