Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches New England Installing SVT Springs/Struts on 95

Hey Guys,

I was looking through the classifieds and noticed that people are selling their SVT Springs/Struts for as low as $75.00.

My question is, is this something that I could put on my 95 LX with 14" Wheels?

How hard is this to do?

Anyone be willing to give me a hand at the next mod meet? I haven't done anything like this, but am always willing to learn.

Let me know what you think.

- Zack

The suspension you have now ( if in good condition) is probably just as good if not better than the SVT suspension.

I know that the 95-97 SE has stiffer springs as seen here , and I assumed that the SVT would have at least equal stiffness, if not better than the SE.

Also, my struts need replacing anyways, so I thought I'd look at upgrading the springs as well. Especially since they have 144,xxx Boston pothole and Big Dig miles on them.

- Zack

the rears are a cinch. in the front, you shoudl have no problems as long as you are changing both the springs and the struts.

and you will want to get new upper strut mounts since they wear out too. and it may be very difficult getting the original struts out. i know this from experience.

I second that

So is it worth the effort, or just settle for new struts?

Baco, I remember reading about your trouble upgrading your suspension. What problems did you run into?

- Zack

I was there thought the entire process.

Here's what happened.

1. every single fastener was extremely tight due to the rust that accumulates over time.

2. the upper stud on one of the front sway bar links broke while trying to loosen the nut, so that ended up in a last minute dash to the ford dealer to pick up a pair of new ones.

3. the mounting nut that holds the strut piston into the upper mount bushings also seized about half way down the threaded area. We tried soaking in penetrating oil, using 4 foot pipes on the wrenches all to no avail. When we tried to tighten the nut back down we found that too was impossible since we were bending the tools trying to free the nut.

so for fear of breaking the only tools we had or breaking the strut and not having hardware to assemble the new struts we cut our losses and re assembled the suspension and Baco drove home with one loose strut.

So, be prepared for a battle.

The work could have been done. The reason we were not able to finish the job was becasue of a lack of tooling and replacement hardware.

What kind of tools would I need for something like this?

Again, I'm totally new to this, but very eager to learn.

Do you think the improvements in the suspension would be worth it?

Give me your opinions guys.

heres a how-to for installing springs in the car. But since the struts have to be removed and disassembled for this it should be a help.

http://www.contour.org/mods/mods.cgi?s=howto&display=springs

When I helped Corey do his coil over suspension on his SVT we used both this how-to and a Haynes Maunual. There are a few differences, mainly is the steps. The how-to has some shortcuts you can do, but for some of them if you are new to what youare doing you might get hurt, but the Haynes manual takes you through step by setp as well and might take a bit longer but there is less likely hood of you fetting hurt.

Both the how-to and the haynes manual will describe the tools needed for the job.