[onecoomofo]

I just ordered a set of front coil springs for my nova. I've never swaped the front suspension on an older car, but yesterday I put front coils on my buddy's '82 chevy p/u. All we had to do was unbolt the lower a-arm, drop it, and pull out the old coils.

However, on the nova, the shock is located inside the coil spring.

Does anyone have any experience w/ nova front ends? What all does it involve to swap the front coils? I'm hoping I can do it just like the 82 truck, but it looks a little different.

Thanks
Sean S.

[Robinson Robin]

The 3rd gen nova's suspension is quite similar to the truck you described, as you mentioned the shock is located within the spring. First thing to need to do is remove the shock it is held in with 2 bolds under the lower and control arm and one on top of the shock which you access from under the hood, if you look down though the upper control are you will be able to see it. After those are you can drop the shock on the bottom of the lower control arm. After this its pretty much the same procedure as you did on the your buddies truck: disconnect sway back, disconnect lower ball joint and so forth.One thing that I ran into last time I changed the front springs on my 70 nova was that it was necessary to use a spring compressor to get the new ones back in. Most vehicles I'm able to get away with out one but not in the instance although the springs I installed had a pretty high rate too, if its just stock 350 or 6cyl springs you might be ok with out one. Just be care full when removing and istalling coil springs store an incredible amount of energy in them and can be very dangourous it is advice able to use a spring compressor for removing them to just from the safety factor. One other thing to mention is make sure the top coil of the spring completely seats in the grove in the subframe when you install it. Anyway thats all I can think of right now good luck

[onecoomofo]

Thanks alot. From what i did on my buddy's '82 and from what you've told me, i should have no problem. I'll grab a spring compressor just to be on the safe side.

Thanks again
Sean S.