# Cheating the pay toilets



## cathead (May 8, 2020)

OK, OK I admit it, I'm not really cheating the pay toilets, but rather using sort of a reverse euphamism I guess. 
Anyhow, the gas shock that holds up the safety bar in my Bobcat crapped out and I had only installed it
a couple of months ago.  This really aggravates me to no end.  Actually expecting high pressure nitrogen
gas behind a rubber seal is good in theory but in actuality is out of the realm of practicality. 

For that reason I decided that cheating the pay toilets was the best way to go.  I installed four valve springs
on the gas shock.  It wasn't easy to compress the springs but using a vise and a lot of down pressure, I finally screwed on
the end yoke.



	

		
			
		

		
	
. 
It actually works the same as the dreadful gas shock and the cost was zero.  This probably will not work for all
applications but did for my Bobcat skid steer.


----------



## brino (May 8, 2020)

Nice work!
I may need to steal that idea for a vehicle hatchback.
My usual is to use a spring clamp or vise grips but that's all manual.



cathead said:


> I installed four valve springs on the gas shock. It wasn't easy to compress the springs but using a vise and a lot of down pressure, I finally screwed on
> the end yoke.



I have used one really neat trick for spring compression; not sure where I got it, (maybe here) but it works great:
compress the spring in a vise and use common cable ties to hold them compressed:



then install them.
Once installed, only then do you cut the cable tie and let the spring expand.

I was totally surprised, but it worked for me for the heavy spring in a truck door detent mechanism.
It took the job from near impossible to easy!!!

-brino


----------



## RJSakowski (May 9, 2020)

I once needed to compress a helper spring on a shock absorber.  The spring got away from me and hit me square between the eyes.  It is the only time in my life that I have been knocked unconscious.  

Fortunately for me, the thickest bone in the body for us individuals of Polish descent is our skull but I had a knot the size of a hen's egg between my eyes.  Some super glue managed to stop the bleeding.  (Our vet had done the exact same procedure on one of our horses a few years before) 

As luck would have it, my parents made one of their rare visits later that day and I gave them some reason for concern.  That was 25 years ago and every time I look at that scar in the mirror, it reminds me not to do stupid stuff.


----------



## Dhal22 (May 9, 2020)

I've got a pickup truck capper that needs new gas shocks.  Maybe a spring will work.............................


----------



## pdentrem (May 9, 2020)

I use a hockey stick or a broom handle.


----------



## Dhal22 (May 9, 2020)

pdentrem said:


> I use a hockey stick or a broom handle.




What's a hockey stick?


----------



## pdentrem (May 9, 2020)

It is used to chase a frozen black rat all over the ice and some how net it!


----------



## brino (May 9, 2020)

Dhal22 said:


> What's a hockey stick?



It is a wooden poll with a flat blade at one end used by some (especially in Canada) to determine the proper physical distancing spacing between people. 

-brino


----------



## Dhal22 (May 9, 2020)

Ya'll Canucks stole our Thrashers a few years ago and I forgot what a hockey stick was...  Just minor league hockey here in Atlanta now, not near as flashy and fast as the pros.


----------



## Buffalo21 (May 9, 2020)

this type of hockey??


----------



## Dhal22 (May 9, 2020)

An extra lb (kilo?) or 2 here and there but not bad......


----------



## stupoty (May 10, 2020)

Buffalo21 said:


> this type of hockey??
> 
> 
> View attachment 323798



now there is a sport one could get into watching


----------



## pdentrem (May 10, 2020)

Never would see where the puck is though!


----------



## stupoty (May 10, 2020)

pdentrem said:


> Never would see where the puck is though!



yeah it don't matter


----------

