Time to pull the front springs...(gulp).

[COBALT]

Ok, now for the real fun. Since I'm an engineer I'm pretty picky about things. I'm ultra conservative about not killing myself with a large piece of steel going the speed of sound. Therefore, I'm going to take it nice and slow when I take these front springs out.

I'm going to use longhornmail's idea of using the bottle jack between the control arms to pop the ball joint loose. I'll have my heavy-duty 3 1/2 ton floor jack under the coil pocket/ball joint, and I'll chain the damn coil so it can't get airborn. Here's my final questions before I head out:

1. How loose to I need to make this chain? I gotta be able to get it off so I can recondition the control arms. If it's all chained together in one big tangle that won't do me any good at all.

2. What do I use to support the truck from rolling over on the jack stands when this ball joint goes loose? I can see this truck deciding it likes to be on its side instead of on the stands (which would put it squarely on top of my dad's Ford Tempo, which wouldn't be all bad, but I digress...). I'm thinking big blocks of fire wood under the rockers or front clip...