Hunter - how to remove rear suspension springs?

[gouldsborough7]

Hi Guys
Thought I would start a new topic, being a follow-on from my previous one.

Now that I have painted all of the front suspension, I have moved my attention to that of the rear. As I mentioned before, I have not found a way of removing the springs, to make life a lot easier and thorough in the de-rusting and prep of both the springs and surrounding areas.

To summarise: I started by jacking up the car on the offside, removed the rear wheel,disconnected the bottom bolt of the damper, and allowed the suspension arm to go absolutely as low as possible.

At this point, the spring was still under a certain amount of compression, and hence could not be removed.

Question: To free the spring, do I have to remove both mounting bolts of the suspension arm? Assuming this is the way forward, if I undo the 2 bolts, wont the flexible brake-pipe be at risk and will have to be disconnected? What about the driveshaft?

Hopefully, somebody will tell me of a quick spring-removal method. I really don't want to go down the road of interfering with the brake pipe or the driveshaft - all for a bit of cosmetics of the rear suspension. I thought about a spring compressor, but concluded that a homemade one wont work. Can a suitable design of a professional one be got from a hireshop?

Cheers
Mike

[cabrioman]

Re: Hunter - how to remove rear suspension springs?

Hi Mike

I would think the problem might be the top spring mounting keeping the spring under compression. If you look above the top spring seat you will see a large nut on the threaded stud that locates the spring mount. I think to free the spring you will have to back this of as close to the chassis as it will go as when the suspension is set to give the correct ride height by winding down the top spring seat the spring will remain in compression regardless of the shock absorber connection.

Regards

John

[cabrioman]

Re: Hunter - how to remove rear suspension springs?

Mike

Should also have said that in reality you will also have to drop the bottom trailing arm inner mount(supported and gadually lowered by a trolly jack) I doubt the spring will come out without this even with the suspension wound to its highest setting and the shock disconnected.

John

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Hunter - how to remove rear suspension springs?

John,
Thanks for your thoughts. As a first attempt at removing the springs, I think I might try compressing them with spring compressors, plus undo the bottom bolt of the damper and getting the arm as low as poss. To start with, I will leave the thread and top-nut alone, and keep this as a last resort.

I must admit that I am a bit bothered about undoing the arm itself, with possible dodgy consequences to the flex brake-pipe and maybe even the driveshaft, if I go down that route. After all I am only doing a de-rust and paint-job, and don't want to cause unnecessary grief.

Cheers
Mike