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I’ve got an ‘01 ws6 that I’m doing the strano/koni swap on and I bought one of these clamshell style spring compressors to use. It says in the manual to only to use with mcpherson style struts. Am I out of luck or can I still use this for my swap? Really not thrilled about the idea of using those ‘suicide sticks’ after hearing so many horror stories about them.
Yeah, that is actually a really good one to use. It looks exactly like my Harbor Freight compressor (except mine is red, so you'd better return yours ). I used 4 of those crappy "suicide sticks" which worked fine on the stock springs, but I broke three of them compressing Strano's front springs, as the threads just strip. Nothing dangerous happened, but they got stuck and I had to keep using new ones to get them off until I busted out the heavy duty clam shell one.
There are a few things you should know/do before you use it though. I had to grind down the little "hooks" to get them to fit between the spring coils. Just make them pointier, as they have no shape being made from bent strips of steel. You can use an angle grinder to do this. Also, put metal grease on the central screw so that you don't tear out the threads. I wound up throwing the collar (bottom left of your photo) back in the box and never use it anymore, it just gets in the way. As always, exercise caution. Make sure all 4 hooks are firmly in place before you continue tightening, and don't loosen the spring perches until you are sure that the spring is compressed enough to be loose.
I was able to get my spring compressor on and off of my stock and strano springs, but it required some finagling to get them between the right coils exactly right. I didnt think to grind the tips.
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Clamshell Spring Compressor? 
). I used 4 of those crappy "suicide sticks" which worked fine on the stock springs, but I broke three of them compressing Strano's front springs, as the threads just strip. Nothing dangerous happened, but they got stuck and I had to keep using new ones to get them off until I busted out the heavy duty clam shell one.
