coil spring compression tool
#41
03-15-2013, 06:47 AM
many thanks for the comments on the roll pin. I will certainly get a roll pin if I repeat this job. I can see that a 5/16 roll pin , which I believe is made form stainless stell, would be quite sturdy. Although drills are brittle at the cutting end, they are quite maleable at the shank. You can put a drill in a vise and it will bend quite a bit before snapping. That is why I used it rather than a bolt.
Reference the actual 20mm rod, I was a bit concerned about the stength of this, but close examination after the work has shown no distress. It is quite tough to saw and I used an angle grinder to cut it. I think that the two nuts joined together helped spread the load.
Reference the actual 20mm rod, I was a bit concerned about the stength of this, but close examination after the work has shown no distress. It is quite tough to saw and I used an angle grinder to cut it. I think that the two nuts joined together helped spread the load.
#42
03-14-2021, 11:21 AM
Junior Member
Coil spring compression tool
This article is not so much about carrying out the job asmaking and using the spring compressor tool. See attachment for PDF file onspring removal.
MANUFACTURE OFSPRING COMPRESSOR TOOL JAGUAR XJ8
I made the spring compressor out of a 1 metre long 20mmthreaded rod. I bought this from ALLBUILT products in Farnborough for about£6.00. I also bought two 10 mm threaded rods and nuts to suit the threadedrods.
I drilled a 5/16 hole about 20 mm from the end of the20mm rod. I was quite careful with this using a pillar drill so that the holewas at 90 degrees to the rod and central. I also drilled the hole in stagesstarting with a 1/8 drill working up to the 5/16th drill. This wasin order to prevent any cracking around the hole. This would be the weakestpoint and you would not be able to see it once it was installed on thesuspension assembly. If there was any cracking, then the rod could break atthis critical point. The final drilling I just did lightly in order for the5/16th pin to be a tight fit. For the cross pin, I used the shank ofa 5/16 drill cut down to 30mm long. I knew that the material of the drill istough. Somewhere I saw that someone recommended a roll pin. This sounds a bitfragile, but I believe that the proper Jaguar tool has a roll pin. The 20 mm rod I cut to 550 mm, but I did notcut the rod to length until I had drilled the hole and was satisfied with theresult.
I got two 20 mm nuts and assembled them lightly on therod with a gap of a few millimetre but the flats aligned. I then tack weldedthe nuts together at a couple of points. At this stage I made sure that thenuts (now joined together) were free to run on the rod. I removed the two nutsand welded them together all the way round and then ground off the excess. Thereason for the nuts welded together was to spread the load over the two nutsand also have a larger surface for the spanner to work on. You could use asingle nut here
I then mounted the new “nut” in a vice and ran thetreaded rod up and down the nut until it was turning smoothly. I applied Molygrease to the thread whilst doing this.
In my garage, I have a box of “round things” that I haveaccumulated over the years. I found two suitable bits cut one part at an angleto align with the spring pan. You could maybe use 1 inch internal diametersteel pipe for this. The other part was conical to allow for movement. Youcould possibly dispense with the conical part. The finished tool can be seen inphoto A.
In photo D, you can see the angle of the conical part tothe angled contact part, during the removal process. This shows how it isimportant to get this part of the tool correct. If you feel that you are notable to able to make such a tool, then I wonder if you should be tackling thistask at all.
Anyone who thinks that they can just use a couple ofwashers under the nut would be foolhardy. The pan does not come down evenly andthere would be a tremendous side strain on the nut against the pan. I wouldimagine that a lot of force would be required to turn the nut. You need to havethe correct angle to mate with the pan. I would dismiss any suggestions thatyou can get around using such a tool, by straps or supporting by a jack. I havea pit in my garage and many tools and I still had my heart in my mouth for thefirst spring removal.
I cut the 10mm threaded rod into five pieces of 200 mmlong. I then cut another piece 155mm long to be used in the outermost holeposition. The outermost rod will foul the compressor tool if too long. These willbe the guide pins, Jaguar only uses two pins, but I opted to use six. The ideabehind this was that if the spring compressor tool or suspension turret structure failed(it has happened apparently), then the guide rods would take the strainof the road spring.
Once I had taken up the spring tension with the springcompressor, (I did this with the weight of the car on the front suspension) Ithen slackened off the spring pan bolts ONE AT A TIME a few turns each.I worked them a bit to ensure that they were easy to turn and retightened them.I used a 24 inch I/2 drive swivel bar and had trouble undoing the bolts. Thesebolts have a stepped locating pin and were assembled by Jaguar using loctite.They are extremely hard to turn, Make sure that the socket is firmly engaged onthe bolt head. If you damage the heads at this stage you will have a lot oftrouble and they will not be cheap to replace. Note that the securing boltshave 13mm A/F heads but are a 10mm bolt (i.e. 10mm bolt that would normallyhave a 17mm A/F head). I can only imagine that this small head was used byJaguar to reduce unsprung weight.
Once I was happy that all six bolts were able to turneasily, then removed each bolt in turn and replaced it with one of the 10mmguide rods. I assembled several washers and a nut on the 10mm threaded rod andran the nut up until there was a small gap between the spring pan and each setof washers and nut. The washers allow you to get better access to the nut heads.Photo B shows the tools installed prior to starting the removal process. As Ibacked off the nut on the spring compressor tool, I also backed off the nuts onthe guide rods. I did this until the whole pan and spring could be removed.
Note: When installed and whilst in the removal process,the road spring is bowed outwards in the middle. I could see that any drasticmovement could allow the spring to jump out and the guide rods should hopefullyprevent this. Photo C shows how the spring is not central to the springcompressor tool.
Replacement is the reversal, but first the pan and springis located in position with the guide rods through the holes in the pan andthen nuts are fitted on the guide rods. This will take the weight of the panand spring while you insert the spring compressor tool. This is different tothe Jaguar document in that the proper Jaguar guide pins do not appear to havea screw thread for the length of the rod.
When you tighten up the spring with the compressor tool,the spring pan will eventually make contact with the lower wishbone at onepoint first. At this stage, you will need to jack up the front of the springpan with a bottle jack as the pan will be lower at the front. There istremendous pressure on the compressor tool and is better to give it some assistancehere. You can see in photo E by the exposed length of the guide rods, that thespring pan is lower at the front and also at the outer point. This however, mayhave been due to my inaccurate cutting of the angle
One thing that i was concerned with was the threads onthe 20mm rod damaging the holes in the spring pan. During the removal process,I continually tapped/jiggled the spring pan to ensure that there was no hook upon the threads. The proper Jaguar toolhas no threads.
Before installing the spring compressor tool, I put twonuts on the end of the spring compressor rod locked together. I then put a mole(visegrip) wrench on this. The idea was that any rotation of the rod would beshown by the mole wrench moving. This would mean that the locating pin hadmoved out of position.
Having completed the job, I now realise that this form ofspring compressor tool is far better that the standard claw type that fits ontothe springs (such as you would use on the rear). With the proper tool this is astraight forward job and easier than removing the rear springs.
Note: After I had used the tool for removing the springson both sides, I noticed that the cross pin was now a loose fit in the hole. Irealised that I could have easily knocked the pin partially out whilstinstalling the tool and this could have caused the tool to fail. In hindsight Ithink that I should made sure that I had made a proper interference hole or putthe pin in with araldite or loctite to stop it slipping out. Perhaps the rollpin really is best for the job?
Most of my knowledge has come from forums etc, but I havepieced everything together and hopefully this will help others when carryingout this task.
MANUFACTURE OFSPRING COMPRESSOR TOOL JAGUAR XJ8
I made the spring compressor out of a 1 metre long 20mmthreaded rod. I bought this from ALLBUILT products in Farnborough for about£6.00. I also bought two 10 mm threaded rods and nuts to suit the threadedrods.
I drilled a 5/16 hole about 20 mm from the end of the20mm rod. I was quite careful with this using a pillar drill so that the holewas at 90 degrees to the rod and central. I also drilled the hole in stagesstarting with a 1/8 drill working up to the 5/16th drill. This wasin order to prevent any cracking around the hole. This would be the weakestpoint and you would not be able to see it once it was installed on thesuspension assembly. If there was any cracking, then the rod could break atthis critical point. The final drilling I just did lightly in order for the5/16th pin to be a tight fit. For the cross pin, I used the shank ofa 5/16 drill cut down to 30mm long. I knew that the material of the drill istough. Somewhere I saw that someone recommended a roll pin. This sounds a bitfragile, but I believe that the proper Jaguar tool has a roll pin. The 20 mm rod I cut to 550 mm, but I did notcut the rod to length until I had drilled the hole and was satisfied with theresult.
I got two 20 mm nuts and assembled them lightly on therod with a gap of a few millimetre but the flats aligned. I then tack weldedthe nuts together at a couple of points. At this stage I made sure that thenuts (now joined together) were free to run on the rod. I removed the two nutsand welded them together all the way round and then ground off the excess. Thereason for the nuts welded together was to spread the load over the two nutsand also have a larger surface for the spanner to work on. You could use asingle nut here
I then mounted the new “nut” in a vice and ran thetreaded rod up and down the nut until it was turning smoothly. I applied Molygrease to the thread whilst doing this.
In my garage, I have a box of “round things” that I haveaccumulated over the years. I found two suitable bits cut one part at an angleto align with the spring pan. You could maybe use 1 inch internal diametersteel pipe for this. The other part was conical to allow for movement. Youcould possibly dispense with the conical part. The finished tool can be seen inphoto A.
In photo D, you can see the angle of the conical part tothe angled contact part, during the removal process. This shows how it isimportant to get this part of the tool correct. If you feel that you are notable to able to make such a tool, then I wonder if you should be tackling thistask at all.
Anyone who thinks that they can just use a couple ofwashers under the nut would be foolhardy. The pan does not come down evenly andthere would be a tremendous side strain on the nut against the pan. I wouldimagine that a lot of force would be required to turn the nut. You need to havethe correct angle to mate with the pan. I would dismiss any suggestions thatyou can get around using such a tool, by straps or supporting by a jack. I havea pit in my garage and many tools and I still had my heart in my mouth for thefirst spring removal.
I cut the 10mm threaded rod into five pieces of 200 mmlong. I then cut another piece 155mm long to be used in the outermost holeposition. The outermost rod will foul the compressor tool if too long. These willbe the guide pins, Jaguar only uses two pins, but I opted to use six. The ideabehind this was that if the spring compressor tool or suspension turret structure failed(it has happened apparently), then the guide rods would take the strainof the road spring.
REMOVAL OFSPRING (see also attachment)
Once I had taken up the spring tension with the springcompressor, (I did this with the weight of the car on the front suspension) Ithen slackened off the spring pan bolts ONE AT A TIME a few turns each.I worked them a bit to ensure that they were easy to turn and retightened them.I used a 24 inch I/2 drive swivel bar and had trouble undoing the bolts. Thesebolts have a stepped locating pin and were assembled by Jaguar using loctite.They are extremely hard to turn, Make sure that the socket is firmly engaged onthe bolt head. If you damage the heads at this stage you will have a lot oftrouble and they will not be cheap to replace. Note that the securing boltshave 13mm A/F heads but are a 10mm bolt (i.e. 10mm bolt that would normallyhave a 17mm A/F head). I can only imagine that this small head was used byJaguar to reduce unsprung weight.
Once I was happy that all six bolts were able to turneasily, then removed each bolt in turn and replaced it with one of the 10mmguide rods. I assembled several washers and a nut on the 10mm threaded rod andran the nut up until there was a small gap between the spring pan and each setof washers and nut. The washers allow you to get better access to the nut heads.Photo B shows the tools installed prior to starting the removal process. As Ibacked off the nut on the spring compressor tool, I also backed off the nuts onthe guide rods. I did this until the whole pan and spring could be removed.
Note: When installed and whilst in the removal process,the road spring is bowed outwards in the middle. I could see that any drasticmovement could allow the spring to jump out and the guide rods should hopefullyprevent this. Photo C shows how the spring is not central to the springcompressor tool.
Replacement is the reversal, but first the pan and springis located in position with the guide rods through the holes in the pan andthen nuts are fitted on the guide rods. This will take the weight of the panand spring while you insert the spring compressor tool. This is different tothe Jaguar document in that the proper Jaguar guide pins do not appear to havea screw thread for the length of the rod.
When you tighten up the spring with the compressor tool,the spring pan will eventually make contact with the lower wishbone at onepoint first. At this stage, you will need to jack up the front of the springpan with a bottle jack as the pan will be lower at the front. There istremendous pressure on the compressor tool and is better to give it some assistancehere. You can see in photo E by the exposed length of the guide rods, that thespring pan is lower at the front and also at the outer point. This however, mayhave been due to my inaccurate cutting of the angle
One thing that i was concerned with was the threads onthe 20mm rod damaging the holes in the spring pan. During the removal process,I continually tapped/jiggled the spring pan to ensure that there was no hook upon the threads. The proper Jaguar toolhas no threads.
Before installing the spring compressor tool, I put twonuts on the end of the spring compressor rod locked together. I then put a mole(visegrip) wrench on this. The idea was that any rotation of the rod would beshown by the mole wrench moving. This would mean that the locating pin hadmoved out of position.
Having completed the job, I now realise that this form ofspring compressor tool is far better that the standard claw type that fits ontothe springs (such as you would use on the rear). With the proper tool this is astraight forward job and easier than removing the rear springs.
Note: After I had used the tool for removing the springson both sides, I noticed that the cross pin was now a loose fit in the hole. Irealised that I could have easily knocked the pin partially out whilstinstalling the tool and this could have caused the tool to fail. In hindsight Ithink that I should made sure that I had made a proper interference hole or putthe pin in with araldite or loctite to stop it slipping out. Perhaps the rollpin really is best for the job?
Most of my knowledge has come from forums etc, but I havepieced everything together and hopefully this will help others when carryingout this task.
BIG THANKS
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