Our Mondeo Mk2 has bust a spring. A helpful friend reckoned I'd be best 
off swapping the whole strut, which I'm now starting to question.
Anyway, I picked one up from the scrapyard yesterday, then realised it 
was a non-ABS one, whereas the car has ABS. Top halves are the same, but 
lower sections differ. Scrapyard will exchange it, but want 50quid + VAT 
for the ABS strut (this one was 35+VAT), which seems a lot when I only 
really need a spring.
Trouble is, I really need it sorted ASAP.

So, I'm wondering about splitting the non ABS one and replacing just the 
top half. Scrapyard say that 9 times out of 10, the pinch bolt shears, 
ruining the whole thing. If that happens, can I just weld the bugger 
together?
Or would I be best off wasting another day, ordering a new spring and 
buying myself a set of compressors to fit it with?

Any thoughts?

"Willy Eckerslyke"  wrote in message 
news:6d3tgvFn9vuU1@mid.individual.net...
> Our Mondeo Mk2 has bust a spring. A helpful friend reckoned I'd 
> be best off swapping the whole strut, which I'm now starting to 
> question.
> Anyway, I picked one up from the scrapyard yesterday, then 
> realised it was a non-ABS one, whereas the car has ABS. Top 
> halves are the same, but lower sections differ. Scrapyard will 
> exchange it, but want 50quid + VAT for the ABS strut (this one 
> was 35+VAT), which seems a lot when I only really need a 
> spring.
> Trouble is, I really need it sorted ASAP.
>
> So, I'm wondering about splitting the non ABS one and replacing 
> just the top half. Scrapyard say that 9 times out of 10, the 
> pinch bolt shears, ruining the whole thing. If that happens, 
> can I just weld the bugger together?
> Or would I be best off wasting another day, ordering a new 
> spring and buying myself a set of compressors to fit it with?
>
> Any thoughts?

It's not that difficult to change a spring, and a pair of 
suitable compressors is not that expensive.
If I were you, I'd remove and fit the spring from the strut 
you've already bought, rather than buy a new spring.
Mike.

Mike G wrote:
> 
> "Willy Eckerslyke"  wrote in message 
> news:6d3tgvFn9vuU1@mid.individual.net...
>> Our Mondeo Mk2 has bust a spring. A helpful friend reckoned I'd be 
>> best off swapping the whole strut, which I'm now starting to question.
>> Anyway, I picked one up from the scrapyard yesterday, then realised it 
>> was a non-ABS one, whereas the car has ABS. Top halves are the same, 
>> but lower sections differ. Scrapyard will exchange it, but want 50quid 
>> + VAT for the ABS strut (this one was 35+VAT), which seems a lot when 
>> I only really need a spring.
>> Trouble is, I really need it sorted ASAP.
>>
>> So, I'm wondering about splitting the non ABS one and replacing just 
>> the top half. Scrapyard say that 9 times out of 10, the pinch bolt 
>> shears, ruining the whole thing. If that happens, can I just weld the 
>> bugger together?
>> Or would I be best off wasting another day, ordering a new spring and 
>> buying myself a set of compressors to fit it with?

> It's not that difficult to change a spring, and a pair of suitable 
> compressors is not that expensive.
> If I were you, I'd remove and fit the spring from the strut you've 
> already bought, rather than buy a new spring.

Thanks Mike, but I should have mentioned that I can get a refund from 
the scrapyard for the one the sold me incorrectly. It was as much their 
fault anyway.  The advantage in splitting the strut on the car is that 
I'd save a bit of dismantling and messing with the brakes, but the more 
I think about it, the more pointless it now seems...
I may as well just buy a new spring and do it properly.

Dunnit!
I just removed the front strut completely and replaced the coil spring 
with a new one, which went a lot smoother than I'd expected. Job done in 
2 hours. It's worrying how much you have to compress the spring to fit - 
just as well the spring compressors I'd bought were decent ones with 
properly shaped hooks.

A reminder to anyone else removing a strut from a FWD car, don't forget 
to secure the driveshaft to prevent it pulling out. My excuse is that 
I'm more used to working on older cars that are driven by the correct 
wheels!

Willy Eckerslyke wrote:
> Dunnit!
> I just removed the front strut completely and replaced the coil spring
> with a new one, which went a lot smoother than I'd expected. Job done
> in 2 hours. It's worrying how much you have to compress the spring to
> fit - just as well the spring compressors I'd bought were decent ones
> with properly shaped hooks.
>
> A reminder to anyone else removing a strut from a FWD car, don't
> forget to secure the driveshaft to prevent it pulling out. My excuse
> is that I'm more used to working on older cars that are driven by the
> correct wheels!

I often use a couple of pairs of mole grips to stop the drive shaft falling 
out of the gearbox

Mrcheerful wrote:

>> A reminder to anyone else removing a strut from a FWD car, don't
>> forget to secure the driveshaft to prevent it pulling out. My excuse
>> is that I'm more used to working on older cars that are driven by the
>> correct wheels!
> 
> I often use a couple of pairs of mole grips to stop the drive shaft falling 
> out of the gearbox 

Now he tells me!