WARNING 807 COIL SPRINGS BITE HARD.

[wotwot]

Hi all a timely WARNING in this extremly cold weather.
I hav'nt been on here for a long time about my 807, touch wood it has been reliable so no complaints really.
Cold weather seems to bring about coil spring failure, well my O/S spring broke (recent break as the metal was still very clean and very little rust) right at the bottom about first 5 inches but didnt drop off the shock absorber plate. and stayed in place fortunately, ordered new a one, arrived on a thursday in time to do on the saturday morning.
On the friday went out to do some shopping in a couple of shops. Second car park pulled up went into the shop came out. went to drive away and it would hardly move grind clonk STOP.
Jumped out expecting to find something stuck under the car but no the N/S coil decided to break this time about 3 coils went. So now i have both sides to do now, not a bad thing as like a few things on the steering suspension side of things best replaced in pairs.
The coil jumped off the plate and is stuck tight against the alloy wheel and tyre not going anywhere.
Now those that know will appreciate these aint ball point pen springs they are used on 3.5t vans as well as the 807 and yes the tyres have to be van rated as well.
Came back a few hours later to get the beast home, couldnt get the spring all the way back on so cut off an amount of spring and got it sitting back on the plate resting against its stop.
Drove home no problem its only a mile and a half away.
Ordered the second spring before I went out to recover the car at 12 mid day friday arrived saturday at 1400 .
Now this job is not a tricky job 5 nuts/bolts but make sure you have spring compressors (3 is best ???).
Apart from struggling to get the spring compressed enough (only had a pair of spring compressors) to get the top plate on and underneath the car all went well.
Now the second spring which is the N/S that had broken at the shops.

DO NOT TRY TO GET THE STRUT AND SPRING OUT FROM UNDERNEATH THE CAR WITHOUT CLAMPING THOSE SPRINGS.
As I twisted the strut over to the side to extract it from underneath the car the spring decided to pop off the plate where it sits, my little finger is in the way to stop it, F*&K INELL oops. TRAPPED BETWEEN THE PLATE OF THE STRUT AND THE SPRING LIKE A PAIR OF SCISSORS.
Luckily the better half has just come out with her pushbike to go to work as this happened. After what seemed about a half hour but was about 30 seconds my wife grabbed a prybar from the boot of the car and I was able to get it alongside my little pinkie and pry the spring up enough to get my squished finger out.
I consider myself very lucky yes lucky that I still have ten fingers albiet my little pinkie is now numb on the underside.
PLEASE PLEASE BE CAREFUL COIL SPRINGS BITE VERY VERY HARD.
I'm sharing this so you all can learn from my words not my pain.

[Hell Razor5543]

Thank you for the warning!

[mickthemaverick]

Indeed, thanks for the thoughtfulness, I hope it makes a full recovery!

[wheeler]

Thats why you always replace springs in pairs, if one has gone usually the other side is not far behind it.

[GiveMeABreak]

Similar happened on the C3 - used the car no problem one day, then next day got in to reverse it and crunch - one had snapped. Had them both replaced along with the shocks too.

[wotwot]

Indeed, thanks for the thoughtfulness, I hope it makes a full recovery!

unfortunatly it wont almost severed the nerve, may be able to have surgery to repair but apparently not urgent during the covid thing.

[myglaren]

I've done that twice. Didn't go to the docs for the first one (dropped a Cortina gearbox on it) and it auto-repaired but took a couple of years.
Second one was an argument with a circular saw that made a bit of a mess. Repaired in hospital but took a couple of years before that was right too. Lost the one beside it.

[ekjdm14]

Ouch, I'll bear this in mind next time I'm faffing with struts. I've always been lucky I guess, never compressed the spring before pulling the strut. Mind you, when they've popped over the seat like that I usually cut them on-car to get any tension off before touching the first bolt. Reasoning being that if they've broken in one spot it could pop elsewhere while trying to compress, sacrificing a 1mm slitting disc per side is a small price to keep my fleshy bits away from the loaded gun!

Not saying that's the correct or safest way to do it, but it's served me well where the spring is scrap anyway. Gawd alone knows what the 807 springs must be like though, diesel 306 ones are stout enough!