Technical Having trouble fitting lowering springs, Help?

[matttollman]

Hi people, Ive been fitting my friends FK lowering springs today on his MK2b punto and had a few snags, The back was easy and had that done in not time, but with the front i had 2 problems.

Firstly, I got the front suspension strut out and used the coil spring clamps and tightened them down so the top cap of the spring was nice and loose, meaning there was no pressure being exurted (s.p) on it. But then i tried to remove the nut on the top of the shock for ages with no luck, do you have any tips on the best way to do this so i can sway the springs over?

After failing that i tried to refit the standard shock and spring because we thought we'd carry on with it tomorrow but he ddint want to leave his car jacked up overnight, so i tried putting the shock back in and couldnt for the life of me get it to line up with the two bolt holes on the brake/hub assembly?

Cheers, Matt

 

[snapyoursticks]

To get the bottom to line up takes a lot of jiggery pokery and a large hammer :devil: I had to get a mate to put all his weight on it to push it down far enough, once one of the bolts is back in you wont have a problem.

As for undoing the top mounts, i was trying to do this today too and am having the same problem! They just spin round rather than loosening for me.

 

[matttollman]

As for undoing the top mounts, i was trying to do this today too and am having the same problem! They just spin round rather than loosening for me.[/quote]

lol, its a nightmare isnt it, half of the shock just spins with the nut as you turn it. I guess thats why on the top of the shock theres a little allen key slot but its still done up ridiculously tight.

Any one successfully managed to undo it out there?

 

[clawliger]

with the top mounts you have to hold the center bit with an allen key and turn the nut. but when it comes to removing the spring the easiest way is to clamp the damper/strut with spring compressed and undo that way.

 

[FiatFXR]

some struts dont have the allen key hole on the top so you then try wrapping a bit of rubber or cloth around the strurt shaft them use vice grips and clamp it over the rubber to hold the shaft while you undo the nut. the rubber is just to stop the vice grips scoring the shaft and helps with grip.