Rear spring removal

[The Twin]

is this right?

-Jack up rear of car. no ebrake on, not in gear.
-remove wheels
-place hydrolic jack under diff
-remove diff bolts
-easy jack/diff down by about 2"

this should allow enough clearance to get my trailarms to drop enough so the oem springs will pop out?

[El Gato Liso]

just take off the shock from the trailing arm, it will drop that much more.

[The Twin]

ideally I don't want to remove the shock from the T/A's.
after the $hitshow I had with my fronts and wrecking my BJ's and all...

[daveed]

Originally Posted by The Twin

ideally I don't want to remove the shock from the T/A's.
after the $hitshow I had with my fronts and wrecking my BJ's and all...

the rear shock just bolts to the rear trailing arm, it's not a mcpherson strut setup like the front... definitely remove it to get the spring out

[El Gato Liso]

theres 1 big 17mm (or 19) bolt holding the shock to the trailing arm. just take it out...its easier than your list.

[The Twin]

bitchin.

so no need to mess around with my diff?

thanks guys.

[daveed]

Originally Posted by The Twin

bitchin.

so no need to mess around with my diff?

thanks guys.

you still need to drop the diff but it isn't difficult

I used this diy:
http://www.e30tech.com/articles/suspension/rear/

only thing i would add (if you are removing the stock springs) is that even when you drop and disconnect everything the spring may still be compressed a bit, so you will think that you are doing something wrong, i used a prying-end of a normal hammer to just gently pry it off

[Bullet Ride]

Or just buy a simple spring compressor and you don't have to do any of that. I'm not sure how you managed to do the fronts without a compressor unless you let your top mount shoot across the garage...

[Roysneon]

Originally Posted by Bullet Ride

I'm not sure how you managed to do the fronts without a compressor unless you let your top mount shoot across the garage...

Haha I remember doing that. Then I rented spring compressors for the other side, then I bought some

Yes, try simply removing the shock bolt from the trailing arm, it's always worked out OK for me, but I've seen at least one car that we simply could not get the trailing arms to drop down enough for the spring to slip out. If you're putting aftermarket springs in however, you will have no problem taking them off again.

[The Twin]

Got shock bolt removed from trail arm.
Worked so well, that infact sheared the bolt off into the shock mount. Ffs.

Gonna grab a bit extractor tomorrow and pray.

I really don't want to go replacing a whole rear trailing arm...

[InfiniteDice]

How the hell can you snap that bolt?

Everyone seems to forget the sway bar link, take that off and the spring will just fall out.

[North]

I still had to compress the spring a lot to get the OEM sport one out after disconnecting the shock and sway bar link... not sure how it could just "fall out"

[InfiniteDice]

Sometimes the spring gets stuck top to bottom on the rubber pads. I just remove the shock bolt, then undo the sway link and then put my foot down on the control arm and it will go all the way.

Also check that your parking brake is not on, this may cause issues.

[everlast]

Edit... I see, you sheared one of the shock mount bolts. Damn, bad luck dude!

Edit edit: no wait.. you did shear the 19mm bolt??

[T.Dot_E30]

I guess im a bit late, but i didn't see you mention jack stands, also you should have had the jack support the shock/TA before removing the bolt.

There is no reason to touch anything related to the diff, that's just stupid. I've done several cars and never had to.