so i got my hotchkis springs a couple weeks ago, and ive been waiting to find a place to install them at a reasonable price. so far the cheapest quote ive gotten is $360 and they said it would take 4 hours. another place said 7 hours.

i dont have the money right now to pay more than double the cost of the springs to have them installed so i am installing them myself, i have plenty of time to do it. now i got a spring compressor from advance auto parts, but i figured out its the wrong kind because it uses basically a big threaded screw with hooks on it to compress the spring from the inside of it, but i wont have any way to compress the spring to get it off of the strut.

could anybody please tell me where i can get a spring compressor that will work? as well as a torque wrench to torque down all the bolts to spec

or should i just continue to look for a place to install for cheaper?
i have searched and searched but have found nothing to answer my questions

 

You are making a bunch of extra work for yourself bro! Those compressors you have are just the ones you need. They can be used on the outside of the springs.

Use your compressors to compress the stock springs, like this:



Then remove the upper strut mount from the stock assembly. Ease off the compressors on the stock springs after removing the strut, and repeat in reverse order to put the new springs into the assembly. Putting the hotchkis springs into the assembly should be a bit easier than stock as they are already shorter thatn stock and dont need to be compressed as much.

As far as a torque wrench goes, they run about $70 for a decent one, so either borrow one from a friend or rent one from a parts store. Unless you are willing to buy one... as it is a handy thing to have around the shop!

At any rate, totally do the install yourself. It isnt rocket science, as as long as you arent making $90k a year, it sure as hell isnt worth the money to pay someone else to do it... plus you'll be getting experience if you do it yourself. Thats my 2 cents.[img][/img]

 

i think if you're making 30k.. you could afford paying someone to install your springs. find someone in the regional section. i'm sure someone would do it for like $50.

 

thanks alot for the input guys!

 

those compresors wont work on the hotchkis... the hotchkis springs has like 3 or 4 coils on the bottom that are to close and keeps you from compresing it to the needed size to make em fit

 

nah it will work, we put the strut in a vise and hooked the bottom part of the compressor to the bottom of the strut below the lower perch, instead of on the spring itself, and hooked the top part of the compressor to the 3rd or 4th wind down from the top of the spring and used an impact wrench to tighten it down. i'd have a friend hold the bottom part of the compressor tight together on the bottom though to make sure it doesnt kick out. it compresses it enough to get the nut back on.

the compressor we used looked like this though:



so i'm not sure if the one pictured above will hold to the lower perch the same way or not. you could try though just be careful.

 

If there's a will, there's a way...

 

my car is on hotchkis. i used that exact compressor. it worked fine.

 

my car is on hotchkis also.. and lets jus say me and my dad improvised on the rear.. with 3 extra long screwdrives we put on top of the shock and spring then me and my dad stood on top of the long screwdrivers until it was compressed and we screwed on the bolt.. it was helll but it worked..

 

haha, you really should have videotaped that

 

ok soo i tried the install today, i got all the tools such as the strut spring compressor, a torque wrench and sockets and everything. i got the lower mount bolts off, anti roll bar bolt off and took out everyhing in the trunk to access the rear upper strut mounts.

i tried everything, even using a torque wrench all the way up to loosen the top strut mount bolts but they WOULD NOT budge at all. lets just say i broke 3 sockets attempting to loosen the bolts

now im very frustrated and annoyed and had to put everything back together to drive the car.
can anyone help me out with this??

 

might need an impact wrench

 

What kind of tools are you using? If they are cheap tools they will actually break pretty easily. If getting crafstman, snap-ons or matcos doesnt work, use a breaker arm... or a length of pipe and combination wrench. Your tools should break bolts... not the other way around. :p