Front Suspension Teardown - Shock and Spring

The shock absorber was then removed by unlocking the top nuts on the shock and then removing the 4 bolts on the plate holding the shock to the spring pan at the bottom. The shock can then be dropped through the bottom of the suspension. The shock absorber is in pretty bad shape and will be replaced.

The anti roll bar was then dis-connected from the spring pan using the ball joint scissors.

Now to the tricky bit, removing the spring and spring pan. I was not looking forward to this at all and can safely say I did not enjoy one minute of the process! There is a lot of tension in the spring even when the suspension is in it's lowest position. There is not enough access to use conventional spring compressors so another method had to be found.

A conversation with Andy and Kevin at Appleyards determined that Jensen used to have a specific tool for this job which consisted of a threaded bar and large metal plate that sits under the spring pan. The threaded bar goes up inside the spring where the shock was and is locked off using the shock mounting on the chassis. There is a large nut under the metal plate that can be used to lower the spring pan when the pan fixing bolts are removed. 

Now, getting one of these original tools is pretty much impossible so I had to fashion my own. The plate was made out of inch thick circular aluminium with a diameter that fits snugly in the underside of the pan in the recessed area. This plate had a 17.5mm hole drilled in the centre. I purchased the threaded bar and nuts from a local fastener company. The bar was 1m long and 15mm diameter. I reasoned that I needed around 600mm for the spring to fully de-compress so I cut it down. The car had to be jacked up really high as the bar has to be inserted from the bottom up into the spring. I used a couple of large washers and then used 2 nuts to lock it off in the same way the shock is fixed.

The plate was then loaded onto the bar and held under the pan using a large washer and a nut. I only tightened the nut finger tight. 

Now, the worst bit. I then started undoing the 6 pan fixing screws. I unscrewed half a turn each and then moved to the next screw and moved clockwise around the pan. As more pressure was placed on the nut holding the plate I loosened it slightly so that it did not become too tight under the plate due to the tension in the spring. I followed this routine until the screws could be removed. Even with the plate there was still a lot of tension on the screws and I got a terrific shock from the noise as the first screw came loose and the plate moved. I slowly made my way back across the garage (from where I had jumped to) to inspect why. It then dawned on me that as the suspension is in it's fully down position the pan is not parallel to the floor so the back of the pan needed to be dropped down first. Knowing this made it a little easier so I continued removing the screws until all had been removed and the plate was taking the strain. The nut could then be slowly unscrewed which lowered the pan and removed the tension in the spring. When all the tension is out of the spring the lock nuts could be removed from the top of the threaded bar and the spring and pan removed.

I was really pleased with how this worked out as, although nerve racking, it was actually pretty simple to get the spring off the car using this tool.