Review on 🔧 OEMTOOLS 27035 Black Coil Spring Compressor, Strut Spring Compressor Tool, ATV Spring Compressor, Coil Tools by Jason Sergeantson

What started with buying a new battery and tires for my 2000 Mustang became almost entirely ball joint dusters, which then became tie rods, which then became end rods, which then also became the control arm bushings and stabilizer bushings. At this point I realized I needed to remove the coil springs, hopefully without killing myself. If you're anything like me, you spend entire days in the uncertain environment of auto repairs, risking your life on your family's cars to save a few hundred dollars on exorbitant mechanic prices. After looking at several coil spring options, I wanted one. It looked safe and ultimately is what I thought was best. When I received it I was satisfied with its appearance. I have used another OEM Tools product in the past and it has worked great. Well I replaced one side where I took out the coil spring and I had to add new coil spring isolators (or whatever the top and bottom rubber is called). I was very careful and treated the movement of the compressed coil spring with this tool almost as carefully as my first born. To decompress it I put the tire and rim on the spring as a safety measure since I used a ratchet to decompress. I figured if there was any problem he would shoot and just kick my butt (<- edited for review my grandma says butt). Well, everything went well and I was happy. It took me over a day and a whole day to get to the other side, there I had a problem. So I went through the whole process and pulled the coil spring out from the other side. At this point I felt more confident and treated the compressed spring like a second child. I unwrapped it fairly haphazardly, with blind courage, and stepped on it with my foot, holding it in place with a protruding fork while unbuckling it with a ratchet. As the instrument lost tension and finally let go, one of the hook levers fell to the ground. I looked at him and wondered what the hell just happened. I saw that the metal pin it spins on fell out as well, along with a small spring that looked like it was just there to keep the tension on the hooks so you hold them in place when inserting be able. The pin itself was smooth on one end and slotted on the other. From this point of view, I could only assume that the pins were made of a softer metal, which had probably loosened due to the enormous tension of the spiral spring, and when the tension was gone, it simply fell out. I'd love to photograph it bit by bit, but if you're like me you have trouble figuring it out and telling your wife you're not hungry yet, mainly because you know that when you sit down to eat, you will Not. There was not enough light to finish the work. So I used a hammer and put the pin back in (but the little spring had to be so tight I couldn't figure out how to put it back in, so I just put it back in the box). I did my damn duty and replaced all the parts and yes call me an idiot but I used this tool one last time anyway to compress the coil spring enough to snap it back into place. If I had died doing it, at least the family would have known that I was doing this to save about $400 in mechanic's wages. I became very careful again, trying not to direct the quill so that it would shoot my way. It worked the way it worked. Generally if it were the old days (first of all there wouldn't be this problem because tools are made to last), but if it were I'd probably find a nut and bolt to insert instead of pins because what mine I think is safer than just pushing the pins into place. But it's 2019 and I'm spoiled by a world where sometimes things don't feel good enough to work, but everyone has the usual understanding that if something goes wrong fast enough, you can just bring it back. So I did the right thing and requested a return of this item and I know that if I have to do the same thing on my other car I'll need a different coil spring compressor, but it won't be this or that design. I don't know what happened in my case but wanted to write about it in case there might be an issue with where the hooks might break when pulled. It would be uncomfortable. Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you choose to embark on this path of great learning and swear to save some money as many of our fathers did, may the force be with you.