Put in New Struts Today - Hints/Spring Compressor Recommendation

[CapitalTruck]

Today I installed new OEM struts in the front of my Silverado (55k miles), having done the rear shocks about a week ago. I'll tell you what, that's a hell of a job. Took me 6 hours in total, including a lunch break of about 1/2 hour. Granted, I'm pretty obsessive about perfection. Another hangup - I purchased new strut mounts, ACDelco Professional. One of the three threaded stems that goes through the frame was dorked up. Of course I didn't know about that until I was hooking the whole strut assembly back up. Lovely. So, I go and buy a Monroe strut mount, which, by the way, shares its country of origin with the ACDelco, Taiwan. So, recompress spring to put new Monroe shock mount on (which includes new plastic spring seat). Naturally the Monroe spring seat is slightly warped. So, one last time with the spring compressor to change out the spring seat with the one from the ACDelco mount kit that had the bad stem (they looked exactly alike). The quality of parts these days really is discouraging. If anybody else does this job, I highly recommend ordering the OEM GM shock mount, 25869477 and not trifling around with this bullcrap stuff. I had to use the mount from Monroe and the spring seat from the ACDelco Professional. The OEM GM mount had stronger studs/larger nuts also, but I didn't have the OEM mount at the time so Monroe mounts/nuts it is.

 

All of this nonsense made me really appreciate having a good spring compressor set. I got this one from Amazon, from Eastwood:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005R3BFVS?keywords=spring%20compressor&qid=1444609962&ref_=sr_1_25&sr=8-25

 

These things are up to the task of compressing our truck's springs. For starters, having three screws is a major plus. Also, the hooks are large enough to fully grasp our springs. So many videos I see of people doing this job involve using stupid little compressors that can barely even fit the width of the coil material within their pegs. If you click on the link, you'll notice this has safety U bolts to put on the compressor. I didn't use those as the weren't quite long enough. However, I was completely comfortable using this set without them. I should mention that I used hand tools to turn the screws. The directions advised to turn the nut side of the compressor, not the bolt side. So that takes ratchets out of the equation. I just used a large adjustable wrench and had satisfactory results turning each of the three nuts about 5 turns at a time. Time consuming, but safe.

 

To remove the ​nuts from the top of the struts I had to use two pairs of vice grips and clap down on the strut rod to prevent it from turning. I positioned the vise-grips to hit the ground as I was wrenching on the top nut (strut assembly laying horizontally on the ground, as advised for safety). Much to my annoyance, I also had to use one pair on the new struts to torque the top nut down to the required 37 lbs/ft.

 

So, in ​closing: Give yourself plenty of time, disconnect sway bar and tie rod to give yourself enough space/clearance, buy quality parts, and use a good set of spring compressors (again, I highly recommend the one above) to tackle this job. In the future, if I have to do this job again, I may just buy the pre-assembled strut/spring assembly from Monroe or Gabriel. However, I don't know if I have faith in the quality of their product. Additionally, you don't get the OEM spring. You get a one size fits all spring and shock. Doing it this way I was able to put it right back to the way it rode when I drove it off the lot. If these only last 55k I may replace with Bilsteins.