Speedtoys

Looking to buy a coil spring compressor kit, but looking to buy an on-car kit.

Recommendations?

johnu

http://www.harborfreight.com/single-...sor-43753.html

I used this on my Delorean. Worked well and very sturdy. Not sure if it fits in the 928 wheel well or not.

redpathtribe

I've used the loaner coil spring compressors from Auto Zone and they worked fine on the car. I didn't intend to purchase them, but ended up holding them for so long, they just kept deposit and now I own them... not sure if that's the cheapest route to buy them though...

Speedtoys

Thats one Ive been looking at.

Its $35 on Ebay, $70 at HF, and $130 on Amazon.


Hows bout that...

Bill Ball

I once tried to use a HF one that looked identical to the current one and I could not get it on the coils. There was not enough room between the coils.

Rob Edwards

+1 on Bill's experience, I couldn't get the clamshell style HF unit on the front springs either.

How 'bout one of these? (No idea whether it would work on a 928...)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MacPherson-I...-/281312195036

dr bob

That looks a lot like the kit that Darien brought by when we swapped shocks on the Rocket. IIRC we played with it a little but ended up using your floor-standing compressor on the assemblies out of the car.



I'm not generally a fan of using the hoook-and-rod style compressors but they do work inside the wheelwell. Most parts places have them on their free-rental program if you don't want to shell out the $20-30 needed to buy a set. More work and not nearly as safe as the floor-standing unit. The little muffler-clamp "safety clamps" seem a little wimpy but they do the job. Put tape on the coils where the hooks attach to avoid damaging the paint on the spring.

Speedtoys

Did you try to get the tool onto the coils assembled, or first removing the 'fingers' that go in the coils, and them pinning them back onto the tool?

Those fingers come off...right?

Speedtoys

I cant find a youtube for this specific unit yet but units LIKE it, that are much larger for bench use.

To use this one..I'm trying to imagine..alone the spring's side..is there room for this to be beside the spring, and extend 5-6" below it.

Or..this would work...

redpathtribe

That's very similar to the loaner tool spring compressors from Auto Zone, although Auto Zone's look a bit "beefier" than those.

dr bob

This is the one most parts places have for free/rent.

The one that Rob suggested won't work in the wheelwell unfortunately. The 'blades' get fitted through the coils, then the compressor part slides over the flaps on them once they are in the coils and squared up. We couldn't get enough compression to get the shock nut off and shock dropped out the bottom, and have enough room above the UCA to get the spring and compressor out. We ended up dropping the LCA and taking the spring/shock out the conventional way, and used Rob's floor-standing tool to disassemble.

Speedtoys

Ya..will the rental style compress enough to drop the shock out separately?

redpathtribe

I think it could, but I've never tried it. Had to make some minor adjustments when I swapped out shocks and springs, and attached the compressors on the coils on the car and compressed the spring for adjustment of the shock/spring/seat position.

Is there a reason you wouldn't remove the whole shock/coil over from the car? Much easier to work on for disassembly and assembly.

Speedtoys

On the S3, its a huge pita, as noted.

The drivers side I had to use prybars on the top of the assy, to get it INTO the strut tower, took us an hour to get it in there.

Ad0911

I've used the simple set ( some csll it the Loaners type, I don't know what that means). I cheated by putting the lower hooks under the spring discs, not under the second lowest spring circle. this gave me a lot more spring length to compress so less force needed. But I guess a lot of mechanics will shout about danger now...