Replacing Springs

At the advice of another jag-lover I used a simple technique for getting the springs in and out safely. I had the whole front suspension assembly out of the car when I did this, but I suppose it would have worked with the suspension in the car as well.

Remove the shock absorber.

Remove three of the six bolts which hold the spring pan onto the lower a-arm while leaving the other three attached. Obtain three sections of 1 foot long threaded rod of the same diameter and thread as the bolts just removed. Obtain three rod coupling nuts (they look like five or six lengths of conventional nuts in height). Thread the coupling nuts onto the rod along with a flat washer. Thread the three rods into the holes out of which you have removed the three bolts. Use a visegrip on the far end of the rod to tighten the rods into the a-arm very snugly. Now screw the coupling nuts up against the spring pan. Next remove the other three bolts from the spring pan. Now go around loosening the coupling nuts several turns at a time and slowly let down the spring pan evenly. Make sure there is a flat washer between the coupling nuts and the spring pans so that the washers take the wear instead of the spring pan doing so.

This is a slightly tedious method but seemed much safer and more controlled than the big rod through the shock absorber hole method.

Reassembly is, as they say, the reverse procedure.

I don't know if this is in the XJ6 or XJS books yet, but it should be.