The Suspension Rebuild, Part 2 - Dropping the Springs

Obviously, to rebuild the suspension one has to take it apart. The first step is dropping the springs. Actually, as I found out the hard way, the first step is to remove the sway bar from the spring pan. I guess this is why you are supposed to follow the instructions in the manual....

There are two ways to drop the springs on the Spider. The first is to use the Alfa specific spring removal tool. However, it tends to be expensive and hard to find, and it is long enough to eliminate it's use on jack stands. The second way is to use threaded rods to slowly drop the spring pans. The first pan took some time, as it was my first attempt, and I was being very cautious.

I placed the jack under the spring pan as a precaution. Then I removed one of the bolts holding the spring pan to the wishbone. Two nuts with a locking washer at the top of the rod lock it at the top. I then used a bunch of washers underneath the pan to keep the bottom nut accessable. Repeat this with two of the other bolts, so there are three rods holding the pan in place. Then let the nuts down on each rod, a little at a time, and the pan comes down and lets the tension off the spring.

Picture of the spring pan with the jack


Picture of the spring pan with the jack removed, ready to start turning the nuts to lower it.


For the passenger side spring pan, I got a little bolder. First, let me say, if anyone is reading this who is going to be working on an Alfa, I am in no way saying this is a good way of dropping the pan, and take no responsibility for how well it works... You know, absolving myself... :-) Anyway, instead of tightening up the bottom nuts, I left them lower, and used the jack to slowly let the pan down. For the most part, worked like a charm. If I use that method again, I would use long bolts with threads only at the bottom, because the pan would catch on the threads as it was lowered.

Alright, I'm sure everyone is sick of reading about spring pans, so I'll just post some pics of the removed parts.

The springs had some rust, but were strong and didn't have any noticeable pitting or cracking.


Here are the spring pans. They were pretty rusty, though only the driver's side had rusted through, and only a very small spot. However, I did purchase new ones from Centerline. Thinking about cleaning these up and seeing if I can get a little for them. Luckily the rubber pads were still in good shape, because they didn't have them in stock at Centerline. From the factory there was also a metal piece between the spring pad and the spring. Those succumbed to the rust beast... Luckily, they aren't needed.


Spiders are set up to have a shallower spring pan on the driver's side, which will make the car seem to sit too high on that side, but it is designed so that it levels out when the driver is in the car. This car had spacers in the passenger pan, so obviously someone along the way didn't understand the reason.


Next, removing and cleaning the rest of the suspension...