This sounds like a safe method, however, I just place a jack under the lower control arm, and remove the spindle . Lower the jack, remove the spring. It might take a little longer but you won't have a loose spring lying around.
I'm no pro but Dad was and taught me the jack to remove the spring on most vehicles and the compressor to put them back in. I have never been the least bit scared or had more than one slip just enough to make me wonder. I just do it exactly the way I was taught... The tool needs to be applied correctly and pay careful attention.
Try using them on an AMC spring for the trunnion style suspension. They can't really work as you need room for the capture hats. So, things get real interesting. My ex-boss comletely lunched the floor pan of an AMX trying to compress a spring using the cars weight. God that guy was a moron.
I have an old keyed padlock that I use instead of the nut, bolt, and washers. I've done it that way for 25 years. It is really fast to use this way and I do wrap the chain around a couple of times..... but I've often wondered if the compressor did slip off would it hold? Ed
I've used the kind pictured in the first post on Falcons and Mustangs. They're a pretty good tool for what they are. I've also got the separate-forged-hooks-on-acme-thread-shaft kind and those give me the willies every time. I have a few cars with struts and strut-like coilovers so I've got a big wall-mounted Branick thing for those. A manual spring compressor is one tool I'll never buy from Harbor Freight... The remarks about secondary restraint - a chain around the part and the control arm - are a good idea. Make sure the spring is dry and clean. Grease, shock oil, road crap is going to help the hook slide on the spring once it's tightened. Check it little by little as you're tightening. You need the spring to snug up straight, no bananas. Don't compress any further than you have to. Might also consider putting a U-bolt or something on the spring (and maybe on the hook) to hold it in place. I knew a guy once who had a selection of set-screw type split-collars for this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillon AKA 'screw link/threaded link/quick link' http://www.amazon.com/Curt-Manufact...apacity/dp/B001EOV3AW/ref=pd_bxgy_auto_text_b
Little trick I used to use when I built pro-modified rock crawlers in VA a few years ago... I'd drive the wheel with the spring I wanted to remove up a ramp to compress it with the weight of the car. Then I'd position my spring compressors and tighten them hand-tight. Back the car down the ramp and jack up the car by the frame. 9 times out of 10 the spring would fall out on the floor before the wheel even left the ground. Dunno if it would work on something with limited clearance issues, but figured I'd throw it out there.
I've never used a spring compressor on anything except the coil on top of the upper A frame style suspension that the early Mustangs, Falcons and Novas had. When I didn't need to take the spring out of the car but needed to change the upper A frame bushings dropped the compressor down though the tower with the shock bracket removed compressed the spring up just enough to take the tension off the A frame. It doesn't help if you are changing the spring but speeded things up when I needed to work on the control arms. It's been 30 years since I did one but at one time I had a steel plate that I used on top of the tower with a hole for the threaded shaft of the compressor to go through eliminating the top hooks. On cars and trucks with the coils setting on the lower A frame I use two bars ( the long truck tire irons with the flat rounded end work best) to pop the spring out and back in. I never used a chain to control the spring if it went wild but that wouldn't hurt to have on it to keep it from bouncing around and I'm a lot slower now than I was when I was doing those things on a daily basis on Pontiacs 35 years ago. It's easy to figure out how to pop the spring out but when you go in put the spring up in the pocket so the end sets in the right spot and then put the flat end of one bar under the spring with the tip catching the lip of the spring pocket in the A frame. Take the other bar and put it through the spring a one or two coils up and while your helper slowly starts raising the floor jack push down and in on the upper bar while raising the lower bar in the other hand to slide the spring in. An old front end man taught me that when I was a new front end man. One thing It won't work if you don't have the engine in the car or truck and all the weight there to compress the spring.
I used one of those when I cut the coils on my O/T Maverick. Son borrowed it from shop class at school, it was well worn! I was real careful taking the springs out and putting them back in. Only real problem was when the first one I took out decided to leave the compressor about the time I set it down on the floor. The spring jumped, and so did I! Didn't hit or hurt anything, but it could have. Did the coils on the boys F100 with it, too. No problems with those, except we cut too much off the first set, and they would fall out when you decompressed them. Had to cut another set, less that time!
i had one of the autozone plate type with the 2 fingers come loose one time and i have a real healthy fear now. it was a coil spring on a 1 ton truch so it was a little overloaded i guess. i have used the kind in the link and they are ok but i have to say i prefer the jack method. i did spring for the heavy duty flat plate type with different sizes a while back. i haven't used it yet but i cand see it slipping or failing.
Thanks for the advice. I was actually installing when the tool was letting go. Seemed the vibrations were enough to cause the "claws" to slip off. FWIW the car looks good with the cut coil lol... I still have my limbs. One thing I have seen is metal bands that look sort of like long "C" s YOu put them round the compressed coils to install, then cut them (the "C"s ) with a torch once they are in place
I had one let go about 2 years ago. The spring hit my index finger and near tore the finger off. When I saw the x rays it looked like someone smashed a chicken bone with a hammer. I had 3 pins in my finger and months of physical therapy. I'm ok now, I have a scar and a stiff finger with slightly less than full mobility. I consider myself lucky when I think about how much worse it could have been. Honestly, I'm not sure if I want to use one of those compressors again.
Now that is just a great quote, I wonder who is sitting there scratching there head thinking 'Huh?' I had a tool try to kill me once, I returned fire and he didn't walk away. Fuckin' Iraq. doc.
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