spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Anyone had problems using the autozone spring compressor?

I'm trying to change my struts now, and I've spent probably 2.5 hours trying to get the stock spring back onto the new strut--I keep running into problems where the autozone spring compressor gets in the way (bolt coming out the top interferes with the top mount, the tighten/loosening bolt head gets stuck so my socket is stuck or I can't get anything on it, etc)

This is a royal pain, and I only have 3 more hours to work on this, and I'm not even through the first strut!!

housecor

iTrader: (2)

Man, I feel your pain. I used the autozone compressor too. A couple tips:
1. You need a wrench for those situations where clearance for the socket is an issue. Or, if you have a second wrench or socket, tighten the compressor on the other side and it should loosen up the socket that's stuck.
2. Try to position the compressor as close to the bottom of the spring as possible with the bolts on the compressor facing down toward the perch to avoid clearance issues with the nut on the compressor.
3. Don't flip the compressors around where the bolts are near the bottom of the spring perch - then you'll have problems positioning the top hat properly since the long bolts on the compressor will get in the way.
4. Be sure to skip a coil when installing the spring compressor. Otherwise you'll have difficulities getting the spring compressed enough.

Trust me, I got seriously frustrated with this process using the Autozone compressor too but the above tips should make it easier. To speed things up next time I picked up a socket bit for my drill and a u-joint and extension so I can tighten the spring compressor quickly and avoid turning my arm to jelly.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Gotcha...

I'll have to recompress it with the bolt head pointing up, like I was before.

I found one thing that might be causing me grief--I was putting the left-side spring onto the strut labeled 'R' whoops
good thing I caught that...

MAX2000JP

I had the same problem last week. I suggest you take your car to struts/springs to Carquest and they will reassemble and compress your front sturts for 30 bucks.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Sweet, got the first one (front left) done... thanks housecor! It was much easier, maybe because I was using the correct strut this time

housecor

iTrader: (2)

Hey, it'll get easier. Yesterday I did a swap back to my factory springs and struts up front in around 2 hrs. I was trying to hunt down a noise. I'm pretty sure I could swap the front in around an 1hr15min with my drill hooked up to make spring compression quicker.

Now stop reading my blabber and get back to work on that spring!

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Got the front struts done. Didn't have enough time for the rears, but I'm off work tomorrow so I'm gonna try to finish those up tomorrow

Yeah, the biggest pain in my butt was the fact that I was trying to fit the left-side spring on the right side strut. After getting the right strut, and playing with the spring/compressor a little, I finally got it on. After installing the left front strut assembly and getting everything torqued and squared away, the right side probably took 30-45 minutes tops, if that. I'm hoping the rear struts will go just as smoothly tomorrow

One thing I was curious about this whole time, is how you tighten/loosen the strut piston top nut without the piston rod turning. Now I understand why--the strut top mount is keyed to the threading of the top portion of the strut rod, so the strut piston rod is bound to the 3 studs of the top mount. This made it easy to torque the strut piston rod nut, since I took a 1/2" drive 10" extension and lodged it between one of the studs and the center round raised part, using it to brace the top mount while I operate the torque wrench.

Now, impressions-

OHHH YEAH BUDDY! I noticed all of the car's sloppyness and rough riding was biased around the rear end, which makes sense since I haven't swapped the rear struts yet!
The whole front end sounds quieter... bumps are much softer, EVERYTHING is much softer in the front end. A setting of '1' was already smoother and tighter than the stock struts. I kicked it up to '3' and drove around a little... didn't notice too much difference (will probably have to tweak/test more to notice the difference over time) but the front-end did seem to respond a little tighter in some scenarios.
I jerked the car a little with the clutch (pulled the clutch pedal out a little too quickly at low RPMs), and the "jerkiness" was somewhat smoothed out compared to before. In fact, I think most of the bouncing was coming from the rear end. Also, I was unable to induce wheel hop, even at full-throttle in 1st gear. I'll have to test some more to verify that, though.

Also, I assume I installed everything perfectly, 'cause I haven't heard any weird noises coming from the suspension.

I'm gonna take it out for a longer drive soon, so I'll post anything else I notice

housecor

iTrader: (2)

Great work! What springs are you running?

And regarding the top hat bolt, that's why you want to loosen the nut before removing the strut from the vehicle - otherwise the piston will just spin. Of course, now I'm not telling you anything you don't know now.

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

I just got the spring compressor and used it to disassemble strut/spring assmeblies at the junkyard...worked fine, but I used an extension on the ratchet so it cleared.....

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

I'm running stock springs.

Yeah, one of them I forgot to loosen before removing the strut, but it wasn't too big of a problem--I braced the top mount studs with my breaker bar, and worked the nut with my torque wrench. A bit of a pain, but it worked.

irish44j: Yeah, disassembling the strut isn't too much of a pain, and I was using an extension with a regular socket along with a deep socket on the other one (powered by a cheapo $40 electric impact wrench, cheap POS but it did the job very well today...). IMHO the autozone spring compressor is still a pain in the ****--most of the time I had either my extension or socket scraping against something (the spring, the top hat, etc.) while I was working it with the impact wrench.

And finally, the drive--VERY nice, but I desperately need to change those rear struts. I was very impressed with the smoothness over bumps, the lack of wheel hop (I could NOT get that thing to hop its wheels!), and the control of the ride. It gives me the impression that the front-end is sitting a little higher on average than it was before, or maybe it's just "staying" higher than before (since the springs don't take a dive every time they hit a bump anymore)
I am looking forward to feeling the full effect tomorrow after the rear struts are done, with the Illumina feel and control present at all 4 corners of the vehicle.

redstradic

i just swapped my springs and struts recently. we used the spring compressor for the first two assemblies and after that, i said screw that. that thing is a pain in the butt. i was able to just press down on the assembly myself and had a buddy undo the top bolt. we could swap out each side in 30 min without them. saves alot of time and hassle.

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

You should try to get hold of a clam shell compressor. Works a lot better than loaner tools.

Fezzik

iTrader: (2)

Yeah redstradic. I heard about you compressing the springs with just your bare hands from Cullen. He needs no stinking compressor.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

that's ghetto

But not as bad as one technique I read about--some guys put the strut assembly horizontally down in the mud, pushed down and undid the rod nut so the springs decompress inside the dirt/mud