I'm in the process of rebuilding my entire front suspension, and thought I would pass along a warning to those attempting this themselves. (Besides the normal warnings about how strong those springs are, etc...)

While lowering the a-arms with a jack to relieve spring pressure, there is a lip on the disk brake dust shield that the a-arm catches on. If you continue to let the jack down, you will have nothing but the dust shield holding your lower a-arm up!! :eek: Fortunately, I was going very slowly and noticed the problem, which was easy enough to resolve. Had I not been paying attention, it could have been disastrous. I've never seen anyone mention this on all I've read on this topic, and thought it important to pass along.

Good reminder. What I do for safety is to remove the shock and put a 5\8 inch threaded rod in its place. Nut on top and big homemade steel plate on bottom to act as a washer. then I put the nut on bottom, and loosen them in steps as I lower my jack. In fact you don't even need a jack with the rods as you can lower the A arm by loosening the nut on bottom. But it goes very slowly.

What I do is remove everything except the spindle/ball joint nuts. I remove shock, caliper, rotor and bracket, dust shield, tie rod, etc. This way nothing can get damaged. I then use a spring compressor to compress the spring. Then remove the spindle/ ball joint nuts to remove the spring. If you don't have a spring compressor, you can rent one for $10.00. It's much cheaper than a new face... :eek: