Front Springs

Since I got the Buick, every now and then, Id get a crack or pop noise from the front springs, more-so on the passenger side. I had checked all nuts and bolts, everything is tight, the car has all new bushings, springs, ball joints, tie rods etc so I was not too concerned to drive it.

Finally I had enough, discussed with a couple 'Buick' guys and consensus was that either the springs are not oriented right or their upside down. I could not find any pictures, including Google and the 70 service manual, on how the spring was to be positioned so I had no idea what I was looking at.

I stopped at a garage thats close by on Wednesday, told the guy my issue, he says "Oh you need to talk to Bob". So Bob comes out and the first thing I think is... "Oh good, Bob is at least older than the car" LOL

Bob seems knowledgeable, we chat for 10 mins, tells me he's restored a few chevelles and a cutlass etc. Nice guy. Gives me a good vibe.. and tells me to come back at 8am on Friday.
So this morning, I was up at the crack of crow piss, and on my way
The damn car never made a crack or pop the whole way up there...

Anyway, I see Bob, couple cars ahead of me but they pull the Buick in pretty quick. All the service guys are around it looking LOL Im standing back, outside, watching from 50 ft away... they start bouncing the car.. as sure as there's shit in a cat, it cracks on every bounce.. thank god


The lift arms come out and up goes the car
They guy knew exactly what he was looking for.
The springs are in the right way up.. but they are not clocked correctly.
The top of the spring has the last coil ground flat, as the spring pocket in the chassis is flat.
The bottom of the spring however has just a cut coil, and that cut end needs to fit into a slot in the bottom control arm.
Both springs are way past this slot.




Bob brings out the book for labor hrs.. and the book says 2.5 hrs to replace the springs.
Since they are aftermarket Hotchkis, I already had a factory set to go back in.
And at $108/hr I politely declined. The diagnosis was only $22..cheap!

So its not a difficult fix, just need to let go the ball joints, pop out the spring, put in the new, and jack up the lower arm again to assemble the ball joints.
I was never worried about the process to remove/replace the spring, but I had no idea until seeing it today on how to seat it correctly. Now I know and I'll be doing it myself.