13. Put a compressor on each side of the shock and snug them up. I used the supplied safety hooks, but found myself wondering if I'd be wearing them like bellybutton jewelry if something went wrong. Be sure to get the compressors as diametrically opposite as possible to balance the load. If your spring compressor is different (read: better than the POS I'm using), follow the instructions that came with it.

14. Compress the spring *slowly*. 24mm or 15/16", I guess you could use a crescent in a pinch, but I wouldn't recommend it. I did a full turn on alternate sides. That may be a bit cautious, but this type of compressor scares the crap out of me. If you go more than two turns per side, you're nuts IMHO.



15. Squeeze the spring 12-15 turns, about 3/4" to 7/8". Any more, and you may be taxing the compressor; less, you're asking for more excitement when you take the shock apart. If anything starts bending, creaking, cracking, or otherwise acting strange, STOP!





16. Now you're ready to take the top of the shock off. 18mm. I didn't have any problem with the shaft spinning on either shock, perhaps that had something to do with the age/condition of the suspension (~27,000 mostly highway miles). If the nut won't break loose from the shaft, you may have to get creative--see step 25 below for ideas. The cap may pop off with a little force behind it (depending on how much you compressed the spring, it moved a couple inches for me), so you may want to clear stuff out of the way.



17. Success! (No, that's not how far the stuff popped off)





18. Pull the shock body out of the spring, then *slowly* un-compress the spring. Bear in mind that the spring will expand to its free length, so it will take more turns than you put into it. It expanded over two inches from compressed-->free in my case.



19. Take the rest of the shock apart. The parts you'll need are the jounce bumper/dustcover and (perhaps) the spring seat.

As far as the next couple of steps go, they could be considered optional. My coilover kit (H&R) didn't include a spring seat, nor any instructions, so I guess they intend that you just let the spring rest on the perch as shown in this picture:



I've seen lots of installs like this, and I'm sure it probably works fine, but to me it looks like a potential source for squeaks/rattles. If the front springs were like the rears (tapered, pounded flat, whatever) and sat more flush on the perch, I wouldn't care. Piggie talks in his write-up about using the stock spring seat, so that's good enough for me. Other than it being a bit of a PITA, I can't think of a good reason not to do it. If you disagree, then please feel free to ignore the relevant steps.






20. The spring seat doesn't fit nicely on the spring perch, so you have to make adjustments. Pull out your weapon of choice and have at it. I used a large exacto knife. *Note* Performing this step makes it impossible to revert to stock without obtaining some new spring seats.

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