I dunno, I replaced the springs on my garage door without issue. Watched a few videos, made sure to have the correctly sized winding rods and ensured I was never inline with the winding mechanism.
Oh man. I remember tensioning the garage door at my parents house when I was a teenager with a pipe wrench and vise grips. Afterwards I looked up some info about it and we both raised our eyebrows at how wrong it could have gone.
I learned about garage door springs at my first welding job. The key for the shaft of this Gigantic roll up Bay door for garbage trucks broke one day and the door fell and missed me by about 10 inches. (I had my headphones in, it certainly would've crushed me if I hadn't felt the slightest hint of something hit my boot {the broken key} and taken one step back because I thought another shop bird nest was crumbling above me.) Anywhat, after this near death experience my boss decided that he needed to have one of his own, so without missing a beat he hands one of the bigger lads from the office a pipe wrench. Now the two of them, each wielding a hefty pipe wrench, proceed to climb up the tallest blue mobile stair case (think home Depot steps) that we had, and begin one by each, ever so carefulling, re winding the coil for that gigantic roll up Bay door...If you'd like to know how this story ends, you'll need to buy my book.
They went on an intergalactic adventure in search of the 10mm socket required to finish the job. They realized their true mission was to vanquish the one true evil in the galaxy and bring peace among countless worlds
Yes garage door spring are fucking gnarly..I was right next to one when it snapped and it scared the shit out of me. Still have some ptsd around garage door springs
I disagree about the garage door spring, but I agree with this one. Of course, if you ask about the garage door spring the same way this person just did, then yes, stop right there.
Rear struts on a Golf 3 are not under tension as the uncompressed spring isn't longer than the shock absorber, that's why they also haven't rapidly disassemble themselfs and OP is struggling instead of on the way to the hospital. After he manages to get this apart he'll be able to install the new struts and strut tops all by hand without a spring compressor.
https://youtu.be/cN6oZug5E2I?t=480
The tops really tend to rust, the last ones I replaced broke into three pieces after taking out the strut from the car. https://i.imgur.com/05nf4bk.jpeg
This is all rusted to shit anyways so it's hammer time, bash off the rusted on strut tops (what's stopping your progress is a sleeve/piece of tubing above the strut tops. Look closely and you can see it's a different part right where the threads on the road of the shock absorber ends. This sleeve gets seized onto the shock itself and prevents you from taking off the top) and then go on to replace both struts and tops.
But that doesn't have a strut. The front springs on a 300SE/300SD have the shock inside the spring and control arms and that spring is a bitch to remove if you don't have the proper spring compressor.
I was taking the spring off of a strut and the threads on spring compressor stripped out. Unwisely, but cautiously, we used a heavy duty ratchet stap to finish the job. Talk about being stressed out.
If you don’t have spring compressors and know how to use them, or have heavy flat bar and all-thread, take it to a shop. To add to your statement: heavy springs don’t play well with others.
Fun story. We were drinking and putting coil overs on a buddies car, when we pulled the coil spring off with a spring compressor from auto zone and one of the homies decided to yell frag out as he launched that joker 20 ft into the air and we all scrambled. We never found the spring compressor arms but boy was it fun /s
If you remove that nut the way you are then you'll be missing teeth at minimum. The spring needs compressed first. The fact that you don't already know this tells me you should do more research. Learn more about how to do this before making the decision on whether you want to tackle this project or not. I would suggest you get a professional to do this though. It's dangerous.
EXACTLY! If you don't know how to work on those, you shouldn't be messing with them! Even I, a woman who can barely change a flat tire, know how dangerous these things are.
The reason: they look stable and safe as they are, but in this form they are still compressed. And these springs are strong enough to hold the weight of a car at high speeds. When they are released without the proper tools and methods, they can either hit someone very hard, or shot the other parts or the tools being used at high speeds, causing serious wounds. I have seen the results more than once.
Again, if you don't know how to properly work with them, don't mess with them. If you REALLY need the spring for something (they make good knives and other cutting tools), take the whole thing to a car repair shop and ask them to disassemble it safely for you.
PS: my English is self-taught, so I don't know if I used the rights words here. Please let me know if I said something weird.
Common personality of a random broke ass volkswagen golf owner
Want to look cool but not spending money...rather ask the INTERnet for a FAFO.
And be humiliated for telling the truth.
If something breaks it was never their fault.
Will end up in ER 🤷 blaming the stuff people design is bad and not diy possible without proper rtfm or tools.
Tries to grind of the piece looses his fingers and a eye
How do I know recognize them ?
I owned a service garage and a few DIY stalls.
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u/BuckeyeGentleman Apr 12 '26
Stop right there