I decided that I'll replace my Tokico shocks by borrowing TWO spring compressor kits (one from AutoZone, the other from O'Reilly).

I'll put at least three of those threaded rods with hooks on the truck spring, the additional rod, for safety.

It is interesting to note that over in this thread, we found that the Toyota factory shop manual specifies a special service tool which uses a bench vise to compress the spring:


Which, a user posted a picture of in use:

I did used that tool in the past but that was before we began to dismantle struts like ours. Since then we use the one bolted to the wall. The first time we used the tool that Toyota suggest on a runner strut, we broke 2 different tools on the same strut and we had to bring it to another shop to do the swap for us.

I bought some cheap harbor freight ones....they just bowed, the spring didnt even compress. I took them to midias paid the guy $20 to assemble them and i was one my way.

When I did this I bought a hydraulic one from Northern Tools on my credit card, used it, returned it the same day and got every penny back. I've actually done the same thing for a number of expensive one-time-use tools.

::I'm a horrible person::

Your price, at Midas, far surpasses what I found out here in the Silicon Valley of California.

I had asked Goodyear how much they'd charge for putting these shocks in and they quoted $100 per wheel, or $200 in total.

To close the loop, I finally bought the Bilstein shocks and rented (for a $50 deposit, good for 90 days) the free spring compressor tool from Autozone.

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Find an independent shop, they will usually charge much less.

This is one job I would never tackle myself. Too much liability.

Thanks for the warning.

I was, at first, apprehensive; but, it turned out, since I am a newbie, most the effort in changing my struts was in figuring out the critical step of immobilizing the suspension BEFORE re-installing the shocks.

In hindsight, the actual spring-compression activity turned out to be one of the simplest and easiest and drama-free steps in the strut replacement procedure!



To complete the picture, my first strut took hours (simply because I had trouble understanding the FSM-unexplained step of "stabilizing" the suspension). The actual spring compression step was not what took any time.

After thinking about the problem for a while, my second strut was done in 30 minutes; and the third strut (pictured above) only took about 20 minutes from chocking the wheels to the final test drive!

The spring compressed without drama; the bolt slid in like it was greased!

Knowing what I know now, I could easily & safely do the whole job again, both wheels, in less than 40 minutes, from start to cleanup (assuming additional suspension, brake, and steering diagnostics are not performed as part of the procedure).

To be specific, for others to benefit, I used the strong (and free!) Autozone spring compressor (90-day free loaner!) to compress the coil spring; and, I used a Sears bottle jack to immobilize the suspension BEFORE removing the struts in the first place!

• OEM brand, MacPherson Strut Spring Compressor #27036
  • OEM Customer Service: 866-458-2472 (Mineola, NY)
• Sears Craftsman hydraulic 4-ton bottle jack (P/N 950281, 8 inches to 15-3/8 inches)

Gory details, as always, for those interested, are in these three related threads:

1. How I replaced my front struts in my 3rd-generation Toyota 4Runner
   
2. How I went about choosing the replacement struts for my 4Runner
   
3. How I went about choosing the spring compressor for the job

Personal note: I hope these links help other newbies! But please realize ... for some strange reason, while most are appreciative, a vocal minority here apparently get emotional and unhelpfully clutter those threads with decidedly non-technical content ... (you'll understand when you read the threads).

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