I have a quick question. I received my leveling kit and new Bilstein front shocks today and plan on installing this weekend. My only worry is the front struts. I contacted Auto Zone and they have a spring strut tool for rent that is designed to compress the spring so the strut can be disassembled/assembled. Has anybody used a hand spring strut tool? I'm concerned the coil springs may be too stiff for the tool. I am attching a link to the strut tool.

autozone.com/in_our_stores/loan_a_tool/.../strut_spring_tool.htm

please, please, let someone else do it. those things are deadly ya know.

 

I would take the oem struts & Bilsteins to a shop with a decent hydraulic spring compressor and have them do the swap. Then you can bolt them back in.

I think one guy posted that he used the auto zone cheapo rig, but put his motorcycle helmet on during the operation.

 

Had a friend lose a fingertip messing with those. Heed the advice above.

 

+1 on paying someone else to do it. You could consider it if you needed to change a strut on a small car that isn't loaded but even that is fairly dangerous. A spring setup that's designed to take the abuse of a 5500lb truck is something else.

To put it simply; you'll shoot your eye out.

 

I put mine on with the autozone tool and I won't do it again. Its just not heavy duty enough and its really hard to work with. It got put in a bind trying to take it off and it was just a big mess.

 

I replaced my donhoe coilover springs with those tools. Not the easiest but doable. Be careful and use the sock pins to keep the clamps on the spring and you should be OK getting it off can be tricky also but like I said doable. If you have a shop that would do it for 20-40 buck go for it otherwise allow about 2hrs for that doing it your self

 

I have those Autozone variety compressors and I don't recommend them for the Titan's springs. Sure, it could work, but the Titan's spring wire diameter is too large to completely sit in the little cup/finger. Couple that with the fact that the coil spacing is so small and I didn't like the idea. I'd take the struts off the truck and take them to a competent shop if I were you.

 

congrats man...... Can't wait to see the finished product. Oh and yeah get a shop to do it

 

Yeah, I'd follow the advice most here are suggesting. If you have to ask whether the crappy AutoZone spring compressor would work, then you should probably have them done by a shop. You can buy a heavy duty style coil spring compressor to do them, but the $$$ invested for a one-time job like this (and the possibility of getting hurt) is not worth it. Just take the struts off and have a local shop swap the new shocks in. The leveling kit spacer bolts on top so you won't need a spring compressor for that.