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Saving the cost of a replacement strut
Hi Red,
An old trick that I started doing years ago to fix a worn/leaky strut was to 1) jack up the car, 2) remove the tire, 3) drill a small 1/8 (.125) inch hole near the top of the strut, making sure to keep drill chips out of the drill hole.
Pump 10W-30 motor oil right into the strut body until the strut is full. With the strut hole still open, reattach the tire and drop the car back on the ground, then pump hard on the bumper to get excess oil out of the strut.
Jack the car back up, remove the tire and cut a small square of inner tube rubber or similar and place over the open drilled hole, then cover tightly with a worm-gear clamp.
I have performed this trick on one rear wheel drive car and two front wheel drive cars with very good success. And it saves about $300 to $400 on each car done in this manner.
P.S. As for shortening coil springs, the coil springs are heat treated during their manufacture, so heating with a torch will remove the "springiness" (temper) from the coil spring and should not be attempted. A highly tempered spring will cut with a hacksaw blade, but the blade will most likely be shot after one cut since a high quality spring is just about as hard as the hacksaw blade. Grinding is certainly a good option, but try to keep the temperature low during this operation to preserve the metal temper in the area.
Hope this helps.
Jim.
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