I used a long piece of all thread rod through a hole in the top of the ifs, through the spring, and out the bottom with nuts and washers and a plate on the bottom. Then I removed the lower spring plate bolts and used the rod to slowly release the tension by unwinding the nut.

I have since found out that some of the guys here used long pieces of all thread rod (with nuts) to replace the lower spring plate bolts. Then one at a time loosened the nuts until the spring tension was released. To put them back together, reverse the process.

Hope this makes sense.

Dan

 

As Dan mentioned, how I did it.

 

As Dan mentioned, how I did it. The first picture is the tool to make it faster to wind/unwind the nuts. It is a pipe with a socket split in 2 and welded to the ends, otherwise it is slow going with a ratchet wrench. I used a 3/8 air wrench working my way around the 4 threaded rods a bit at a time.

 

Bill, what is that solid rod used for in the first picture?

 

Thanks Dan. Just wanted a sanity check.

 

If you are using just 1 piece of all thread, you want to use a larger diameter than the rods that I used.

 

I just used 2 c clamps.. locked them down, unbolted screws then undid clamps..
super easy and no special tools needed.

 

I used to have an XJ12. Something you need to do with these is upgrade the rack bushings to polyurethane bushings. The original bushings all fail and this results in the rack being able to float side to sid. You wind up with about a 1/2 turn of steering slop. It is terrifying when the rack starts to move around.

for more info, check the jaglovers forum.

 

Thanks again for all the good info and advice. I have worked with coil springs several times in the past. Regardless of how I do it, it always makes me a bit nervous. Even though I had a piece of 3/4 all thread, I went ahead and ordered a hardened piece with fine thread and a piece of M10 for the bottom of the coil plates for realignment purposes.

 

The first picture is a piece of pipe with a socket cut in two and 1/2 of the socket inserted and welded into the pipe