I thought I post a picture of the way I put the springs on the drum brakes, after almost 3 hours trying many ways without the proper tools, I came up with a way and it took me less than 3 minutes to put all of them in place. By simply clamping a locking plier on the spring side where you are trying to attach, and then use any long metal piece for leverage. I used a long chisel from a chisel set I had and by pressing the end of the chisel on the tire hub I was able to leverage the pliers and put the spring on almost effortlessly. Yes, I agree, the correct tools are always better, but i figure pads can last 50k miles so I did with what I had
Have a great weekend!!!
Dan