I went down and rented a spring compressor from Kragen today, but i cant fit the damn things in between the coils of the springs. Do i need to get a special one for imports? Since the compressor didnt work, I decided to remove the nut at the top of the strut with a jack under the lower control arm in the front, and the **** got wedged in there. Turns out I BENT the ******* damper fork and now the whole assembly is stuck in there. HELP ANYONE>!>!

 

what car? If it is a civic or teg, take the fork out and use a jack and a block of wood to hold the strut in place and undo the center nut that holds it together after its off slowly lower jack,do the same in the rear the only diff is there is no fork!

 

So put a block of wood in between the strut and the lower control arm after I remove the fork? The strut wont go flying all over my garage? Should I make a recess in the block for the bottom of the strut to sit in?

91 Civic Si BTW


[Modified by Rydaddy, 7:28 PM 11/1/2002]

 

i never use a spring compressor on any of the hondas i've lowered, I just put the top of the strut close to a wall so when the cap shoots off i don't loose anything. If done right the spring won't kick to hard.

 

Any idea how to bend the damper fork back to normal? What happened was the two prongs got seperated further apart, and the left one was twisted a little bit so the bolt wont go thru. The sleeve that houses the shock was also opened up, so the shock doesnt fit snug in the sleeve anymore.

 

aren't they cast forks? how did you bend it that bad?

 

Bent fork= done. Go buy yourself a new one.

 

Well how about that....I bent it back with the vice on my workbench. Im letting the bolts sit in it overnight to make sure, but it looks like it is salvageable . Time for some

 

Yeah, its good for fatigue life to bend something and bend it back.

 

Sarcasm?

 

yes