V70 Suspension: Rear spring replacement on a T5

[TLPower]

Mmmm interesting.

Usually if there is any type of adjustment available the bolt would have some kind of cam as part of the head, such as the front upper (lower) strut mount.

Maybe it just "settled" when he slackened it off?

Edit, I have just done some more internetting. The rear track control arm (?) does have adjustment in the form of a slotted hole and a cam washer, the lower (inner) arm with the spring seat does not (on mine at least).

[stuart bowes]

Ah ok, maybe there is some variation from year to year, or as you say just loosening it and tightening it again allowed it to adjust

I'm trying to think if he pulled it in or out with his adjustment but I can't remember which direction it moved in which would help

Ah well .. as long as people know basically get alignment checked if you mess about with it or find a different way to replace the spring I suppose

[Tam9n]

Originally Posted by VroomVroomClonk

Finally the second side is done as well. I had a few delays due to rain and not having a garage to work in, but the job still took many hours to do. I've changed springs on several cars before, and this is by far the hardest that I've done. Admittedly I am retired now, so not as strong or agile as I once was, but this still rates as a nasty job.

For anyone else attempting it, the torque setting I queried earlier for tightening the inner / lower M12 link bolt is 80Nm, and it should be tightened with the centre of the wheel hub raised to 394mm below the wheelarch above it.
Also my use of a ratchet strap on the first side was not what was required for the second. This time I needed almost the opposite force to align the bolt holes, and did it with a horizontal bottle jack between the axle stand/ jacking plate and the brake caliper.

The whole made in China thing is a minefield. The spring compressor I bought (which is good quality) was made by a Taiwan based company, and says made in China on the box. But remember that the Taiwanese people call themselves The Republic of China, as opposed to communist mainland China who call themselves The Peoples Republic of China. So made in China on something can mean made in either Taiwan or PRC. As the Taiwanese apparently do not like the communist Chinese at all, I generally assume that anything made by a Taiwan based company will not be made in the Peoples Republic of China.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-54001811

Bit of a bump! Trying to do a similar job myself currently, I spend countless nights trying to get a spring fitted but it kept popping out of the lower seat on me. To get the control arm bolt in, I used your method of the bottle jack against the brake caliper, which worked well indeed!

Think my issue has come from using a slightly sorted heavy duty rear spring, rather than standard size!