My daughter's Camaro is leaning after the leaf spring job.

[Bentley]

Beer isnt free. lol

Don't forget the " Participation Trophy" generation... Ahs de zerves it....

 

[Phil HANK Travers Sr]

If they check out to be the same springs on both sides, loosen the spring eye bolts, put it on the ground, bounce it a few times and see how it sits. If its level, tighten things up with the weight of the car on the springs. U can do this with jack stands under the axles so you can fit under the car.

Front springs was my immediate thought.

 

[Allison Winn]

I went through all this 2 weeks ago.
1. If you have a broken front coil there would NO DOUBT. Coil installed height is extremely sensitive - depending on the coils, cutting just a 1" length (not height) off a coil can lower the car 1/4 to 1/2". If the coil is broken the car will probably sit all the way on the bump stop.

2. There is a much better way to change coils! You don't really need to compress them much to install, but rather they need to be curved to get to mate with the unhooked lower control arm. I use a 12" threaded rod and just the bottom half of the compressor. Hook 1 hook on just the inner side of the coil and tighten. Use grease on the threads! The top of the threaded rod is through the top shock hole. Top shock hole is bigger that you would think. Voila it is easy and safe. Pic below

3. Dropping 1 side in front also drops the other side a bit. Don't think you will fix 1 side and the other stays where it was. Wrong, the other side moves with it, and a little hard to predict how much

4. Don't discount a bent sway bar. I chased a low side once, cutting the other side 3 times to no avail. Unhooked the sway bar and realized that was the issue all along

 

[ob355]

Thats really bad advice on so many levels. Threaded rod or all thread should never be used to compress a spring, spring compressors use hardened fine thread rods that are HEAT treated along with hardened washers and bearing material. All thread that hardware stores sell might have a color grade (if your lucky) but is not hardened, not suitable for this type of work. Your nuts are grade 5 probably from Loews. They rent spring compressors for FREE at the Auto parts stores! The shock tower was not designed to take that load directly. And if you cant afford a free spring compressor rental you can use the weight of the car to unload the spring as long as you wrap a chain around one coil and anchor it to the frame to keep it from killing somebody if you do it wrong.

 

[biker]

Thats really bad advice on so many levels. Threaded rod or all thread should never be used to compress a spring, spring compressors use hardened fine thread rods that are HEAT treated along with hardened washers and bearing material. All thread that hardware stores sell might have a color grade (if your lucky) but is not hardened, not suitable for this type of work. Your nuts are grade 5 probably from Loews. They rent spring compressors for FREE at the Auto parts stores! The shock tower was not designed to take that load directly. And if you cant afford a free spring compressor rental you can use the weight of the car to unload the spring as long as you wrap a chain around one coil and anchor it to the frame to keep it from killing somebody if you do it wrong.

Bingo! Chain around spring to frame, slowly lower the lower control arm with a jack while the frame is on stands. 99% of the tension will be off once the arm is all the way down, then just pry the spring out.

 

[Double Nickel]

The best and safest coil spring compressor that I have found. Used it on my wife’s 84 Z28. Worked like a champ. Bought it on E-Bay. The more you tighten it the more surface contact you have on the coil of the spring. Made for Mercedes Benz but worked great on our Z28. Not a sales pitch, just passing along info about what tool I used.

 

[Bentley]

The best and safest coil spring compressor that I have found. Used it on my wife’s 84 Z28. Worked like a champ. Bought it on E-Bay. The more you tighten it the more surface contact you have on the coil of the spring. Made for Mercedes Benz but worked great on our Z28.

I purchased one like that to use on my Fox body mustang ( except it was over $200) and it was very well made.. Unfortunately the discs would not slip between the coils so I could not use it..

 

[rocket dawg]

Replaced the front coils twice on my 79. Never used a spring compressor. I was lucky and stupid at the same time. First set sat too low. 2nd set was good. The rear leaf's I bought from Eaton Spring in Detroit. The have the perfect ride height. Gen 2 camaro's and firebird's had a rear end sag. Im not sure if that was the intent from GM but they all sat a touch too low in the rear. The first set of rear leaf springs I had put on were made up by State Spring in Grand Rapids, Mi. Total waste of money. It sat up 4 incher higher in the rear and rode like a lumber wagon. They promised they would "settle down" and never did. Changing the front coils was not that difficult of a job. But once you have it apart, upper and lower control arm bushing are basically right there and thats the perfect time to do it. New ball joints to. Front end totally rebuilt. Energy Suspension polyurethane is what I used. I will never attempt a coil spring change again w/o the proper compressor. I went with Bilstein shocks all the way around, they rode very firm for the first 50 miles or so. They ride a touch more firm that any OEM style shock. I had KYB's before that. Way too firm. I believe I have Moog front coil springs installed. Eaton in the rear and the Bilstein's . Also, energy suspension body mounts. Night and day difference in handling and ride. Very happy with the results.

 

[Allison Winn]

OB355 all due respect I was pretty clear that I am not using the tool to compress the spring. All I am doing is bending it. Yes hardware threaded rod is weak but I use lots of grease and this doesn't get more than 200 lbs of pressure max. I've used this tool 10 times no issues. A true spring compressor is a bomb in your hands and I've had them slip off many times. To truly compress a coil enough to get it installed (without a curve) you might have 10 times that much stored energy

 

[ob355]

When you post advice online people reading it assume that the author is an authority on the subject or has some kind of experience or education. hence the recommendation provided is an acceptable solution that a common person can repeat. That is fine for 99% of the online advice, but when that advice can very easily cause a fatality you have to be more responsible. And you provided a picture of that "tool" to encourage its use. Lets examine that tool, you took apart a properly designed tool and only use part of it, modifying it because I can only assume you could not get it to fit in the lower control arms shock opening or when compressed you could not get it out or get a socket on the nut. And your grease theory does not make it safer iit only allows you to add more breaking force to the rod. That tool was designed by an engineer with a safety factor built in for liability protection, so iit can compress one and a half to two times its rated use before it fails. It only becomes a "bomb" when its modified or used incorrectly. That original tool has the uneven arms on it so you can compress the spring straight or curved. In 40 years I have run into too many people with nicknames like "lefty" "fingers" "hop along" "patch" etc.

I thought i would give this online thing a try but i can see I don't belong here, so good luck everybody.