How do I compress this spring/shock assembly?

Factual Questions
1

I bought our son a go kart, and am in the process of assembling it. It has a full suspension (springs & shocks on front and rear).

Here are a couple pics of what the go kart should look like when I am finished assembling it. You can plainly see the rear spring/shock assemblies in these pics.

At any rate, I can’t install the rear spring/shock assemblies because they’re uncompressed and too long! I need to compress them a couple inches before I install them. I tried compressing them by hand, but they’re way too stiff.

To give you an idea of their size, here are a couple pics I took for one of them.

I went to Auto Zone and Advance Auto Parts this afternoon to see if I could buy or rent a spring compression tool. But the ones they had were for cars & trucks, and they were too big.

Is there a spring compression tool I can buy (or make?) for small spring/shock assemblies such as these? I did some google searching but came up empty-handed.

2

Would a long woodworking clamp work with the space you have?

3

You need to find one of these. Designed for cars, obviously, but will work for any size spring.

4

Get two or three large worm drive clamps (like hose clamps only BIG)
Wrap them through the spring and tighten. It will be easier if you can compress them spring at least partially first.

5

Can you jack it up and this video suggests:

6

That will be way too big. Won’t work.

7

Thanks for the replies. But now I feel like a total moron.

The go kart is up on blocks. Was checking things out, and I noticed there was a steel bar installed in the place of one of the rear spring/shock assemblies. (I assume they did this for shipping.) I removed the steel bar and - not surprisingly - the whole rear end swung down! :smack: I then easily installed each spring/shock assembly. :slight_smile: I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. Feel real dumb about it.

8

:slight_smile: