Locking Springs in Place

#1

My Springs popped out of place at the track after jacking up the car to change tires. Any suggestions for locking them into place so that this doesn’t happen again? Thanks.

#2

You didn’t specify front or rear, but normally this issue is with the front.

The most straightforward approach is to first, use some zipties to tie the bottom of the springs to the bottom spring plate. There are two holes around the circumference that are well suited to the task.

The second and related issue is that even after you do this, the springs will stay seated on the bottom plate, but if you turn the wheels while the car is in the air and don’t return the wheels to the original position, then the result will be that the spring coils will rotate but the top spring plates will not, and they will not be properly seated in the top plates when you lower it down.

Easiest solution: always park with wheels pointed straight, jack car up with wheels pointed straight, and if you have reason to turn the wheels while in the air, remember to straighten back before lowering back down.

#3

Thanks. I’ll try the zip ties and I was referring to the fronts.

#4

Forgive my ignorance, but I’m trying to line my front spring back up, but the indentations on the top and bottom spring plates are out of alignment, so the spring won’t seat properly. The top spring plate isn’t rotating, but it does rotate on the other side of the car. Is the top spring plate supposed to rotate freely? If not, how do you get the top and bottom indentations to line up to seat the spring? Thanks.

#5

The top spring plate should normally be able to rotate freely, but depending on what type of camber plates you have, whether they were properly installed, whether there is wear (like a worn-out washer), etc. etc. they may bind up. One of mine does and can only be turned with some level of force, but it’s not that severe and hasn’t worsened, so I have let it go.

The real answer is that you should find and fix the source of the bind, which will likely involve disassembling the top hat/bearing assembly to find out what is binding, and adding supplemental spacers(washer) or similar to reduce the bind.

Some of the camber plates, like IE, come with little to no instruction, and it’s not that hard to install incorrectly. If you didn’t personally install them, this would be a good time to seek knowledgeable assistance.

Another possibility is that the top spring hat has gotten bent (too much Dukes of Hazzard) so make sure to check for that.

#6

Thanks. I have Vorshlag Camber Plates. The shop that installed my shocks/springs did the rears incorrectly and I had to have it redone, so they may have done the fronts incorrectly as well. I’ll go compare the two to see if I can see any differences. Wish I knew of a good place in Northern Virginia that was familiar with E30’s. I hope that they didn’t trash my camber plates by installing them incorrectly.

#7

There have to be a bunch of good shops in your neck of the woods. Poke/ask around on Bimmerforums, or you could check out some of these sponsor links from the DC/MD chapter of BMW CCA:

http://www.nccbmwcca.org/content.php?187-Chapter-Sponsors

#8

I turned the steering wheel while the car was in the air and heard a pop on the passenger side. Now the top perch moves freely. I put the spring back into place. Not sure why it was binding.

#9

The car is pulling to the right now. Called Vorshlag and they said to compress the spring and check the bearing. This is the non-Spec E30 style plate. Has anyone had this issue?

#10

on my car the top spring hat would touch the inside of the shock tower at max neg camber, that might explain your problem. you can also add a few washers on top to move it downwards slightly which provides more clearance. or just try backing off the camber a bit and see if it stops binding.

#11

I didn’t think that it was binding, but I guess I’ll put it back up and take a look.

#12

I put the car up in the air and the top perch is moving freely now and there doesn’t appear to be any binding in the steering. The driver side spring was out of alignment, so I put it back into place, but had to remove the rubber from underneath the springs. The car is still pulling to the right, which it wasn’t doing before.