How to remove this strut safely?

Is there a way I could remove the strut safely? I would imagine that the pressure on the spring is resting on the top hat and the bottom mount which would make it difficult and dangerous to remove… thanks….

 

Wow, thats nuts. It be afraid the spring would let go. If you do it yourself id want to attatch some spring compressors to the spring first. But, may be better off paying someone to do it. Id dont want to see a news article about some guy that lost his eye and right nut to a broken coilover removal.

 

Bring it to a pro. Asking this means don't try at home.

 

Do the following at your own risk. This can be dangerous.

I think you could jack the truck up.
Place it on jack stands.
Take the jack and place it under the lower control arm. Jack it just enough to relieve pressure from the shock bolt. -BE CAREFUL HERE- Disconnect the lower control arm from the spindle. The. Let the pressure of the jack. You’ll also want to loosen the LCA bolts.

This could be dangerous. So do it at your own risk.

This video is of a 2nd Gen. But the same principles apply.
https://youtu.be/vkVLBOnAifc

 

Tow that thing to a shop and let it be a shop's liability.

Compressing springs in a perfect scenario is dangerous and this is very far from a perfect scenario.

 

Out of curiosity- Did the shaft break, or did the bolt loosen and come off?

There are a lot of folks on here currently in the process of rebuilding their front coilovers.. it may be advisable for them to use some loc-tite or nylon lock nut if that's not already standard practice.

As the others have mentioned, get that thing to a shop. I have coil compressors, and I wouldn't try to fit them in there. Not sure what they'll do.. probably something between the coil compressors and the technique in that video... as I can't imagine another way around that...

 

take it to a good shop get parts replaced + front end alignment

chances are theres other sh!t that needs to be taken care of

get it done right instaed og patching it with bubble gum / spit

 

The shaft is about 3/4 the length it should be…it snapped when I was wheeling

 

As soon as you Jack the truck the spring looks like it'll fall out. So the only thing keeping the spring in place is the weight of the truck since the shock shaft is already broken.

Might need to loosen the the lca bolts to let the arm swing away. But the shaft breaking means you already relieved the tension on the spring

 

What coil compressor do you use?

 

at this point, it looks like a healthy kick to the bumper outta knock all that busted shit outta there and park the tire nicely in the fender…

 

Wait so you want to reuse that spring?

 

Since the shock is what limits the down travel, but now the shock is broken, all you'd need to do is jack the truck up until it droops enough for the spring to loosen. It probably won't even be enough to make the CV bind up, but since it's not moving that probably won't be a big deal.

 

okay sooo….. I ended up doing it by myself, I jacked up the truck and let lca droop as far as it could then I proceeded to remove the top three nuts. Once I got them off I loosened the bottom bolt and placed a pry bar in between the mount and lca. I then took the bolt out and carefully removed my pry bar and………it shot out like a mf.. for anyone in the same situation as me I 10/10 recommended you to take it to a professional, I was just too damn hard headed and didn’t wanna spend the money

 

Glad you weren't injured.

I definitely would have had a ratchet strap around it and at least one spring compressor, but I would also have tried it myself.

I used to be involved with prototype vehicle builds and we would put a seat belt around them and anchored it to the compression press.

 

yep, coil springs are dangerous under pressure. I had one fly off a 69 El Camino while trying to remove it. Luckily it missed me and knocked a big hole in the dry wall in my buddies garage. He wasn't very happy about that.