Careful with them front springs lads!
Discussion
Had a near miss when compressing the front springs on me car to refit the lower front wishbones the other day. Sat on the garage floor with the M10 threaded rod and nuts and spanners winding the whole shooting match up until the wishbone bush lined up with the mouting holes in the chassis, and the threads in the nut tore out due to wear, releasing well over a tonne of load. Fortunately for my goolies, the nut gripped the rod again further down and the only event was a bloody big BANG! Ears rang for about 20 minutes and I thumped the back of me head on the garage wall when I recoiled in shock!
M12 studding folks, and scrap the nuts after EVERY SINGLE compression or decompression because they cop a lot of contact stress and the threads suffer a LOT of wear.
Trust me, your gentlemans area would be a total mess if it got thumped with a suspension spring under that kind of tension. If you do the maths you'll see that the kind of energy dissipated by that spring when it slips is on a par with a gunshot wound.
Bit of poo nearly came out, I tell you.
M12 studding folks, and scrap the nuts after EVERY SINGLE compression or decompression because they cop a lot of contact stress and the threads suffer a LOT of wear.
Trust me, your gentlemans area would be a total mess if it got thumped with a suspension spring under that kind of tension. If you do the maths you'll see that the kind of energy dissipated by that spring when it slips is on a par with a gunshot wound.
Bit of poo nearly came out, I tell you.
I used normal 'shop-bought' spring compressors on my Cortinas, but seem to remember jacking up under the outer end of the wishbone before putting the compressors on, to take up the slack so to speak.
Then removed the shocker, take off compressors, let wishbone down and take spring out
Summat like that anyway.
Then removed the shocker, take off compressors, let wishbone down and take spring out
Summat like that anyway.
Hi lads, i've been told that the rubber pad that sit's in the bottom of the springs are different sizes [thickness] one's 3mm larger [driver's side i think], because the chassis has a slight twist on them when built, worker from the factory told sandy that at BNG Blackpool, he built his car and his wife sewed the leather seats. The extra thickness was to level the car.
If you have any other questions please contact Sandy, [Wild Rover].
This is on a 350/390.
jonny.
If you have any other questions please contact Sandy, [Wild Rover].
This is on a 350/390.
jonny.
Edited by Jonny weggie on Thursday 7th October 12:04
Jonny weggie said:
Hi lads, i've been told that the rubber pad that sit's in the bottom of the springs are different sizes [thickness] one's 3mm larger [driver's side i think], because the chassis has a slight twist on them when built, worker from the factory told sandy that at BNG Blackpool, he built his car and his wife sewed the leather seats. The extra thickness was to level the car.
If you have any other questions please contact Sandy, [Wild Rover].
jonny.
Thats an interesting point.If you have any other questions please contact Sandy, [Wild Rover].
jonny.
When I removed my rear springs last week there were two thick (5mm) rubber packers between the spring top and the top mount.
The car isnt sitting 'lop sided' though!
Will have to give it a spirited run out to check properly.
Stu
I had a spring compressor jump off a spring a few years ago in my mates garage when replacing a snapped spring on an Audi A4 and there was an almighty bang and the spring, compressor and top strut mount all dissapeared. I then turned round to find all the bits and I found the spring compressor was buried in a customers drivers door!! I am now very cautious when using them.
Gassing Station | Wedges | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff