ZT front springs, the garage can't compress them. Bit urgent.

[EdgarDonaldBalls]

He's going to pop round a bit later and let me know the situation, my Dad had a quick word and it seems he said the spring is slipping when trying to compress it.

Seems like I'm back to square one, I feel like giving up already. It shouldn't be this hard to get a spring replaced.

[TomRS]

Originally Posted by EdgarDonaldBalls

He's going to pop round a bit later and let me know the situation, my Dad had a quick word and it seems he said the spring is slipping when trying to compress it.

Seems like I'm back to square one, I feel like giving up already. It shouldn't be this hard to get a spring replaced.

Dont give up, honestly removing the springs is straight forward enough! i mean i have some not so safe ways of removing it but i'd not want to resort to that... its a simple job.
Wait and see whats said tonight! dont despair just yet!

[EdgarDonaldBalls]

Originally Posted by TomRS

Dont give up, honestly removing the springs is straight forward enough! i mean i have some not so safe ways of removing it but i'd not want to resort to that... its a simple job.
Wait and see whats said tonight! dont despair just yet!

Just been speaking to him, this is the story.

He tried with his bench spring compressor, a very heavy duty spring compressor and a land rover place up the road and another garage near by.

When he's trying to compress the springs he can't compress them enough unless he puts the plate of the compressor underneath the spring seat but if he does that it won't sit flat due to the mounting point for the drop link and starts slipping when trying to compress it.

He said he wouldn't be comfortable using the type of spring compressor everybody here seems to use because it's far too dangerous. Had his arm broken using one of those a few years ago.

Going to pick the car up tomorrow and try and figure out what to do next.

He also said the rear upper arms are looking pretty bad and will need to be replaced soon so right now I feel like just cutting my losses and pushing it off a cliff. It would have been nice to have the car for a couple of weeks before it all started falling apart around me.

[Arctic]

Hi Adam.
I just don't know what to say why would he/a garage go to all the trouble of removing a front strut from a car, then not succeed in replacing the sprung, bewildering is an under statement.

Personally I would find another garage at least they will not have trouble removing the strut now.

There is a local mechanic my son knows who changes these in about 25 minutes and only charges around £40.00 there must be someone close who can sort this out for you, worry about the rear upper arms later.

[klarzy]

its not simply a case of the top mount being stuck in the top of the spring and being drawn down as he compresses it?
when putting the 75 ones back together you often need to pull up the end of the strut inner with grips to extend it long enough to get the top nut on...

[EdgarDonaldBalls]

Originally Posted by Arctic

Hi Adam.
I just don't know what to say why would he/a garage go to all the trouble of removing a front strut from a car, then not succeed in replacing the sprung, bewildering is an under statement.

Personally I would find another garage at least they will not have trouble removing the strut now.

There is a local mechanic my son knows who changes these in about 25 minutes and only charges around £40.00 there must be someone close who can sort this out for you, worry about the rear upper arms later.

i have no idea to be honest, he described the issues he had with the different compressors he tried but having never seen most of the equipment, It was way over my head. I'm pretty sure he is genuine but it's odd that nobody else has had trouble.

There is a garage I have used before that's almost on the way back that i'm sure would be able to do it and probably not charge too much but they are good friends with my ex boss who hates me for taking him to an employment tribunal last year so not sure I can trust them with my car. They charged me £50 to replace a bottom arm rear bush and an inner track rod on a peugeot 406 (i supplied the parts, I always plan to do it myself until I realise i'm way out of my depth)

I was quoted £240 by an MG Rover specialist near here just for labor, another garage told me they would beat that by £40 and I won't trust a garage that doesn't quote based on the required time and their hourly rate but rather just beats a crazy quote by a bit, they also wanted £1100 to replace the head gasket on my ZS about 10 years ago when I asked them to replace the leaking thermostat housing so I should have known better than to ask them.

I have a trust issue with garages due to being told I needed a head gasket change, once for the thermostat housing and then for an inlet manifold gasket, happened at a few garages so have tried to do things myself since and actually change the head gasket on a second ZS about 4 years ago.

Quite a few garages around Chester but having never used any of them and not knowing anybody who has, it's hard to know where to start. I thought a guy who I have known to speak to, although not well for probably over 30 years, who works at a specialist and XPart dealer would be a good option but clearly, that's not worked out so far.

He is going to ask a guy he works with tomorrow who may know somebody with experience of these cars so will see what's said then.

[EdgarDonaldBalls]

Originally Posted by klarzy

its not simply a case of the top mount being stuck in the top of the spring and being drawn down as he compresses it?
when putting the 75 ones back together you often need to pull up the end of the strut inner with grips to extend it long enough to get the top nut on...

It's a possibility, will put it to him tomorrow. It didn't seem like it from what he described but I think he described different issues with different spring compressors he tried.

From what he told me, because the spring seat isn't flat and has the mounting point for the drop link in it, it wouldn't sit in the compressor properly and was slipping in at least one of the spring compressors he tried but I think in his own compressor, he just couldn't get it compressed enough and said it was coil bound on the 3 or 4 middle coils so that could possibly be caused by the issue you describe.

[klarzy]

Originally Posted by EdgarDonaldBalls

It's a possibility, will put it to him tomorrow. It didn't seem like it from what he described but I think he described different issues with different spring compressors he tried.

From what he told me, because the spring seat isn't flat and has the mounting point for the drop link in it, it wouldn't sit in the compressor properly and was slipping in at least one of the spring compressors he tried but I think in his own compressor, he just couldn't get it compressed enough and said it was coil bound on the 3 or 4 middle coils so that could possibly be caused by the issue you describe.

when I used to use the old style hook compressors I needed 3 per spring and 3 spare.

That way I could compress the 3 middle coils and use the 3 evenly spaced compressors to pull the spring down straight, then when they were at max, use 3 more in the gaps to pull the 4th coil down... but usually the mg springs being shorter are easier...

[Arctic]

Originally Posted by klarzy

when I used to use the old style hook compressors I needed 3 per spring and 3 spare.

I could of compressed the spring even more if I needed to, but as it was the top bearing came off easy, therefore if i was to fit a new one all i would need to do is wind the spring compressor up more.

1

You can see in this photo there is more room to compress & these compressors feel really safe

2

tomorrow or before the weekend i intend to clean up the strut & put it back together i will photo how it goes Arctic

[squire]

Would it be possible to get the strut over to Jules in Conwy, it doesn't look too far from Chester? I feel sure he'd be able to replace the spring.