Hi guys,
My sister has commisioned me to change the 4 struts in her 176,000 miles Buick Regal LS. Yeah yeah, I know it's a N/A 3.8L (but one buttery smooth one for 176,000miles, sure puts my 88K mile 3.8L to shame in the BuTtA' dept)
At any rate, for x-mas the wifey bought me a 1/2" medium duty impact wrench, that kicks major butt. This last weekend it was warm finally here in the N.E. and I fixed a rattle in my friends meineke installed OEM catback on his 93' 3.1L Pontiac Grand Prix
My sis' says she's gonna buy me the MacPherson strut compressors (spring compressors) to be used with my impact gun. This will be payment for doing the 4 struts.
Now, I'm not a dumb dumb, but I want to make sure I'm doing everything right and safe considering that I'll have something like 600lbs of compressed spring force that could potentially slip out of the compressor arms and hit me in the face and crush my jaw, impact my skull and snap my neck off.
I've removed MacPherson struts from cars before, undo top 3 bolts, undo 2 knuckle bolts (that are usually rusted on) and pound out tie rod end with sledge hammer. But I've just taken the whole assy to a shop to have the thing compressed and re-mouinted for a fee of course.
I should think that the process is pretty straight foward, remove assy from car, compress the spring about an inch or so, turn giant bolt at the top of the cap, pull cap off, slip old cartridge out, put new cartridge in, bolt cap back down, align spring and uncompress and installation is the reverse of removal....right?
Is there any special step that I need to heed, or any other special tool I'll need, or any advice or tips from someone who's "been there, done that". If I am successful here, you all be seeing "Eibach springs and Tokicko (or Koni) shocks" in my sig in a few months as then the labor would be free........
Thanks for any help.
My sister has commisioned me to change the 4 struts in her 176,000 miles Buick Regal LS. Yeah yeah, I know it's a N/A 3.8L (but one buttery smooth one for 176,000miles, sure puts my 88K mile 3.8L to shame in the BuTtA' dept)
At any rate, for x-mas the wifey bought me a 1/2" medium duty impact wrench, that kicks major butt. This last weekend it was warm finally here in the N.E. and I fixed a rattle in my friends meineke installed OEM catback on his 93' 3.1L Pontiac Grand Prix
My sis' says she's gonna buy me the MacPherson strut compressors (spring compressors) to be used with my impact gun. This will be payment for doing the 4 struts.
Now, I'm not a dumb dumb, but I want to make sure I'm doing everything right and safe considering that I'll have something like 600lbs of compressed spring force that could potentially slip out of the compressor arms and hit me in the face and crush my jaw, impact my skull and snap my neck off.
I've removed MacPherson struts from cars before, undo top 3 bolts, undo 2 knuckle bolts (that are usually rusted on) and pound out tie rod end with sledge hammer. But I've just taken the whole assy to a shop to have the thing compressed and re-mouinted for a fee of course.
I should think that the process is pretty straight foward, remove assy from car, compress the spring about an inch or so, turn giant bolt at the top of the cap, pull cap off, slip old cartridge out, put new cartridge in, bolt cap back down, align spring and uncompress and installation is the reverse of removal....right?
Is there any special step that I need to heed, or any other special tool I'll need, or any advice or tips from someone who's "been there, done that". If I am successful here, you all be seeing "Eibach springs and Tokicko (or Koni) shocks" in my sig in a few months as then the labor would be free........
Thanks for any help.