How to replace your struts

[Crusty_04]

Sounds as if you were lucky not to get injured there mate.

--Aaron--

[nyne]

yeah.. potentially ..you could have died

use a spring compressor if you know what you're doing,
otherwise take your car to a shop

[Tugger5000]

I have this thread printed out and I will be doing mine today...

Alright... That was a mutherfvcking b!tch. Started at 930, didn't finish until 630, and now I need to replace all of the lower bolts, as well as buy a brand new spring assembly for the left strut.
All of the nuts are chewed up on the outside, partially stripped a bolt, stripped a nut and rounded the nut on top of the left strut. I couldn't change out the left strut.
I'll have to buy the lower hardware tomorrow and eventually get the top spring plus assembly.
Impact wrench is a must. I was able to get the nuts off but it took me 6 hours to get the bolts out.
Next time I'm just paying the frigging money.

[Edited by Tugger5000 on Jun 12, 2004 6:37 PM]

Ordered new hardware for the bottom half of both struts... It'll come to around 20$.
Instead of buying the new assembly, I am ordering a new nut for the top of the strut. I will be compressing the spring so I can cut the top of the old shaft off with the nut and remove the spring assembly to put on the new shock (with a new nut of course).

[Edited by Tugger5000 on Jun 14, 2004 10:27 AM]

[fordfasterr]

you can buy an electric impact wrench that plugs into the cig lighter socket at walmart for $20..

I bought mine there and i've done all sorts of wonderful things in the comfort of my parking lot ... all for FREE without stripping or braking a nut/screw in over 6 months !

truly... incredible... specially coming from a guy who breaks lug nuts with the greatest of ease... lol :dead:

[Ravinaziankid]

The pics arent working anymore...I was thinking of changing my struts again because I think my KYB struts are already blown...how is everyone elses KYB-GR2 struts holding up??I only had mine for 9-10 months, but living in NYC probably cuts the life of these struts by a half...

[Tugger5000]

I just finished replacing the other strut in the rear. What a b!tch...

We couldn't get the top nut off, even with an extractor... couldn't get enough grip on the shaft to keep it from turning.
So we decided to get the spring assembly off to cut the nut.
We cut the bottom of the strut off, no luck. There is a nut on the bottom end of shaft, but there is also a c-ring at the top of the actual piston chamber.
So we cut the spring seat off and slid the spring off from the bottom.
We then spent another hour cutting and chiseling the nut off.

What's left of the top nut:


The "Cuts"


[Edited by Tugger5000 on Oct 29, 2004 10:44 AM]

[Lantra Luch]

wut do u guys think about cutting coils?

[Lexx]

It's a nice way to qualify for a Darwin award.

[Lantra Luch]

have any of u done it, what are negative effects?

[skierd]

Updated, fixed the pics. Again. :bandit: