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The top of the shock piston is threaded and protrudes through the center of the bushing. You can lower your car by cutting the coil springs that are compressed in the strut above the car’s tires. A professional mechanic often carries out the process of cutting a car’s coil springs and lowering the vehicle.
Maximum jaw opening is 300mm.The spindle is driven by a 21mm hex nut and is not designed to be used with a impact gun. However, if you need to take the shock and spring apart, then you’ll either need spring compressors or you can perform the No Spring Compressor Method. If you're fixing your vehicle's suspension, one essential tool is a strut spring compressor.
How do you compress springs to lower a car?
The other three nuts that surround the center nut hold the shock assembly to the body of the vehicle. When the spring needs to be be compressed again, the floor jack will be used to push up on the LCA and in effect the spring will be compressed into place. The center upper shock nut will then be tightened to complete the installation.
Internal strut spring compressors are also known as conventional spring compressors. These types of compressors are meant for use on vehicles with separate struts and shock absorbers. They work by utilizing two hooks on a steel threaded bolt. The assembly is fit through the inside of a coil spring and the hooks latch onto the coil. When you tighten the threaded bolt, the hooks squeeze the coils together, temporarily shortening the spring height.
Loosen the Lug Nuts
Another problem is the safety clips may not fit around the springs on some vehicles. It might be too thick to fit between the coils and the shock strut. We like that this tool’s construction makes spring compression a safer job. The hooks are forged steel, so they won’t break or wear out easily after a few uses.
Finally, if you’re in a bind and don’t have either a C-clamp or a length of pipe, you can try using a ratchet strap. Place the strap around the spring and then ratchet it tight. This will compress the spring enough that you should be able to remove it.
How to Repaint a Car Bumper
The safest choice overall is to have a shop handle this type of work, but if that is not an option this one works superbly. Make sure the coil spring is rotated within the shock so that the top and bottom of the coil matches the top and bottom perches as shown below. I find going with the lower bracket nuts easier to deal with.
The sway bar is connected to the steering knuckle via the end link. The cam adjusters need to be loosened in order for the LCA to rotate. The lower ball joint needs to be disconnected in order to separate the LCA from the wheel hub.
Q: How do I use a strut spring compressor?
This will be the same position in which you lowered the LCA previously with the floor jack. Eventually, the spring will be fully decompressed and you no longer have the danger of spring under compression that can shoot out at any moment. You should be able to move the spring around and be able to feel that there is no compression on the spring. The center nut may need an additional wrench or allen wrench to keep the bolt from turning while you loosen the center nut. These steps are essential to getting your LCA to be able to rotate down and out of the way.
Be sure to use a protective pad on the spring to avoid damaging it. Once the spring is compressed, you can remove the spring from the strut mount. If a coilover has a preload or if you are dealing with a strut that requires a spring compressor to remove the spring, this tool adds safety and speed. It's also handy for setting preloads on a drag car or changing spring rates during a track day without using a spanner.
This drop forged enamel coil spring compressor can be used on various passenger and light commercial vehicles. The second is a big mechanically-cranked plate compressor that resembles an old-style tire-changing jack with two twisted plates on it. You crank it open, insert the plates between the coils of the spring, and crank it closed, pulling the plates together and thereby compressing the spring. I use this one unless there’s some reason I can’t, such as the spring being too big or small to fit between the plates. After a couple of disasters using cheap spring compressors, we bought this Branick 7600 wall/mobile-mount spring compressor to avoid future emergency dental work. To test it in a working environment, we went to Aldan American in Carson, California, where they've assembled thousands of struts and coilovers every year since 1981.
So removing the two nuts on both sides of the castle nut will allow the wheel hub to separate from the lower bracket. This compressor is well built and strong and can compress most springs without any issues. It is big enough to work on truck springs but can also be used on compact cars. Compared to some other brands, it has a tread on the screws that's more open, which helps compress or decompress the springs. Even lifted off of the ground, your suspension springs can still be under quite a load.
I figured that, for that price, it was worth it just for the adjustable shocks, and if the springs turned out to lower the car, it was gravy. So I bought them, and when they arrived, I had 14 days to build a spring compressor and disassemble and test all four shocks. Those springs are beefy enough that they support the weight of the car without bottoming out. And you need to compress the spring even further in order to remove the nut or retainer. For these reasons, you’ll often read that compressing springs is an inherently dangerous activity best left to professionals. Once the spring is seated, you’ll want to compress the spring using a vise or clamp.
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