Spring Compressors Slow
Posted by: Adam Fuson @ 2007.12.07.0401

Bremer had invited me to his garage nearly every weekend for the past 4 months to do auto repair. Finally a few Saturdays ago I met Bremer at his place, and we endeavored to swap his springs for shorter, stiffer springs. I brought a few pneumatic and hand tools as well as a spring compressor, which I had purchased from Harbor Freight, when Bull and I replaced the suspension on the Previa. Bremer and I removed wheels and brake lines to get to the struts without much trouble, though a few things slowed us. With one front strut completely removed we began to compress the spring with the Harbor Freight spring compressor, but it took a long time and could not be positioned conveniently. Finally, we noticed that to remove the strut mount from the strut we would need a pass-through-socket. So we went to the nearby Lowe's and bought a socket set. However, when we returned and continued with the spring compressors, we got one in a bind and basically killed it. So back to the stores we went, this time to Harbor Freight at Beechmont, where I bought some ratchet straps and C-clamps, but unfortunately there were no spring compressors. Bremer checked Big Lots, but they did not have them either. We thought about the situation while splitting a platter of 64 Chick-fil-a nuggets on the return drive to Bremer's house. Also on the way, we stopped at my house and got some more tools.

Back at Bremer's garage with more tools and energy, Bremer commandeered my ratchet straps and started cranking down on one of the springs. They held without any problem, and Bremer easily removed the strut mount. Then he un-ratcheted one side at a time and removed the spring safely from the strut. I don't think this would work so well, if the spring needed lots of compression, as it may be difficult to release the tension controllably, but for these short struts it was perfect. Extra ratchet straps would give more control adding and releasing tension, and their speed in this task is exquisite. Two main mistakes were made during this project. The struts were not sufficiently tightened to the strut mounts, which was very obvious by the sounds the car made when moving and easily fixable by tightening. Secondly, the shoulder-bolts which control camber were not marked before removal. There are two bolts which bind the strut to the control-arm. One of the bolts has an asymmetrical shoulder, which controls the camber angle and might have been marked for consistency in re-assembly. However, after altering the suspension, the car should be re-aligned anyway.

Nothing says Excitement like Spring Compressors.

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