Do I really have to find a spring spreader?

[Heard]

I've read a bunch of posts about spring spreaders. I tried to use Old Henry's idea of leaving the suspension hanging and using a bottle jack to relieve tension so I could take the shackles off. I couldn't make that work at all so I just pulled the whole thing out intact. Will the all thread through the center hole work now or not? I'm having a hard time visualizing how this will relieve the tension.

I'm sure there will be opinions about how to proceed...and I'm interested in hearing them. BTW, I apparently have 2 different axles in there as the nuts holding the hubs on are 2 different sizes. Also, the hubs were not torqued anywhere near the 200 ft. lbs I've read about. They pretty much just popped right off without any special effort.

Here is what I have now. It is completely free of the chassis, I just didn't have the room to move it anywhere so I slid it back under the car.

[IMG][/IMG]