E82 DIY Suspension

[jshbrwr]

Hey folks, I did a lot of research and then had to figure something out in the moment and wanted to share what worked in case y’all have to deal with the same issue I did.

Short version, bought a set of MSport springs (along with Bilstein B4 struts/shocks) to upgrade my non-sport 128i old tired autox’d suspension at 150k. Problem is one of the front springs was not installed on the strut. So, I took my life into my hands with the spring compressor from Oreilly. Sweating and stressed out, I torqued that thing down and found that it still was too tall to fit the top plate/mount assembly with the strut top nut. The strut rod was only out like 4 inches and I needed to get it extended somehow.

Found a YouTube video that had two guys working the same problem, and they used a hose clamp with duct tape to hold it in an extended position after pulling it out with brute force, worlds strongest man style. Problem is I was solo at the time and I’m not what you’d call “strong”. So I had to think of something else, see attached.

Basically using the bottle jack allowed me to extend it as far as needed (about 9”) to clear the threads of the strut piston past both pieces I had to attach to the top.

Hope this helps someone else in the same predicament. Now on to the easy part of replacing my entire front suspension, incl control arms and tie rod ends. Which honestly now seems not too difficult lol