Changing front Syncro shocks

[chrismsnt]

Okay... who has the "trick" to get this to fit in??!!! I cannot for the life of me "compress" and then press it in. I'm open to all and any suggestions!

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Chris
1989 T3 Vanagon 16" Syncro
1967 Squareback
https://vwvandiesel.com
Instagram @VW_VanDiesel

[Microbusdeluxe]

See my post on this: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=662384&highlight=
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'69 Squareback RIP
'65 21 window deluxe sold before the price spike, damn it.
'70 rhd bay now a taxi in South Sudan
'81 Westy sold
'89 hightop Westy Joker syncro 16" now with Bostig!

[tjet]

I broke a shock out in New Mexico last year. I replaced the shock in an Autozone parking lot using their rental strut compressor (link below). It worked fairly well.

Later, I bought the same one, and made some modifications to it. I keep it in the van with my other tools.

https://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tools/loaner-strut...icle=false

[4Gears4Tires]

Compress it using the flat of a wrench or flat piece of metal or whatever you have around you and then shove it in.

To be clear, you have no problems compressing it down to the dust cover when it sits outside the housing, right?

It's always a bit finicky, but I've never run into an issue. Make sure everything is loose so the control arm can drop down far enough. Make sure the sway bar is unbolted. I assume your tie rod is loose or unbolted as well.
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'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[tjet]

Yeah the pry method works too. It may be easier to pry the bottom end in vs the top in your situation. I have 2" lift springs, so I needed to use a spring compressor.

Below is a pic of the AZ tool p/n, and the mods I did. I cut 2" off the threaded shafts. I also put a "flat" on the safety pins. The GW lift springs are thicker, so the safety pins didn't clear until I modified them. I have a large compressor at home, but these are much easier to keep in the van. If you look at the top photo above, you can see how they are too long before the modification when holding a loaded spring.

With the modified shorter shafts, you can put them either way - with the wrenching end on the bottom or top (before, they only work with the wrenching end pointing down). Also, they will now clear the upper spring mount / frame. In fact, you can rotate the springs 360 degrees in place with these installed 180 deg apart.

One more thing - you only need to get a good bite on 3 coils. You don't need to fit these on the entire spring. It helps to spread the coils open a little with a screwdriver to get the tool in.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=2173004

[joetiger]

I did this on Saturday. I used cheap spring compressors and Sodo's conduit spacer trick:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=671406

(I had planned on buying a nice spring compressor but couldn't get one delivered by Saturday, so I used Sodo's trick.)

I put the whole thing together and slid it up into position. The shock is still loose in there at that point, so I was able to use the handle end of a rubber mallet to get between the coils and push/guide the shock shaft into the top hole. I did not compress the shock.

From there I pushed the lower shock mount onto the top hole of the control arm. With it wedged in place, I carefully jacked the control arm up (while NOT jacking the entire van) until the shaft was showing enough thread at the top to get the upper bushing and bolt on and tighten it.

I was very, VERY careful to make sure that the jack under the control arm was not ever supporting the weight of the van.

After that it was a lot of grunting, jacking, and a little bit of hammering to get the shock bottom down into the control arm and aligned, then I bolted it up.

Good luck!
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

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