Rear Spring/Suspension removal

[alpinemauve]

Do you need the rear spring lifter to remove the rear spring or is it more for adding the pressure to get it back on again?

[ResinRocket]

When you remove the bolts from the spring eyes, the spring will drop downwards as there is still tension on it. So you'll need to lift the spring into position when you refit it. This can be a bit of a pain as you need a fair bit of force to raise it enough to get the spring eye to line up with the holes in the upright in order to get the bolt in. I used a long lever and used my bodyweight to hold it up leaving my hands free to insert the bolt. There may be an easier method / special tools that I don't know about but that's how I did it. I'm not sure if there is a different method with swing spring / Rotoflex set-ups.

When I did mine I removed the wheel cylinder and flexi so that they were out of the way as it looked like the spring might come down and trap the flexi or damage the pipe.

[Mark Hammond]

alpinemauve wrote:

Do you need the rear spring lifter to remove the rear spring or is it more for adding the pressure to get it back on again?

In the zillion or so Herald rear springs I've removed/refitted/replaced, I've never used a spring lifter.

Vauxhall Viva HA van front transverse leaf spring, now that's a different matter..........

Mark

[garyf]

The spring Lifting tool is needed for the Mk2 Vitesse & Mk2/Early Mk3 Gt6 Rotoflex type suspension, I don't think you need one for Heralds or any car with the Mk1 or the later Spitfire Swing Spring type suspension?

Gary