Installing maxspeeds this morning and am stuck on the fronts. I loosened the center cap bolt...removed the 3 top nuts...removed the 2 big bolts from the bottom of the strut...compressed strut and spring with a jack...undid the tophat bolt...heard the pop of the top coil...lowered the jack. This is where I thought everything would be easily removed, however the strut and spring are both tight as hell and I can't get em out. What did I miss?

Any help would be greatly appreacited.

 

wait wait, what do u mean you compressed it with a jack?

Spring compressors should be used...You should take off the bolts exactly as said above, take off the whole strut/spring assembly.....compress the spring, 1 compressor on each side and then take the strut nut off and everything should come apart.

 

Well hell...I took the tophat nut off BEFORE I tried to take the spring/strut out. Now the spring has expanded and is in there pretty damn tight. Any way that I can reverse the process and do it right, or should I just try to wiggle the whole thing out (which seems unlikely to happen). Crap. Oh, I used the jack to raise the whole assembly before I took the tophat nut off. Did I just screw this up completely?

 

Damn bro, you needed a spring compressor first.... Now that thing has expanded and gotten stuck. Go get a spring compressor, clip one on each side and try to shrink it and get it out. You can rent them at Kragen Autozone Sears etc....

 

ok, do you have spring compressors?
If not, you desperately need to make a trip to autozone to rent them,

Dont wiggle it out, you might screw something up
Dont let the car down becuase nothing is aligned

And dont use the jack, keep it on the stands

 

giavoni, sears rent tools??????

 

I did my own springs too, and I cant believe you tried this without a spring compressor !

 

ahahaha thats pretty funny though....
he would have found out eventually when the top hat wouldnt fit back onto the new spring..

And when he would take the top strut bolt off and the top had would fly like 20 feet

 

hombre, updates?

 

Thanks for the help, fellas. Just got back from buying a pair of spring compressors. I was nuts to try it without these. Back on track now I think. Will post pics of the drop when done.

 

cool, let us know if you run into any other probs
AND DONT FORGET THE RUBBER SLEEVES AT THE BOTTLM AND THE GASKET ON TOP!!!

and make sure the "OUT" on the top hat is facing the same way as the mounting bracket

good luck

 

I forgot 1 of them , and now I have problems !

 

same here

One of the bolts on mine are completely stripped

 

I didn't use a spring compressor to install my Maxspeeds. We had one there but it was too much of a hassle to use.

 

How could you not use a spring compressor? My stock springs were on so tight that if I didn't use one, the top hat would have flown half a block. Maybe because mine in an SE and yours isn't? Or is it?

When I did my spring/strut install, I definitely needed them. $40-50 to buy at Sears. Or... $40-50 deposit at a local auto store to rent them, use them, then return them and get your deposit back.

 

6spd only some in SE's

Lol, I would NEVER do it w/o a compressor

i rented them, but never took them back =]
costed me 40 though,