I attempted a spring swap over the weekend...
Thanks for the excellent write-up! I'm a wrench n00b, and wouldn't have attempted it without this thread.
The rears were no problem for me, but when I got the the fronts, I couldn't compress the springs enough to get them off. I'm using a borrowed (from the auto parts store) MacPherson Strut Spring Compressor, and I can only get it to grab on the middle 2 coils of the spring, and it runs out of "squeeze" before the pressure's off the top hat. Should I just get another set like this and grab a 3rd coil once the first pair of spring compressors have made that possible, or is there a type of compressor that would work better, or am I doing something wrong? Here's what I was using:
http://www.etoolcart.com/ProductImages/strut%20compressors/ATD-3054.jpg