Has anyone used Autozone's loaner coil compressor on the
suspension coils of an older Civic or Accord?

My cheap-o Harbor Freight $7 coil spring compressor worked
pretty well for disassembling my 91 Civic's suspension
system front coil/damper assemblies. Getting them all back
together is becoming a nightmare. Seems the claws on the
tool are too thick and interfere with the dust cover, which
then interferes with getting enough clearance to get the top
nut on. The archives indicate at least one person ground
down this tool's claws and had success. But I have limited
grinding tools at the moment. Hence I am thinking of
borrowing Autozone's tool and seeing if it's any better.
These little Honda coils are tricky, complicating use of an
already somewhat tricky tool, aggravated by the safety
precautions necessary when working with a lot of spring
stored energy.

Fully relaxed, the driver's side coil is about 1/4-inch
shorter than the pass side coil. So that explains some of my
car's non-levelness. The coils will be switched (pass. side
to dr. side, etc.) when I am done. Then I will observe.

I also found a severely corroded stabilizer bar bushing on
the passenger side that I think may explain some uneven tire
wear I'm having on that side. This will be replaced within
the next month or so.

I continue to contemplate a major rebuild of the suspension
system in the near future...

John, I follow what you're saying. In my new-ness to this,
and given how old and somewhat rusty my 91 Civic's springs
appeared, I was hesitant to put the load on just a few
coils. Folks with newer springs should go for it, of course.

"John" <welcomehowcome (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

I use those from harbor freight as well and haven't had problems. What I do
is instead of hanging the hooks on the top of the spring i hang them midway
so that the hooks don't interfere with the dust cover.

"Elle" <honda.lioness (AT) nospam (DOT) earthlink.net> wrote

On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 02:08:21 GMT, "Elle"
<honda.lioness (AT) nospam (DOT) earthlink.net> wrote:

I bought my new strut/shocks for my '90 accord from autozone
specifically because they loaned the tool and they knew it because we
discussed it before I made the purchase. When I got them off and
began to disassemble them for the replacement it turned out the tool
they gave me didn't fit. When I went back to get the correct tool
they said they didn't have one. When I asked what I should do with my
disassmbled vehicle they pretty much told me they didn't care.

Went to Advance auto down the street bought one for about $15 and put
Autozone on my boycott list. They could have bought one, put it in
their loaner tool stock and kept me as a customer.

Frank

Ouch. From what I saw in the one class on suspension I took,
these Honda springs are tiny. Guess that means they're safer
to work on, but as you found (and as I saw in the class with
the tools the school offered), getting a tool that will fit
is tricky.

"Frank Boettcher" <fboettcher (AT) comcast (DOT) net> wrote