Am I supposed to need a spring compressor?

[Dave TBG]

So I'm watching TV last night and decided to inventory the parts that will soon be installed. One thing leads to another and I find myself test fitting some parts. Either I left something out or these things go together much more easily that I had expected.
Did I miss something? I installed the lower spring isolator on the strut. Added the spring, upper isolator and top bearing and I was able to get the but started by hand. This was way too easy, what did I do wrong?

Sponsored

 

[BmacIL]

So I'm watching TV last night and decided to inventory the parts that will soon be installed. One thing leads to another and I find myself test fitting some parts. Either I left something out or these things go together much more easily that I had expected.
Did I miss something? I installed the lower spring isolator on the strut. Added the spring, upper isolator and top bearing and I was able to get the but started by hand. This was way too easy, what did I do wrong?

R springs are just short enough to not need spring compressing to assemble. They have just enough free height to have a tiny bit of preload at full droop.

 

[Meat coyote racing]

So I'm watching TV last night and decided to inventory the parts that will soon be installed. One thing leads to another and I find myself test fitting some parts. Either I left something out or these things go together much more easily that I had expected.
Did I miss something? I installed the lower spring isolator on the strut. Added the spring, upper isolator and top bearing and I was able to get the but started by hand. This was way too easy, what did I do wrong?

Did you ever end up needing the spring compressor?

I also bought the Ford Performance strut and shock kit but I am running BMR handling springs. Like you, I installed the bottom isolator, spring, top isolator and new camber plates and was able to hand tighten the nut.

The instructions say to tighten to 76 ft lbs; HOWEVER, it doesn't seem to be tighting (it gets hand tight then just spins and spins without getting tighter). The only thing I could think of was because I wasn't using a spring compressor. I also feel like I'm missing something. From what I've read and the videos I've seen, it didn't seem like a compressor was necessary.

Help me lol. This is all I'm getting (pics below)

 

[Dave TBG]

I left torquing the nut to the mechanic that installed them. In your case, it's the shaft of the strut that's spinning as you turn the nut. You need to hold the shaft with either a wrench on the end of the shaft, above the nut, or grip the shaft (don't mar the surface).
For my next trick, I may attempt swapping the upper mount for camber plates without removing the whole assembly.

 

[Meat coyote racing]

I left torquing the nut to the mechanic that installed them. In your case, it's the shaft of the strut that's spinning as you turn the nut. You need to hold the shaft with either a wrench on the end of the shaft, above the nut, or grip the shaft (don't mar the surface).
For my next trick, I may attempt swapping the upper mount for camber plates without removing the whole assembly.

I literally stared at it for 10 minutes and never thought that the entire shaft was spinning.

That is such a simple solution, hopefully it won't be too difficult. I want to use a torque wrench so placing a wrench above the nut won't be possible. I'll have to figure out how to hold the shaft without maring it.

Thanks for replying

 

[BrianH87]

If you have crow's feet wrenches, that will allow you to torque the nut while holding the shaft with another. That's what I did. They also do make special tools for this. Something like this.

 

[Dave TBG]

It's not a lot of torque, a lot less than the lug nuts need. Wrap some sort of rubber around it and use vice grips, pond liner would work. Slide the bump stop down and grip it as close to the nut as you can so if it does leave a mark it will be above the seals in the strut at maximum travel. I'd be inclined to hit it with an impact gun, not to hard though.

Sponsored