[Shotimes] Front Strut R&R

[Carl Prochilo]

If you've been following this thread, I finally got my car put back
together.  I can't believe how much better the car rides!!!  Didn't know
what I was missing.  With the right front strut now working correctly, the
car rides as smooth as glass.  The vibrations from the engine/clutch even
have smoothed out.  Are you reading this, DonD?

On the down side, I'm going to have to back off from using my slotted
strut tower setup because I believe that there is some
interference/groaning in there with the struts pulled as far back as they
are.

Also for those that wondered about this, the car now does sit noticeably
higher than before.  It's probably a combination of the higher strut
mount/bearing coupled with replacing the worn out struts.
-- 
Cheers,
Carl Prochilo
92 Ultra Red Crimson

On Sat, November 6, 2004 3:24 pm, Carl Prochilo said:
> This ever happen to you?  Sorry for the long post, but worth reading.
>
> On Thursday I started into the right side.  Tie-rod came off nice as did
> the tension strut nut.  I thought I was on easy street since I knew the
> routine.  I try to pull the knuckle off the strut but it doesn't want to
> budge.  Through various tries, I'm able to move the strut up a little, but
> I notice that the strut moves up and down freely.  Plus I hear metal
> jingling as I'm moving stuff around.  Too early for Christmas.  Even tried
> a big ass crow bar to pry the knuckle down but now I'm thinking this is
> going to be a much more involved ordeal.  So leave this alone, skip Friday
> and resume today.  I decide to back the subframe down.  Paul's idea has a
> lot of merit, plus it satisfies George's requirement to exercise those
> fasteners.  George, I'm going to modify the instructions to mention
> lowering of the subframe on the side that is being worked on as an
> additional step to take for extra clearance.
>
> Now I have all kinds of play, but the strut doesn't want to stay in place.
>  Holding the knuckle down with the pry bar, I use a hammer against the
> strut housing, the opposite tab where the end-link connects to, (Tokicos
> are mighty tough) and am able to back the strut off finally!!!  Here's
> what I found.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5rdhs
>
> The collar nut was not fastened to the housing.  If you look carefully,
> you can see where the threads got banged up from the weight of the car.  I
> had to dremmel out a row of threads in the housing to get the new nut to
> start.  I hope there are still enough threads to hold the insert in place.
>  It seems to be okay from what I can tell putting it back together.
>
> Another interesting thing was that the old strut bearing came apart.  One
> tab that held the bearing in the case was missing.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4g65r
>
> Also, the washer (N806779-S100) that goes between the mount and the boot
> was missing, so I have to replace that.  I guess the guy that installed
> this for me decided the washer was optiona.  The rest of the pictures are
> here.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/6f858
>
> No funny comments about the purple gloves!!!  These are actually very
> durable and don't tear as easily as some of the other gloves I've used.
> --
> Cheers,
> Carl Prochilo
> 92 Ultra Red Crimson
>
> On Fri, November 5, 2004 1:15 am, George Fourchy said:
>> On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 14:11:36 -0500, Ron Porter wrote:
>>
>>>For all of the easy stuff that George has on his CA cars, ask him about
>>>removing suspension pieces from Kris Angermeier's WI car at the Madison
>>>Convention!!
>>
>> LOL!!  It was easy to do....I just kept pushing and pushing with my
>> right
>> leg, on my
>> 20 inch ratchet, and finally the right rear TS just went "pop".  After
>> that the
>> strut came right out.  'Course we had to park the car with chocks and
>> the
>> emer.
>> brake VERY tight, until we could find another tension strut.
>>
>> It might be a good idea to "exercise" all those fasteners up in the
>> "corroded north"
>> every once in a while after you get them loose the first time, so that
>> you
>> CAN do
>> the job in 20 minutes.
>>
>> ;-)!!!!!
>>
>> I'm going to TRY to make a video of when I swap the struts on the black
>> car.....someday, when it comes back from being painted.....don't ask!
>>
>>
>> George
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