Richard Cooper

This morning I went out to replace my daughters right front strut on her 1990 Chrysler Le baron. Get the old strut out with no problems and put it in the vice to remove spring. Get new spring compressor tool and get ready to put it on and the nut on top of the strut unit just broke off. It was all rotted and nasty looking. Well, I ended up in the hospital with a broken nose, 2 black eyes and 6 stitches inside my mouth.
So, be real careful. I never even touched the damn thing, it just broke off from rot!

JB

Ow, damn. Hate to hear stories like that. Working on old cars means getting hurt sometimes, I've discovered, no matter how careful you are. Happy healing!

JB

Dalannex

Sorry to hear about that. I have a friend who has a vice type strut spring compressor that makes it impossible for that to happen. I always go and use his machine for that job. Of course, a nut breaking can happen anytime anyway though. Hope you get healed up real quick.


-Justin

Eddie 70

Man, that sounds terrible. Sorry to hear of you accident. You just never know when an accident can happen. Good to hear you are ok though.

Richard Cooper

Thanks guys, The thing that bothers me most is that the car I was working on will not be done now until tomorrow and I will have to leave the vette out overnight. This will be the first time in 7 years that the vette will be in the yard overnight, wife thinks I'm crazy.

jcswm

The amount of Stored energy in a compressed spring is surprising to say the least, your lucky you weren't killed. I work with struts all the time and i still worry every time I compress one..... Don't worry about the 'vette in the yard .... she still has an owner!!!

mrvette

I remember back in the 60's a mechaanic friend I bought my '61 Catalina Super Duty from, a drag racer, told me to watch it if I EVER touched a front end, as those springs can kill in a heatbeat, he got careless even though he knew better, and one excaped on him, missed his head by about an inch or so and took off all OVER the large shop area....hit all the walls marks everywhere....nothing to play with....

GENE

RHD '68 L89

I had a friend who used to work on Caterpillars.
They cleared the workshop when they were removing the track springs.

ACECO

Hope the doc gave you some good drugs to help the pain and also hope you heal up real soon!

BTW, the last line of your sig seems rather ironic now.

Paul L

You were very lucky! Don't you love the salt belt. Be well!

JRD77VET

Glad to hear you're still around to post

Although you sustained some injuries, you are still very lucky. A guy I know had his arm broken by a unrestrained spring.

Hope you heal quickly.

Jeff

My69

Sorry you got hurt. Hope you feel better real soon.

Mike

Pauld

Wow, sorry to hear of your injury, but thanks for posting this because it sounds like a painful lesson to be learned and I know I tend to forget these sort of things when I get stuck into a job. Really brings home the dangers and will hopefully stick in my memory. Get well soon.

Rolm

That is why I have and never and will never touch suspention fixes on any car leave it to the pro's with the proper tools and hopefully with proper traning to handle such dagarious fix's

GDaina

Glad you're all right...it could have been worse.

Jvette73

Glad to hear yur ok. Considering the amount of energy stored in the springs it could have been much worse. Youll be back to 100% in time. Consider yourself lucky. I just did the struts on my sons car. It did make me nervous. I made sure to keep my head away from above the assembly. When doing the work I kept my arms extended as far as possible to keep the unit away.

Chuck Harmon

Richard,

Thanks for the warning! As you point out, even when you are doing it the right way you can get into serious trouble. Stories such as yours keep me more alert regarding "what ifs".

Thanks again and get well soon!

Chuck

comp

This is O/T and needs to be here to warn/remind all of us,hope
you heal up quick

Richard Cooper

Thanks for all the "get well" replys. I have been sitting around for the past 2 days thinking how lucky I am not to have lost an eye.
I'm still in lots of pain and my right eye is closed. My whole face is bright purple and I still have a headache, but my both eyes are still there.
Thanks again, be careful!

L82-JWS

Glad your ok......thanks for the post, it makes you think about the next mod or project....heal quick......just across the stream from ya.....