Thread: How to replace front springs - 110 Defender

The front springs are not too much of an ordeal, but you will need a decent jack and a safety stand.
Doing 1 side at a time is the best way. Loosen and remove the bottom shock nut and rubber. Lift the side of the vehicle up via the chassis bracket at the rear of the radius rod until the spring dislocates. If you have oil shocks, then simply compress them up into the tower as far as they go and remove the spring. Fit new spring and reverse the order of instructions to reassemble.

If you have gas shocks that are hard to compress then simply unwind the spring off the end of the shockabsorber by rotating it. Wind the new spring on the same way. This method requires a little more lift on the jack, and possibly disconnection of the sway bar if fitted to allow this to happen.

JC

Originally Posted by Cameron_Def

I have replaced springs in cars before, but not on a 4wd.

Do I have to remove the shock & tower for a defender ?

Any hints would be Grateful, PS got a full Engel (hmm beer), if anyone in sydney who has done it before is keen to point out what I am doing wrong

Thanks!!

Cameron

Yes. Not a particularly difficult job, although you need to be careful not to stretch the brake hoses. If you can't get the spring out without you will need to either disconnect the hoses, which means bleeding the brakes, or use a spring compressor (how necessary depends on the springs and whether it has been lifted etc). Only real difficulty is likely to be undoing the nut on the bottom of the shock absorber (not exactly easy to get at, the shock absorber will try to turn, and it is probably rusted up. If rusty, the bolts holding the tower on are likely to break, requiring the ring with captive bolts to be replaced.
Even if not replacing the shock absorbers, plan on replacing the bushes while you have it apart.

John

with 6mm rope take about 10 runs the length of the spring on the front and back of the spring so you hold the spring closed, jack up the axle and remove the wheels and pull the brake calipers off, tie them up nice and high out of harms way.

jack stand the chassis and lower the axle a little.
undo the shocky nut and then lower the axle again.
undo the 4 bolts retaining the tower.
pull the roped spring out.


putting it back together is essentially the reverse but if you cant get the spring to compress with the rope you can put the spring in uncompressed and then use a dog and chain to haul the axle up to the chassis.


thats the side of the road method, its a truck load easier with proper spring compressers.