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The power of coil springs

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Tinster

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I know compressed coil springs contain a bunch of
stored up energy. And yes, they scare me to death
since I know so little about auto mechanics.

DPO Pedro's front end is totally shot and I
finally have all the parts to completely rebuild it.
The Bentley Book is my assistant. Banjo sent me a warning
I might get hurt unless I put a safety device INSIDE the
coil spring before I followed Bentley's instructions about
a using a jack to take the spring out.

Man alive, am I glad I followed Ben's advice! The coil
spring rests at an angle on top of the Bentley recommended
jack. A big red flag goes up for topple over possibilities.

So I proceeded to follow Bentley. I remove the last
fastener holding the coil spring in place and BANG Bentley's
jack get thrown sideways. The coil spring unloads all it's
energy in one giant load onto Ben's safety device. I was
working with only my hand and arm exposed taking out that
final fastener. It just about gave me a heart attack. And
worst yet, the jack just missed hitting Wendy's beloved luxury Jeep.

So, for you mechanical rookies like me- Bentley is not
always totally correct. Thanks Ben!!

Here's some photos:

springTool2.jpg



safetytool5.jpg
 
DALE, YOU ARE GONNA KILL YOURSELF! Never, never try to take that spring out with a jack. That homemade device is too fragile to do the job. Either get a bigger piece of all-thread and for sure use a VERY STOUT piece of iron plate to compress the spring. You are lucky. I bought one from TRF and use an impact wrench to compress it. But the one I bought is quite stout.
 
Hey Bill,

That's 1/2" diameter allthread and 1/4" steel.
The coil spring unloaded 100% of it's energy in
one single shot. I think that's why the plate
bent so much.

Think what would have happened if I simply followed
Bentley with no safety device in place? Yikes.

Buy yeah, I need to come up with a better concept
than Bentley's jack. The safety device obviously works
very well. But I'll beef up the plate to 3/8" thick.

Any ideas, other than Bentley's jack will be greatly
appreciated.

dale
 
Dale, That set up can be used for more than just a safety device. Use it for compressing and decompressing the spring. But only after you beef up that plate! You don't need a jack anywhere near you for removing the front springs.
 
Man, I don't like the way that this is going. Dale, you are getting WAY to close to getting hurt big time. You should never be doing this stuff alone either.
 
Brosky said:
You should never be doing this stuff alone either.
Click to expand...


I don't know, I did. But the tool from TRF is an absolute necessity. You are right, no jack is needed, but the spring will quickly distort anything lighter. Moss sells one too.
 
1/4" is thick enough, but your strip is way too narrow, IMO.

Mine is actually quite a bit thinner, but is a disc some 5" in diameter, drilled to fit over the studs. (It's actually an old VW generator pulley half that I had laying around.)

I also used 3/4" threaded rod. 5/8" might work, but IMO 1/2" isn't enough. Even the 3/4" is showing some wear though, after doing 3 front ends; I should probably replace it.
 
1/4" is not thick enough---should be 1/2" and dont use the steel strips from the hardware store---it is very soft steel.
 
The TRF device is made of 1/2" thick aluminum, offset so that the 5/8" hardened threaded rod stays in the center of the coil spring. There are 4 holes in the plate to bolt the device to the spring tower.
 
At this very moment in time, the new and expanded
"Crusher" is looking more and more like the best option.

BLARGH!!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif

gutted.jpg
 
It looks like you didn't tighten up the spring compressor up against the spring plate BEFORE you removed the bolts holding the pan to the lower a-arms. And then the force of the spring blew the spring plate into the metal at the bottom of the compressor. A tool is only good if you read the instructions FIRST.

To use the compressor, you must tighten it against the bottom to compress the spring a little before removing the nuts, supporting the spring plate with a jack as a secondary safety. Then slowly loosen the nut on the bottom of the compressor rod until the spring is slowly fully expanded.

Good thing you didn't get hurt. Had you done this without the threaded rod to capture the spring, it might have flown out and killed you (seriously) at at very least removed a couple of fingers, or your eyesight.

Use this tool at your own risk. I won't be held responsible for your actions and strongly recommend professional removal / replacement of your springs.
 
Hola Peter,

Actually, I did have the plate tight up against the bottom.

The problem arose because my frame must have a bend in it
because I could not get a socket or wrench on the sixth nut,
back right side of the coil spring plate.

I had to compress the spring in order to have the plate
rotate enough that the nut was exposed for a socket or
wrench to grab onto it. I compressed the spring upward
with the jack and tightened the safety device as I went
along.

As it turns out, the spring was fully compressed when the
final (6th) nut came off. The downward force was
incredible. It blew out the jack and bent the safety device
as seen in the photo. I then released the remaining spring
energy by unscrewing the safety device nut downward.

Seriously, it might be time to stick a fork in it and haul
it off to the recycle center. I don't have a clue how I can
get the new replacement coil springs in place. The Bentley
jack with safety device procedure is just too scary to try
again.

d
 
Are you sure that's a real Bentley you are looking at ? I don't have the full version for a TR6, but my Triumph "Owner's Workshop Manual" shows the special tool.

IMO the tool is required, so you'll need to either build a sturdier one, or buy one of the commercially available ones from Moss or TRF.

With the tool, installing the spring is easy. First assemble all the arms & vertical link, check for free motion. Put the tool through the spring pan, then the spring with both rubber seats in place, and up through the hole in the suspension tower. Put the nut on top, and tighten until the pan is pulled up against the lower arms. Guide it into place over the studs, install and tighten the nuts & bolts that hold it to the lower arms. Now you can loosen the tool and use a jack to support the lower A-arms while you remove the tool, install the shock, brackets & rebound stop.
 
Good lord Dale! I wanna come down for a visit. not your funeral.
6 weeks... I'll be down. I'm hoping you've got cryptie back in one peice by then, but if not, We'll get that monster back in there.
Good advice in this thread. Lower plate on the "compressor" tool need to be bigger and thicker. Thicker rod woulden't be a bad idea. Also catch it through the lowest possible coil of the spring. that way you can get the a-arm out, then slowly release pressure on the spring untill you're ready to reassemble.
 
With the understanding I'm not very familiar with the TR6, but it looks like the front suspension it similar to our Volvo 1800's...

The "jack under the LCA method" is commonly used for coil spring removal (front & rear)... but being a tool-junkie, I wanted something more... controlled... So I have one of these:

https://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Produ...0018006/c-10101

(although I think I bought mine at Sears)

(p.s. In a few weeks, I'll be in Banjo's 'hood for the Vintage Races. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cheers.gif )
 
Been taking out springs the old fashion way for 30 plus years. Ya just gotta go slow and say a few Hail Marys'
 
TR6BILL said:
DNK said:
and say a few Hail Marys'
Click to expand...


...Our Father's and Acts of Contrition, a Novena wouldn't hurt.
Click to expand...
...or even last rites.

Dale, I naively underestimated the power of the springs, or at least I overestimated the strength of certain metals. I made a spring compressor tool. I think that's 5/8 rod:
springcompressor002.jpg

As you can see, that metal plate was too thin. I placed the shock absorber brackets back on the spring pan once the plate was in place to hold it in better, but I think I was still tempting fate. For the passenger side, I wised up and replaced those flimsy plates with some ultra-beefy large steel washers and doubled up on them. No sign of flex at all with those. In both cases I used the floor jack in conjunction with the spring compressor and did everything in very small increments. When putting the spring and spring pan back on, I found that some long dummy-screws or steel rods helped guide the pan into place. Ultimately, the job proved to be very straightforward (although I had one DPO issue to deal with which was a bit of a setback--see my "ghost of Pedro" post). With your attention to detail, Dale, I'm sure you'll be very pleased with the result.
 
The thing I really like about the Triumph-style compressor is that it doesn't try to grab the spring coils. The spring is fully trapped between the shock tower and the spring pan, no way it can go anywhere (unless of course the compressor fails as Dale's did).

Years ago I was helping a friend change out the front springs in his Buick with a compressor like the one above. Had no trouble taking the first spring out, but when I picked it up to put it inside the garage, the compressor slipped off the coils and shot across the yard. I kept all my fingers, wasn't actually hurt at all, but it could just as easily have hurt me or my friend (or a passerby).
 
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