this is/was a patriot gold spring...
you people wouldnt believe me without pics so.. there they are. it happened because it somehow came out of that spring compressor im using. blah...
Ps- the ti retainer went off i some other direction and i cant find it thank god it didnt hit me...410lbs of pressure on somtehing that light flying through the air wouldve done some damage.

 

did you completely bind the spring???? most people elect to not use that compressor on our cars

 

i had no chose, the bar one wouldnt work and the crane compressor will only match up with one hole. i dont think i binded the springit just came off the compressor and there ya go

 

Whats wrong with it? The inner spring looks like it came out a bit, but all you have to do it push it back in. They are connetcted together. I personally wouldnt use one of those types compressor. I made my own out of 1/4 steel to prevent that happeing.

 

Exactly. Its only a slight interference fit between the inner and outer coil. Sorry to hear the tool slipped off. Try one of the cheap larry type tools for under 30 bucks.

 

Sorry to hear about this man, but I've been hit in the face with a retainer that popped off. Feels like getting punched in the face

 

PM sent. If there is no damage to the spring, slide it back in and re-install. If you are now missing a retainer let us know. Let Z and Guits said, that is not the best compressor to be using.

 

I used a similar compressor on my Crane Cams dual springs. I had to use one hand to hold the arms down and the other to turn the bolt. They popped loose a couple times, but I got the job done.

The next time I opted to learn from that experience, though, and used a tool that bolts to the valve cover bolt holes.

 

well... i did use the crane tool on my dads ss but the l92s holes are further apart. hey gunnar, i think a note should be added to the gold spring kits: "we do not recommend use of xxxxx spring tool"

 

lol Send us your address and we will get another retainer on the way. You still have all the locks?

 

That type spring tool works fine with a single spring but deff. not the tool of choice for duel springs.

 

yeah, definatly wrong tool, that's why i opted to pull the heads off completly when i did a cam swap on my friends formula last weekend, made putting the dual golds on a lot easier, and i used one of those huge c-clamp/vice grip pliar combination things (technical term right there ) to compress the spring and do it right....

 

Maybe one should learn the diffrence between a single and double spring compressor. j/k

 

Biggest problem with that compressor, other than it isn't very good, is it will scratch the springs. Many of the high performance springs have surface treatments such as nitriding and the surface must not be damaged with any type of scratch. If you scratch them you could have problems later with a shorter spring life.

 

a cut flat piece of steel, some threaded bar and a nut is all you need for a spring compressor

 

use a better tool, problem solved.

 

like everyone said just push it back in there and reinstall. I just took the tabs and welded a slight extention on it and it worked great, changed eight springs in less then 45 minutes. before that i took almost 2 hours to change the other 8 springs.

 

I know what you mean when you say the crane tool wouldn't fit the retainer. I just ground a little off the edges of the Crane tool so the retainer fit. Worked perfect.

 

yeah, until you break off a bolt in the rocker hole. It's happened to me twice with 2 different tools.

 

Werd! Did the same exact thing and have used it on about 10 swaps already without the 1st problem.


How did you manage this? Were you tightening a bolt to compress the spring? I could see why it broke if so. I use a grade 8 bolt about 4in long, round the top part so my ratchet wrench would silde over it, thread the bolt in the hole, then use the wrench on a nut thats threaded aobut half way up the bolt. I dont actually tighten the bolt itself, just the nut. Worked fine for me numerous times.