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I have the shock off the car and spring compressed
Okay, the spring isn't fully loose but there are only three coils to squeeze and my spring compressor is maxxed out
I thought I would just undo the bolt on the top but that just spins the whole shaft. Short of sticking some grips on the silver shaft and hoping, is there a better way of getting it apart?
There is a 22mm bolt with the little 8mm sticking out the top. It is the 22mm one that spins the shaft. I can't hold that still and turn the 8mm because the 22mm socket cover the 8mm bolt
I made a special tool for the job, weld a ring spanner to the top of a 22mm socket leaving the square section hole free to get an 8mm socket onto the centre shock shaft.
If you shear the hex head off the centre shaft you can carefully (you may need to look that one up Nick) cut the top coil off the compressed spring with an angle grinder to give you enough room to grind a flat section on the shaft and use mole grips to hold it whilst undoing the 22mm nut with a socket.
...or, if you're not planning on reusing or selling the old shocks, just cut through the piston with an angle grinder (once you're sure the separated bits that will fly apart aren't going to damage windows/vehicles/limbs/eyeballs) then you'll be able to grind flats on the stump and hold it in a vice while you undo the 22mm nut. Fast, safe (?!!) and simple.
Keep up the good work WCA and please keep the updates coming. I have just ordered myself a set of coil overs for the SWB build so its good to read the potential problems before I tackle the process myself.
The bottom one is fixed. There are two at the top that lock against each other. Will be checking all is still tight in a few days time before ragging it too much
