Spring Compressor Advice

[Chopface]

Can anyone reccomend a spring compressor for replacing stock (what I believe to be) suspension on a '91 Civic Si? The car has 134k and there is visible leakage from the front dampers (haven't gotten a good look at the rear). I can feel my front tires loosing contact with the ground or "skipping" at times (typically in 1st and 2nd gear or cornering). I am rather used to rough riding suspension from having always driven old high-mileage cars, and am excited to see what the new suspension will do for the car.

I have seen 2 piece compressors that I think would work eg.:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00947057000

I am going to put on a Tokico HP series (blues) kit that is on the way. I have heard that you can get away without using a compressor sometimes, but I like to error on the side of caution and my safety.

I bought new rubbers for the front and back and also 2 new lower damper mounting bolts for the rear (saw Caroline'spost about her experience).

I've got a Helm manual and I think I am good to go except for figuring out a spring compressor.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[jim beam]

Can anyone reccomend a spring compressor for replacing stock (what I believe to be) suspension on a '91 Civic Si? The car has 134k and there is visible leakage from the front dampers (haven't gotten a good look at the rear). I can feel my front tires loosing contact with the ground or "skipping" at times (typically in 1st and 2nd gear or cornering). I am rather used to rough riding suspension from having always driven old high-mileage cars, and am excited to see what the new suspension will do for the car.

I have seen 2 piece compressors that I think would work eg.:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00947057000

I am going to put on a Tokico HP series (blues) kit that is on the way. I have heard that you can get away without using a compressor sometimes, but I like to error on the side of caution and my safety.

I bought new rubbers for the front and back and also 2 new lower damper mounting bolts for the rear (saw Caroline'spost about her experience).

I've got a Helm manual and I think I am good to go except for figuring out a spring compressor.

Thanks,

Mark

for the money, those sears compressors may be just great! the problem is that the coil is very tight & some compressors don't fit in between. my bad experience dealing with that problem lead me to make my own. there's an ascii drawing here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=TYWdndkoMaaY7NncRVn-sg%40comcast.com

bit mangled, but you get the idea.

 

[Alex Rodriguez]

Can anyone reccomend a spring compressor for replacing stock (what I believe to be) suspension on a '91 Civic Si? The car has 134k and there is visible leakage from the front dampers (haven't gotten a good look at the rear). I can feel my front tires loosing contact with the ground or "skipping" at times (typically in 1st and 2nd gear or cornering). I am rather used to rough riding suspension from having always driven old high-mileage cars, and am excited to see what the new suspension will do for the car.

I have seen 2 piece compressors that I think would work eg.:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid

=00947057000

I recently changed the shocks on a 1988 Accord. I used http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=3980 , but I had to do some modifications to these. I had to grind down the points. The springs on the Accord were quite small the these compressors were too big. The sears model you mention above look like they might work better. If I had to do it again I would consider getting this http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47890 . It looks like it would take less time to use and can accomodate all sizes of springs. I also have http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=43753, and it is way too big for this application. Otherwise, it looks like it would work really well.

I am going to put on a Tokico HP series (blues) kit that is on the way.

These are the same shocks I put on the Accord. They are a huge improvement over the original shocks that were on the car.

I have heard that you can get away without using a compressor sometimes, but I like to error on the side of caution and my safety.

DON'T DO IT! A spring can store a lot of energy. You don't want to be near it if it releases it suddently. Even if you could do it, using a proper spring compressor will make the job go faster.