When I did the front shocks on my van I supported the van on jack stands
under the front jack points and use a floor jack under the lower arm to take
the pressure off the spring.  Once I had dropped the old shock out I slipped
the new one in and adjusted the jack to line up the bolt holes.  Fairly
painless process.  To ease removal soak the bolts in PB Blaster or other
favorite penetrating oil every day for a week or so before you try to change
the shocks.

Chuck
'85 Wolfsburg Westy - 'Roland the Road Buffalo'

on 2/25/04 11:00 PM, Automatic digest processor at
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM wrote:

>
> Date:    Wed, 25 Feb 2004 21:19:22 -0600
> From:    "Warren.K.Lail-1" <wlail@OU.EDU>
> Subject: spring compressor
>
> Jason Willenbrock wrote: Re: front shock replacement
>
> <<mark,
> the job is pretty straight foward if you are handy with tools.  however, you
> will need a spring compressor to compress the springs for shock removal and
> especially to reinstal the new shocks.  i did the job without compressor and
> learned my lesson.  taking the shocks out was no problem, the pressure from
> the springs just released the shocks right out once the bolts were loosened.
> the problem came when it was time to reinstal new shocks.  i had to have
> the help of five of my buddies to stand on the door jams to compress the
> springs enough to reinsert the mounting bolt.  was not fun! if i had a
> spring compressor the job would have took maybe two hours, instead it took
> a week so i could round up enough people to help out.  i was to cheap to
> "spring" for a compressor. go ahead and buy one or borrow one, you be happy
> you did!
> good luck!
> jason
> 87 syncro westy project>>
>
> Warren Lail writes:
>
> I've experienced the problem Jason is talking about.  However, the next set of
> shocks I changed a buddy of mine suggested that I use a block and lower the
> weight of the bus down onto the spring to compress it.  It was a little
> awkward, but it worked.  It's a poor man's spring compressor.
>
> Warren Lail
> 88 Westy "Billy Bones" (still in dry dock)
> 87 GL