Thread: "HOW TO" Fit New Coils??

I have just done that on mine, it's not hard but I found it difficult as I had no one to help me. I think it would have been a lot easier with 2 people.

In principal:

MAKE SURE VEHICLE IS STABLE ON STANDS.

Rear.
Loosen wheel nuts.
Jack up vehicle and chock up on frame. You need to get it quite high to give the coils enough room to open up.
Undo one end of shockers.
Garage Jack under diff
Remove wheels
Allow axle to lower enough with jack to remove coils
Undo bolts holding coils
Pull out coils, only works if chassis high enough and axle low enough.
Retain ends on old coils and place on new ones.
Refit new coils
Put all back together.
It may help to undo sway bar, lowers axle a little more or even smaller jack between axle and body to spread further.

MAKE SURE VEHICLE IS STABLE ON STANDS

Front.
Very similar to rear as far as jacks, stands go.
Undo bolts as required on coils and shockers. Shockers can remain attached by top.
Remove coils from underneath pull out and down
Same trick with sway bar and jack if needed
Replace and refit.
Take care with brake cables


That is what I did. I also replaced shockers. Took me about 5 hours. I am sure the purists will jump up and down and say it's all wrong however it worked for me.

YOU WILL NEED A WHEEL ALIGNMENT ON COMPLETION.
I waited for a week to let it all settle.
100% improvement for me.

Thanks, that's pretty well how I did it on my old GQ, put a jack between the axle & body at one stage to get a bigger gap for the raised coil, but there where two of us that time & just me this time.
Any hassle's getting the coil out of it's "seat"?

Originally Posted by steelo

Thanks, that's pretty well how I did it on my old GQ, put a jack between the axle & body at one stage to get a bigger gap for the raised coil, but there where two of us that time & just me this time.
Any hassle's getting the coil out of it's "seat"?

put a couple of bags of cement on a blanket in the tray or on the body work on the corner you are about to work on.

this closes up the spring.

Rope the coil tight (I usually use 2 pieces of telstra rope with 3 turns)

then remove the weight and jack up the body.
then jack the axle downwards

naturally you have to undo the top shock mount first , then you wedege the compressed coil upwards to get in to hold the shocky so you can undo the bottom nut.

putting the new ones in is a bit more entertaining.

Further to my efforts above, I was lavish with the inox on the nuts and bolts for a couple of days beforehand to make removal easier. As per Blknights sandbag suggestion (good idea I wish I had thought of it) I borrowed some coil compressors do do the same thing. They were very iffy and a bit lightweight but did the job just enough to help. If I thought I was going to do it again, I might invest in some heavy duty ones.
Pete

Would putting opposite corner (front for back, back for front same side) on a ramp help at all??

Originally Posted by steelo

Would putting opposite corner (front for back, back for front same side) on a ramp help at all??

I have no idea sorry, I did a complete axle at a time. Someone smarter than me can probably answer you.

Youtube is your friend.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOI48xHgr18]Fitting New Suspension to Discovery Land Rover - YouTube[/ame]

Dave

Ok, bit of a question here - the coils have numbers & letters on them - front being LAN-106E NS, the other LAN-106E DS. One is slightly longer than the other (only just) & that's the DS one, so am supposing DS stands for drivers side, is this correct????????????
Thanks