My 12am emergency strut spring repair on a Civic

[Colt45ws]

Last night I was called by a friend who knows I do car work becuase he was driving the '98 Civic he just bought over the railroad tracks and something popped and the RF tire buried into the fender.
I got to it, jacked it up and found it had this cheezy lowering kit on the stock strut. It had a blue powdercoated spring, with a threaded pipe that slips over the strut with a collar that you use to adjust the final height of the car.

It had lost its bolt and split, letting the spring fall loose. It doesn't help that the genius that installed them put the collar upside down so the spring couldn't hold it. The other side has a broken screw on the collar and the only thing holding it is the spring via that tab that is supposed to align the spring.

Just for reference, this is the other side. Ive already unscrewed it to allow removal of the strut at this point.

So what was my fix to get him the 20 miles to my place?

Piece of aluminium bent into a shape that would fit around the strut and bolted together.

Some sort of rackmount stereo equipment plate. This picture was taken after I got the car to my garage and apart. It didn't hurt it at all. For sure stronger than the other side. At least, I would trust it more that that spring holding that collar.

Its getting a set of junkyard struts and springs for now to get him back to Seattle.

 

[Kool1]

MacGyver would be proud of you!!

 

[Superflop]

Lol excellent.. where did you hide the dental floss , turkey baster and duct tape? Good mcguyver.

 

[Revving2Redline]

Wow your willingness to adapt and overcome is outstanding.Now go and teach Detroit and the big 3 how it is done. Nice job,mega kudos.

 

[Doog]

Ok so tell me you tightened that nut with an electric impact wrench and he was on his way in 10 minutes...

 

[eljefino]

You got him out of treble.

 

[bvance554]

Nice! Did you just happen to have that on you at the time, or did he have an amp in the car?

 

[daves87rs]

Nice!

 

[abycat]

The first pic sickens me but great 20 mile fix!

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

You got him out of treble.

I had to ROFL at the pun.

Originally Posted By: bvance554
Nice! Did you just happen to have that on you at the time, or did he have an amp in the car?

His girlfriend's dad had that and some tools. He was leaving her place when it happened. A really limited number of tools. I wish I had known but I had no idea what had broke so I couldn't just bring two tool boxes with me on a whim. My first attempt was a small piece of aluminum flat bar, but his drill was dead. So couldnt drill hole. Then he pulls that out and at first I thought it was cast, but it turned out to be flat bar and had the ductility to bend without cracking. I used a 1.5" galvanized pipe cap as the die and a 4x4 from my trunk along with a mallet he had to pound it around. Actually needed closer to 2.25" diameter, but I fuged it. To get the flat part on the end to flare out a little to join together, I used the wrench that goes with my factory jack under it and pounded it a few times.

At first I wanted to put the donut spare on and see if that would rub like the stock size rubbed, but it didn't come with that or a jack. I had to use my factory jack to lift it.

 

[Colt45ws]

Hey! It looks like a proper Civic again. Though, this isnt a 10 ft car obviously. Its barely a 100Ft car, but a lot better than it was.