very expensive coilover problem!!
 

My HKS coilovers are all working great but one of them has a seized perch!

Now I have tried WD-40, liquid wrench etc and even hitting the perch's special wrench with a hammer but it wont break free. I even got a plumbers wrench that bit into the aluminum but it wont move.

Does anyone know what I can do? will hks take it and send it back to me?

I am thinking of covering the coilover in dry ice untill it is super cold then pouring boiling water on it to see if that breaks the bond.


Any ideas or info would be great

hit the perch with a torch for a while then let it cool, hit it again and let it cool. the expansion and contraction of the metals should help break it loose.

Hope that helps,
TR

someone else had mentioned that to me, but my concerns are damaging the seals and the internals of the shock.

Thats why I thought the dry ice/ boiling water method would be a little safer. I am just not sure that the coilover seals are meant to see the 1400 + degrees of a acetalyne torch.

I should acheive the same expansion/contraction of the metals as with the heating, unless I am overlooking something.

Just medium heat & PB Blaster.
A dead blow mallet is a great wrench helper.

heat and shocks are a bad combo shocks are already under preasure to much heat and then you have yourself a nice pipe bomb

yeah I don't need a $500 shock blowing up in my face.
I think meduim heat would work but if the dry ice method still doesnt break it free I will try to contact hksusa.

Someone said that PB blaster does nothing for aluminum on aluminum sticking problems. Don't know if there is any truth to that.

is it the front left?

pb blaster works wonders

now it is the back right shock.

I soaked it in PB Blaster for 2 days and even with the locking perch being loose and the spring being compressed it wouldnt move an inch. I just dont see how it could be so stuck. I have tried compressed air etc etc. It has to move, the threads arent stripped at all, its just dirt im guessing, It hasn't moved since I bought the shocks. Which where 5k miles old from a fellow rx7club guy.

Funny thing is the car sits level even with all 3 other coilovers dropped down to the lowest setting. The springs are so stiff that the ride height never changed from the middle to the bottom setting on the coilover body, which was about 2-3".

im just soo fed up, I am wondering how the car will handle if this isnt corrected even though it sits level.

Daym, that sucks

Were you driving your car on salted roads, sandy roads?
My friends coilover perch froze, he soaked in pb blaster overnight.
and a few dead blows with a rubber hammer and it broke free.
You could always send your dampers to HKS USA, and rebuild it for you.

I havent even put one mile on the car...The coilover was frozen when I bought it gently used. They are in immaculate shape like that where only adjusted once. So I really dont know why the PC blaster wont work...especially since I had a F'n spring compressor on it to take the weight off the perch. Well I will try some stuff this weekend and hopefully it works.

Any signs the PO put some loctite on them?
If so you're going to need some medium heat to loosten it.

Jsut heat up the torch to where its dosnt cut. Not blue in other words and just go around the whole part with it held about 3in from the tip of the torch. that way you are not giving it to much heat. If your wearing a welders glove while doing this make it hot enuough to where you can barly (and i mena barely) feel any heat through the glove. let it cool for about 5min and repeat. Then hit it with a deadblow. And it should free up.

alright that sounds good to me. I will give it a try.

Does anyone else agree that even though the ride height is level that the handling will be effected by this one coilover being higher on the perch.
That is if I decided to drive this thing with the coilover like it is.

Hey that was just my advice. If you get hurt or something blows up in your face its your fault and you aint gonna blame me. Ive done it a ton of times but you never know.

haha, dont worry man I give you my word I wont bring it back on you.

So you have had seized coilovers before and this worked?
I take responsibility for my own actions.......if you said jumping off a bridge would help unstick my coilover, I wouldnt blame you when my dumb ass died.

I have enough common sense to heat it moderately.

Would throwing cold water on it help with the breaking free of the bond? The rapid contraction might be benifitial!

cold water will make it crack

I have unsiezed coil overs (alot shittier than HKS) bolts nuts, leaf spring brakets, its a proven technique...but it seems like everytime i tell someone how to do something they fuck it up and blame it on me. That was my reason for caution.