Spring Compressor help ?
 

Hi All,

I've arranged to replace my 107's lower control arm tomorrow morning. I've got the internal spring compressor but I'm a bit unclear on access to the spring.
The plates slot into the spring but how is the central column of the compressor fitted. The hole in the control arm at the bottom of the spring is not big enough and I cant see a way of feeding it in from the top.

Any advise welcome.
Thanks,
Gary

I believe it is the same as the W114. It goes through the top. The compressor screw should fit through the center of the coil spring upper "cup/perch" It takes some wiggling and the suspension needs to be hanging freely for the clearance. Do a search over on the diesel discussion for "coil spring compressor". I've got a picture of a removed W114 subframe showing the opening.

Support the body using a jackstand and allow the suspension to hang. If you hold your mouth just right and invoke the proper deities, the screw will just fall into place.
Upper plate goes into the third coil space down from the rubber insulator. Lower plate goes in the second coil space from the bottom. The upper plate takes some working to get it to the spot but if you don't get it up high enough the spring can't compress fully and you have tension on the control arm. Not enough to make the spring jump out but enough to make it a bugger to get the arm back into position.

Thanks Mike.

take great care in making sure the compressor is properly attached and used, if the spring gets away it will go through anything in its path, including you

Oh I hate myself for this but sometimes it's too hard to resist.

Don't worry about Gary's coils popping out and hurting anything. You can cut right through an "Irish Spring" with a knife. I've seen the commercials.

inside joke? ( I hope!_)

C'mon Ron, don't you remember those stupid Irish Spring soap commercials where the guy slices open the side of the bar of soap to show the various layers?

You boys....the Irish jokes are wasted on me anyway I'm English but living in Ireland.


Couldnt get the central collumn of the spring compressor into the spring but used the plates that came with it with a rod from an external compressor to work. That's one long spring on the 107, had to get nearly all the coils compressed before all the pressure was off the arm. It then took 8 hours of struggling to get 4 bolts removed which were rusted in place and 20 minutes to fit the new arm and return the spring. All the knocking noise has gone so it wasnt a waste of time either.