I bolted in the rear big block stabilizer bar in my Corvette. No drama. While I was at it, I decided to check the fit of the wheel and tire combination at the nose. Yippee! It fits. I can step up and buy two more "mud & snow" Radial T/A's! Actually, I eventually went with one size smaller in the front (P225-70R15 while the rears are P235-70R15’s).
Next I worked my way up to the front end: Back up in the air and a job I don't usually like that much (changing coil springs). I have a good spring compressor but a long time ago (when I last lived in the city), I had a shaky borrowed compressor let go as I was compressing a spring. I launched it out the open garage door. It took its first bounce in the middle of the street. Eeek. Anyway, I’m still gun shy.
None-the-less this is the stuff that's going in. I'll fire up my shop compressor and dig out my big boy tools too (air ratchet, 1/2-inch air impact, etc.). And I kept my head down...
I survived Removing & Replacing the front springs on my Corvette. But I also tie a ratchet strap from the spring to the opposite a-arm as a secondary safety check. In the attached pix, you can see the OE small block spring (long one) versus the big block high performance handling package spring. Since the 550 pound spring is so short, the install was a breeze. \
But wait! During disassembly, I had to knock out the tie rod ends. The nuts were loose and I didn't even have to use a ball joint separator or a pickle fork. Both tie rod ends fell out of the spindle. I struggled to get the cotter keys out of the tie rod ends. Now I know why (loose nuts....geez that sounds a little racy.. ).
But then on the passenger side when the time came to knock out the upper ball joint, it came out by hand (no tools). Reason was, the same process the builder used on the tie rod ends: No correct tightening, and no proper lining up of the cotter key. I'm not finished yet... There's more: Builder didn't even bother with cotter keys on the the upper and lower ball joints on the driver side. And...Loose nuts again. And once again, no tools necessary to split the ball joint. Oops.
I forgot to mention the brake caliper mount bolts (including the anchor bolts) were finger tight on both sides....More to come...W