Swapping springs on the rear of my Z3. I wasn't able to lever the new spring in and I need to stop for the day. Can I bolt the shock back to the lower arm and put the tire on and take it off jack stands or do I need to keep it up in the air? It may be a couple if weeks before I can get back to it but it won't need to move until then.
I've never worked on a Z3 before, but if it doesn't have all of the springs installed you'll probably want to keep it on the stands. I guess if you absolutely had to you could let the weight rest on the bump stops, but I'm not sure if that's a great idea. I assume the bump stops are fitted to the dampers, which aren't necessarily designed to bear the weight of the car for long periods of time.
You could cut an appropriately sized piece of 2x4 or 4x4 to put in place of the spring.
I have to ask, what do you mean by "lever the new springs in"?
In reply to noddaz :
I was assuming it's like a Mercedes and the springs are so long they need to be forced in even while fully composed.
I'm also curious about the levering in part, as opposed to using a spring compressor. Are you going from short springs back to stock, longer springs, such that the spring was uncompressed when you pulled it apart, but the replacement spring is too long to go in uncompressed?
Anyhow, I'd leave it on stands unless you have a compelling reason not to. Even on stands, throwing the wheel back on may make it more presentable if that's the concern.
Correct assumption - replacing Eibach sports with OEM. Eibach is too low and too harsh now that the car's mission shifted to more driving/less dedicated autox. I thought with the low-ish spring rate I would be able to muscle them back into place but it put up more of a fight than I planned and then ran out of time. I did just leave it on stands. No real reason to take it down. I never really thought about what would happen with no spring before this. I figured it wouldn't be good but wasn't sure.
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