Technical changing shocks on marea

[hats]

Hi All

I'm in the middle of attempting to change the front dampers on my '97 Marea T100. I removed the front strut with spring and damper. I have a pair of spring compressors but while compressing the springs out of situ on the floor, its difficult to centre the damper arm in the middle of the coil to refit the top mounting plate. The base plate of the shock is at an angle on which the spring rests.

Has anyone any experience of changing these babies on there Marea. Any tips would be gratefully received, as I had to borrow a car to get into work today and hopefully will crack on tommorrow!

Thanks

Hats

 

[rat20v]

I have had mine of a few times, don't really understand the question? when the spring is compressed the tap the top hat with a hammer and it shoud pop of. when putting back together make sure that the spring compressors are really tight so the top hat just slides over, once top hat secure undo the compressors and slide back in, make sire the spring has seated correctly though as this can cause issues

 

[hats]

Cheers Rat20vI basically got my knickers in a twist and my terminology wrong. I had compressed the spring in situ while on the car by jacking up the strut and securing with straps and compressors. I undid the strut bolts to hub then released the damper nut that secured the shock to the top plate which I left attached to the car.As such I was attempting to refit the spring and shock with the spring still compressed and it was difficult to line the top rubber seals and everything up.I presume now that its easier to leave the damper attached to the top plate and just take off the complete shock and top plate as one unit...then compress spring and release the nut that holds the damper to the top hat plate.To top it all I was given the wrong shocks so couldn't even change them but had to put the old one back and shall pick up the correct ones tommorrow. Hilarious! I shan't laugh for fear I may split my sides!Thanks for your inputHats

 

[rat20v]

LOL no worries hats, its so easy to do aswell, i can do the fronts on my own in less than an hour and the rears in about 20 mins now