GoWesty Syncro Springs Installed

[ranchero]

I grueled for about 7-8 hours yesterday getting my GoWesty springs and Old Man Emu shocks/struts installed.

I've done spring/shock changes on BMW 3 and 5 series, VW Rabbit, and Subaru Outback. This was by far the most difficult. Well, maybe the others are just trivial. This was a beeatch. Other contributing factors: did this in the back yard where the garage *will* be built. Dinky compressor I bought to build garage wouldn't drive impact gun, so compressing springs multiple times with a standard socket wrench took a lot of time and effort.

I started with the fronts, expecting them to be more difficult. The first front took about 4 hours. 15-20 mins to get out and the rest trying to get the new one back in. My spring/strut compressors are sort of bulky I guess and you really only have access to about 1/3 of the circumference of the spring for your compressors. It took multiple attempts to find the correct orientation for the compressors that would work given the space available due to the shock/spring tower. Once I was able to get the spring/strut into the shock tower, I used a jack on the control arm to compress the spring further. I needed to do that to get the top shaft on the strut through the hole in top of the tower. I stuck a long socket down through the hole in the tower and around the strut shaft to guide it into position as I jacked the control arm.

Having learned a bit on the first front strut, the second front only took about an hour and a half, maybe a bit more.

Both rears took an additional hour.

Initial impressions: Ride is a bit firmer, front now sits higher than rear. I'll have it aligned this week and provide more details in another post.
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'90 Westy Syncro EJ25 (money pit #1)
'96 FZJ80 (cheap by comparison^^)
'13 Golf R. Daily driver.

[psych-illogical]

My old 83 Westy is sagging a bit in the rear and I'm considering springing (pun intended) for the Syncro.org springs. I hope somebody else will chime in here with their secrets for making spring changes easy. The last time I did springs was on a 93 4Runner and I had similar issues. My spring compressors were el cheapo Harbor Freight models and I don't know if that makes a difference or not but, I also had maybe a third of the circumference of the springs to work with. I'd get 'em compressed, mostly on one side, and they looked like they could fly out of the compressors at any moment and kill someone. Very scary stuff. A friend of mine just put new springs on his Samurai and said it was well worth the $70 he paid the suspension shop to do the job.
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83 1/2 Westy waterboxer
'57 Beetle-sold
Coupla '81 BMW motorcycles (R80G/S; R100RS)
'96 BMW R1100GS

[PDXWesty]

I heard from GoWesty they will be offering 2" lift springs for 2wd vans by the end of summer for the same price they're selling the Syncro springs.

[Dogpilot]

A cheap and simple spring compressor I have used in the past on Land Rovers was this; Hose Clamps. Jack the wheel up untill it is lifting the car a bit. Tighten down 4 or 5 hose clamps around the spring. Lower the wheel and the spring stays compressed, not entirely, but enought to work with. You have to use several clamps for stength, but it does work in a pinch, you just have to treat the spring as a loaded gun.

You can set up you new springs the same way by jacking the car up and owering it on the spring so it can be compressed against the ground. It is just a bit trickier.
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Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G