S13 Strut Help Please

[high flya]

I'm in the process of replacing the struts on my 93 240sx. The struts are old and toast (I think they're orig. oem). Alarmingly, the strut mounts were spinning freely before I even put the spring compressors on them. On the first strut, the spring seat seems to start applying some pressure onto the strut mount to stop it from turning when I loosened the top piston nut about halfway, and then it was turnable again when I loosened it some more. When I got the nut off, the spring shot the seat & mount a good four feet (with a bang of course) and scare the crap out of me.

ON the 2nd one, even with the piston nut loosened halfway, the strut mount is still turning freely, and there's a good size gap between it and the seat. So I'm afraid it'll knock a hole through my wall or me.

Can anyone tell me how to get this done without the drama?

[driftingmy240sx]

go rent a strut spring compressor from a parts store!!

[MaximA32]

Go rent a spring compressor before you hurt yourself.

[high flya]

That what I don't get, I was using a spring compressor. I understand that the spring has to be compressed enough to relieve the pressure on the strut mount. So how can I tell if there's still pressure on it if it's turning freely without any spring compression?

And I don't know if it's just me, but are all the loop on the springs supposed to be spaced evenly, when it's mounted on the strut? Because the ones I'm working on have the top and bottom 2 loops pressed close together, while the middle 3 are normal distance apart. I tightened those 3 loops until compressor won't go any further, and the top and bottom loops still didn't get all that spread out. I figure that's what launching my strut mount and seat, so what can I do?
Modified by high flya at 11:30 PM 5/3/2008

[driftingmy240sx]

you need to have the tool grab the upper and lower most section of th spring. are there 2 spring compressors or just on in the kit? there should be 2 and the should be directly acros from eah other when compressing the spring.

[high flya]

Weather's been good so I took it out into the yard, and got it apart. Same result as the last one, but since it was out in the open, no big deal.