I'm going to put some Steeda springs on my car tomorrow. I've seen some of the write ups on the procedure but I have question on something I haven't seen documented. Can I loosen the top bearing cap on the front struts while the car is still on the ground? Then as i raise the car with the jack, the stock springs will slowly decompress under the weight of the car. Has anyone tried that?

BTW, I have a strut compression tool laying around someplace, i was just wondering if i still need it.

 

The problem with this method is that the spring almost always catches the strut mount and pops it in half. Once this happens you will spend the greater part of a day trying to find all those bb sized ball bearings. A McPherson strut spring compressor makes the job much easier.

Brian

 

gotcha. thanks.

 

Rent or borrow a spring compessor tool if you don't have one. It will be a lot safer too.

 

Werd....


an electric impact gun or air setup makes life easy when doing the spring compression with the strut compressor.... unless you like turning a ratchet for a couple hours....

I started to do it manually and my friends neighbor comes over and says "hit that thing with an impact wrench and you'll be done in a couple minutes".... sure enough he was right.

 

Either way, BE CAREFUL when you take off that strut cap. Have someone else hold the strut cap, top and bottom, squeezing them together. One person cannot take this apart for the first time without splitting the cap and losing the bearings. OK, for the 2 or 3 people that did it without losing the bearings, shutup, I don't need to hear about how YOU didn't have to chase down those bearings like me, err, um, like someone else I heard about.

 

You know, the more I hear about the bad strut tops and how hard it is to change them when you change the springs, I'm thinking it will be better to buy the ones from Steeda, new springs, and new struts, put them all together off the car, then just change them out with the stockers!!!

 

I found my compression tool tonight. I bought one a while back at Harbor Freight. I completed some home remodeling work and it was buried under a pile tools and supplies in my garage.

I've had my eye on that new set of shocks at Steeda. I suppose the rational thing to do is hold off and do it all at once. I don't have enough to do to keep me busy during this New Year's weekend so I may not be able to stay away from the springs.

 

Yup...that's why I asked Gus to get Steeda to put a packaged together for all the 3 pieces.