In a message dated 12/11/98 7:38:12 AM Eastern Standard Time,
BDOSS24046@AOL.COM writes:

<< One friend tells me he has used bailing
 twine to wrap up spring when in preloaded position, then cut twine upon re-
 installation, but this will not work for me as I'm sending springs out to be
 retempered. >>

This is the type of friend that you stay away from when he is working on his
vehicle!
Dem springs is POWERFUL peoples!

An incident that I observed that removed all doubt from my mind involved a
friend who was compressing a coil spring to reinstall on a Mcpherson strut.
He was using a proper spring compressor (orders of magnitude stronger than
your friend's bailing twine) when one of the two 3/4" nuts stripped it's
internal threads.
This sudden failure caused the opposing clip to break and launched the nut
straight up through a composite, asphalt/gravel roof - nice round hole clear
through.
Luckily, he, me, nor any of our body parts were between that nut and the sky!

Just something to consider before tying that big ole spring up.

IMHO, a much better alternative would be to use the method outlined in Bently
that involves removing the steering knuckle and then placing a jack under the
lower control arm.
By raising the jack slightly - enough to relieve the tension on the shock
absorber - the lower shock bolt can be extracted and then the control arm
gently lowered, thereby releaving the spring pressure.
Once the spring is completely expanded it can be handled safely.

To reinstall simply reverse the procedure.

Sam Bateman
Fork Union, VA
'87 Vanagon GL