Even with a high quality spring compressor I always feel like
I'm carrying a bomb when I deal with coil springs.
This is how I compress MGB coil springs:
Find a coil spring compressor that'll fit inside the spring.
This may take some shopping around. Sometimes (as was the
case saturday) you'll find ones where the hook will fit
but the threaded rod is too long. (Scene: Keith walks
over to the milling machine)
Find a nice sturdy piece of steel plate. Machine some
smooth holes in this, place the plate under the spring pan,
run the compressor rods through the holes in the plate, up
inside of the spring, and there ya go, easy to get out MGB
springs. (It would've been easier if the 'B was designed
like a Midget! Anyone can safely remove a Midget spring
in 10 minutes.)
The first one of these that I "built" was when I was in high
school. I was going to replace the a-arm bushings. It
doesn't take long to figure out that the spring compressors you
get at the store just won't work. I found a piece of steel
plate (hardened steel I came to find out!) and set about
drilling holes in it. I failed at the hole process, so I
took the plate to a machinist who laughed at me for trying to
drill the holes, and then he went on to properly make holes
in it. (Seems I had scrounged some hardened plate off a
bulldozer or some such).
-Keith Wheeler
Team Sanctuary http://www.teamsanctuary.com/
At 07:03 AM 1/19/98 +0000, Scott Gardner wrote:
>So Keith, how DID you compress the old springs? I removed the
>springs on my '72 to replace the A-arms, and none of the spring
>compressors I could find could be maneuvered into the available
>space. I ended up putting a half-dozen jumbo radiator hose clamps on
>each one and slowly tightened them in sequence until the spring was
>short enough to remove. I probably looked like a bomb squad tech
>carrying the springs away from the car, I was so worried the clamps
>wouldn't hold until I got the spring over to the wall-mount
>compressor!
>Scott
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