Rubbing spring

1097 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by MadBrad, Jan 6, 2003

MadBrad

Discussion Starter · Nov 7, 2002

Guys I have real problem here. I looked into my left rear wheelwell to in vestigate a rubbing noise and to my horror:-o I discovered the spring is rubbing on the sheetmetal! the inboard side of the shocktower to be specific. The spring somehow became misshapen and while the lowest turn is seated nicely in it´s cradle, by the next turn it is moved over! What the hell? How did this happen?? I need 2 new springs now. So, If I let the wheel hang down as the car is jacked up is it really neccecary to compress the spring for removal?? I´m so mad!

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Beaverboy

· #2 · Jan 5, 2003

Stock springs should still be under compresson when the strut is fully extended, so yes, you´ll need to compress the springs. You´ll probably need to remove the struts from the car altogether anyway. Check the rear strut mount to be sure it´s not broken.. allowing the entire strut to shift over against the shock tower... if that´s not it the spring is probably cracked.

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MadBrad

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 5, 2003

The sideways displacement is at the bootom of the spring. the first turn is properly in its seat and it is the next turn that is off. After that post I saw a few posts about broken springs and that they´re common in EGTs and sometimes you can´t tell there´s a problem. I had a look and I don´t see a break. I would probably change the mounts anyway since they are old, and the struts are probably poor too but I just wanna keep it going a little longer not rebuild the rear end.

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James92Scort

· #4 · Jan 6, 2003

All I can say is becareful if you´re gonna remove that thing. When I was in high school we had just started with the suspension and our teacher told us to NEVER...EVER remove the center nut that holds the spring on the strut...boy was he right. For some crazy reason this one guy, who shall remain nameless... decided to just loosen it while it was still in the car, well he loosened it just enough and there was just enough pressure on it that the nut popped off, shot up hit the hood, bounced down, hit the windshield and cracked it all the way to the roof line and then bounced off the wall and landed by the oil collector barrel. I was standing about 10 feet away when it happened. scared the shit out of everyone. Needless to say it took them the rest of the class, and they also had to stay after school to get the spring out...mind you this happened at the beginning of class, which was an hour and a half long. Lesson here: always do it by the book, and NEVER...EVER loosen the center nut that holds the spring on the strut until you have the spring compressed.

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91sleeper

· #5 · Jan 6, 2003

Definitely sounds like the spring is broken. It might not look like it but it probably is. Thats true about not taking off the nut unless it is compressed, but I have done that before. I needed two upper strut mounts for my 323 so I just undid the nuts while they were on a car at the j/y. The things damn near broke the a-arms off the car when they released the pressure. I would not recommend ever doing that, but I didn´t have a spring compressor and it was a junker car

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MadBrad

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 6, 2003

Ok so it´s still too tight if the wheel is hanging as far down as possible, but I just wondered cuz on some cars you can do that and undo the MOUNT bolts, not the center strut bolt, and the thing fall down even more so you can just take out the whole assembly. Maybe a big breaker bar pushing the control arm down further if needed. One of my cars was like that, either the 81 Tercel or the 82 626.

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