lawman

It was my understanding that to take out our stock strut/spring set up all you have to do is just remove the bolts at the suspension and remove the 3 bolts on top the damper and the stock strut/spring should just fall out, easy. Right?

Well a friend of mine said it was a PITA to get the stock stuff out at all four corners, he removed the bolts but the stock stuff did not fall out and was stuck in there - is this something that SC's have to deal with? Is this common? If so any ideas on how to get the stock stuff out easier? Thanks for the info. I wanna get my stuff in soon.

gadgetSC

lawman....your friend is correct. They dont just fall out. I've read about how some guys have someone stand on the wheel/hub to help to remove the spring/shock.
The problem is the shock expands and you have little to no room to clear the lower suspension arm. As I said...If you are able to put some weight on the lower arm, you might get the shock/spring to clear. I couldnt do it alon when I installed my coilovers. So I cut my rear mounts off the shocks. Since they were the originals, it didnt matter. The fronts were able to clear with some effort.
Spring compressors wont do you any good to remove them. They are only usefull if you are separating the sprin and shock after they are out. Hope this helps.



gadgetSC-t

FLex

I actually used the spring compressors to remove the struts from the car. It gave me the room to clear the strut tower.

pcmw

There are about a dozen threads about removing the SC suspension. My experience says that most spring compressors will not fit i the SC front end. You will have to remove the mounts, sway bar, and maybe the control arm if you cannot wiggle it out.

MW