560sl coil spring compressor-instructions?

[sms]

I borrowed this tool made by Baum that is a copy of the Sir/Klann tool. I looked at the tool and at 1st it looked straight forward to me, but now when I try to use it on the spring I'm having the following problems.

1) Can get 1st plate on bottom of spring easily, but I can only get top plate in middle of spring and no higher. Is that enough to get the spring out (ie. compress from middle to bottom).

2) I cannot get the shaft that connects the 2 plates in from the bottom or top of the spring. Is there something that I'm missing.

Thanks, Steve