[Healeys] rear springs on the BJ8

[Simon Lachlan]

I was in a bit of a rush before........

However, I see that others agree with the saw idea.

I used to lubricate my springs whenever I got the chance. But there are only nipples at one end.

Truth to tell, I saw a cheap but sturdy reciprocating saw in a European equivalent of Walmart (Aldi) and I bought it. I knew that I’d be doing my springs sooner or later and just put the saw aside against that day.

Sure enough, came the day, I hit problems on one side. Rusted solid inside. Immovable. You’ll maybe find, like I did, that the ones over the exhaust will be fine and that the others will be hopeless.

Some more:-

1)      Don’t waste time and effort trying. If it won’t budge in the first 5 minutes, it won’t ever budge. Cut. Don’t even bother with penetrating oils.

2)      Consider reducing the length of the blades. (They’re brittle, so you can snap them to length in a big vice.) That way you can get the saw up and nice and tight against the spring. And, otherwise, you’d have to keep the saw down a little in order for the blades’ tips not to bang up against the bodywork above the springs.

3)      Get plenty of blades and change them often. Decent quality.

4)      When you’ve dropped the springs, put one in your best big engineers vice and, just for interest’s sake, use your biggest hammer and then ingenuity to get the sleeve and bolt’s remnants out of the spring. You’ll maybe not even manage then. Or the process will completely bugger up every tool in your workshop.

5)      Have fun......if you stick to the saw method, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble.

 

Only my opinion of course, but mine came out without any drama once I got the saw going!

Lastly, here’s an article I cobbled together for our local club’s magazine. Attached...hopefully. Some of it’s relevant. (B&Q is a UK outlet; Walmart or similar....depends on how often you’ll want to use the tool.)

 

Simon

 

From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Jim Werner
Sent: 30 July 2015 22:09
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: [Healeys] rear springs on the BJ8

 

My weekend project will be replacing the rear springs on the BJ8. Any tips on how do do it? The last time it was a bear and I kept thinking there must be a better way.

Jim Werner

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