Need Help! Can't compress strut coil spring enough!

[blmlozz]

Hey guys, Having a lot of trouble, first, I'm using this style tool.
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...questid=840064

I have new struts, however I can't seem to compress the spring enough to get even close to be where I need to. The spring needs to come down another few inches and the tool I'm using is probably not designed for this kind of load.


How the hell has everyone else done this? They're OEM style struts, and OEM style springs. Comfort suspension. I've got the tool compressing 4 rings of the spring.


Thanks.

[Gumby]

heat them up and try to compress it more!

NOOOOOO!!!!!

What ever you do, do NOT heat up the spring. Throw a wrachet strap through the middle of the spring and start cranking that bitch down. Just make sure and keep the wratchet strap tight around the spring, just incase the tool you using breaks. That way the spring doesn't fly off and kill someone.

[blmlozz]

NOOOOOO!!!!!

What ever you do, do NOT heat up the spring. Throw a wrachet strap through the middle of the spring and start cranking that bitch down. Just make sure and keep the wratchet strap tight around the spring, just incase the tool you using breaks. That way the spring doesn't fly off and kill someone.

That doesn't seem awfully safe either to be honest. Thank-you for the suggestion however. The Bently for the B5 suggests that the spring need's to be compressed "completely" in order to properly install the strut, which I can only see happening with a nice $200 tool like this
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-a...sor-65549.html
The tension required to get it down as far as it was in the picture was slowing a 500ft/lb impact wrench to a crawl. I can't imagine how much force would be required to go the extra 2-4" required.
I'll have to look around and see if I can find a place that has a IQ above 80 to do this for me, and hope they tighten the nut properly.

I'm thinking that the shocks I have are not the correct ones either if I'm honest. They're ~ .5-1" shorter than the OE shocks, but then again there's 155,000 miles difference between the two, and I can't install the original back on either. Who knows though, They're cheap Monroe's, so it's entirely possible they're the wrong shock.

[rollerton]

Yeah. When I did ours on our last car it scared the shit out of me. I have a tool alot like the one you're using and I did eventually just barely get the thing together, but it felt like I was working on a bomb. I only proceeded because I don't like leaving my car in pieces- I have more ADHD than brains.
I did it out in the the driveway in the open, so if it DID go off it would miss anything valuable.
Scarey.
Guess I don't have any good advice!

[nm3210]

What's the issue here? You're just afraid to tighten it down?? The picture you attached shows many more inches of travel left for both the compressors and the spring....just tighten it down more....if you're really afraid just go rent some cast iron spring compressors instead of the small ones you have (even though they are made of carbon steel and are very well rated compressors). Furthermore, an impact gun is not going to be seeing the compression force of the springs because it is being coupled with the screw mechanism (so your argument there isn't really valid, not to mention that springs are pretty linear and what not). If your impact gun is seriously struggling I would first suggest a heavy dose of lubricant on the threads and then if that doesn't work....a bigger impact gun :-/

[blmlozz]

What's the issue here? You're just afraid to tighten it down?? The picture you attached shows many more inches of travel left for both the compressors and the spring....just tighten it down more....if you're really afraid just go rent some cast iron spring compressors instead of the small ones you have (even though they are made of carbon steel and are very well rated compressors). Furthermore, an impact gun is not going to be seeing the compression force of the springs because it is being coupled with the screw mechanism (so your argument there isn't really valid, not to mention that springs are pretty linear and what not). If your impact gun is seriously struggling I would first suggest a heavy dose of lubricant on the threads and then if that doesn't work....a bigger impact gun :-/

The spring looks like it's bending the carbon steel compressors. That's the issue, and I'm afraid of them slipping off in my direction with 1,000 pounds of force. I'm not sure the gun is the problem, cranking it by hand requires two hands and more force than I feel is necessary. This is not my first time using this tool. I've swapped many B5 and other cars springs none of those situations required this much effort.

The difference is this is a large car where as those other times the springs were from small/compact cars.