ok, i have the rear shock/springs assembly removed from the car, and i have the springs compressed, but how do i get the spring off the strut??

this is a picture of what i have so far, and i need to top bolt to come off...

 

just take the bolt off the strut mount on the top.

 

have you actually done this yourself or are you guessing? thats what i thought was going to happen, but when i turn the nut the entire shaft spins inside the shock.

 

http://www.cybrrpartspro.com/Chilton...61CH08_14.HTML

Save into your favorites and refer to it everyday!

 

i did mine myself. it was a while ago though, but I'm pretty sure you have to hold the strut while you're taking the nut off.

 

awesome, just awesome. thanks man.

so i was supposed to loosen that top nut before i compressed the springs? damn, i shoulda thought of that.

 

Actually, you should just LOOSEN it while it's on the car. But I use air tools so

 

I actually tried that with it on the car and the whole assembly (bar coming up from the strut, and nut) still turned together. I put channel locks in the piece of metal attached to the strut that comes through the nut, then put a wrench on the nut itself and turned. In no time it came off. I didn't see the nut that KYB sent (the OEM one has plastic on the inside which makes it a pain to get on and off) and put the OEM one back on. For this I used needle nose plyers to grab the piece of metal that comes through the middle of the nut until the nut was far enough along that I could grab that thin piece of metal with the channel locks.

Be sure that your upper spring seat is correctly positioned (I think on the top it says OUT for the side that is suppose to be facing out) and that your springs fit where they should (the lower groove) of the strut.

 

yea, i tried it with the spring compressed and it just spun. i ended up using vice grips, aka channel locks on the shaft to keep it from spinning. i cant put thme back on the car now because i dont have the rubber boot that keeps the dirt out.

 

ok, everything is back on the car and ready to go. i used all new parts and even had to pay $33 each at the dealer for two new dust boots. wow, my *** was sore after leaving that stealership. anyway, i cant tighten the center nut because the entire shaft spins freely. what should i do? will air tools work?

 

i would suggest you don't turn that shaft anymore. the piston is actually threaded in the shock, and if you keep turning it with the whole shaft turning, you'll blow all the oil out of the shock...trust me i know from experience. we used air tools as well, but it was too late, we put the new spring on and voila, fluid was all over the shop floor. vise grips and a box end wrench worked the best. We also had to take a torch to the nut for the sole fact that they're a bi+ch to get off.

hope this helps,

J

 

what are you talking about? your telling me not to tighten the bolt? if the shaft is threaded then why does it never get tight?

if i'm turning the bolt clockwise, i dont see how that would make the shaft come out, even if it is threaded.

 

btw, i'm trying to get the new shocks back on. vice grips are no longer an option.

 

to get the nut tight, i did the following. while off of the car I just gave the nut a few turns by hand, then installed the spring/strut onto the car. to tighten it i used a box end wrench to turn the nut (14mm?) and used a 1/4" open end wrench to hold the flat edges of the threaded shaft. it's tedious but you can get enough torque to get the nut pretty tight w/o spinning the strut.

 

ok i'll try something like that, but i tried holding the top to get the nut off and it broke the top piece right off. hopefully it wont be so hard to tighten as it was to get off. there really should be an easier way to do this...

 

Had the same problem. There is a special socket you can get that fits perfectly on the nut on top. Then you can use a wrench to loosen or tighten. I don't know what the socket is called, but it matches the shape of the top nut. I hope that makes sense.

 

Same thing happened to me. I couldn't get the nut off on one side. On the other it worked fine. Grab the flat metal piece with pliers and torque the nut with a wrench. On the other side the flat metal piece broke off. So I ended up stripping the threads. Then had to torch off the nut for the sake of saving the bearings. My only solution was to buy a new sensatrac strut for $95. By the way kingpin4 you just wasted $33. The boots go so quickly they don't matter. Thats why struts have so many seals. They operate fine for a long time without the boot. Ever stop to notice that the rod on the old strut was perfectly clean and chip free without boots.

 

To get the nut off Grab the piece connected to the piston with channel locks (to prevent the whole thing from turning) and use a wrench to get the nut off.

To get the nut on use needle nose plyers to grab the piece that connects to the piston (to keep the whole assmebly from turning) and use a wrench to get the started. After you have threaded it enough grab that piece with channel locks and continue until tight.