[s-cars] Shocks and inserts - it's time to change 'em.

[Mark Pollan]

Not making light of the severity of the consequences or the suffering
currently endured by some as a result but the "Chebby pickemup" reminded me
of a joke...

Q:  What's the last thing a redneck says before he dies?
A:  Hey, watch this!

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of lebakken1 at netzero.net
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 4:56 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Shocks and inserts - it's time to change 'em.

Vincent writes:

"I never had or heard bad experience with compressed springs but I've 
had my share of colleagues parting out with some of their beloved body 
parts using diverse machinery. So I became kind of over zealous when 
it comes to safety."

Springs can be nasty buggers. I was doing a strut change on a Scirocco 
waaaay back when. Not quite sure how it happened, but, while I was 
sitting on the ground holding the spring in the screw drive 
compressor, the spring escaped. Skipped once off the floor on it's way 
across the garage whereupon it blasted a basketball sized hole in the 
sheetrock.

One of my garage door springs blew last year (longitudinal type, not 
coil) and it sounded like a bomb went off. Happened at 10:30 at night 
when all was quiet.

My next door neighbor, (Mechanical Engineering grad) has one eye. Lost 
the other tensioning a garage door spring at a house he was renting in 
college, and put a little too much trust in how well the bracket was 
attached to the wall. DOH! I wonder if his parents ever taught him not 
to point guns at people, including yourself. It's not much different...

Now he works in computers. Probably for the better!

Fred writes:

"Actually, I'm very attached to my fingers...... :)

I've always been leery of compressed springs ever since a good friend 
of mine told me about one of the local lads that he knew who was 
changing the front coils in his Chebby pickemup. Not having a spring 
compressor, he decided to compress the new spring against the garage 
wall with the bucket of his front end loader and chain the spring in 
the compressed state, cutting the chain with his flame wrench once it 
was in place. Apparently something went wrong during the chaining step 
and the spring got away from under the bucket. He caught it ...with 
his face. Seems he was never the same afterward. Still makes me cringe 
after all these years...."

Right before he took a 25 pound bullet to the face, he probably 
thought he was being exceedingly clever. This is one of the best 
McGyver stories I have heard in a awhile.

Craig
94 S4
81 Scirocco in the paint shop



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