[Shotimes] Solid Strut Mounts and metal Strut Bearing?......

[George Fourchy]

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 17:20:29 -0700 (PDT), Shylo McKinsey wrote:

>Does this creak sound anything like popping and
>snapping and groaning? I get that noise from my Front
>driver's side.

Hey Shy!!

It sounds like you have the OTHER common front suspension problem that can be hard
to find.  Your strut bearing is rubbing against the inside of the strut tower, at
least that's what it is if this sound occurs when you are turning the steering
wheel.

The fix is to get the shim that Ford has put out for lowering the entire
strut/bearing/mount assembly about an 8th of an inch down away from the top of the
tower.  The tower gets wider as you go down, and the turning parts of the
strut/bearing will clear the sides.  If you haven't cut your welds, you can save the
10 or 15 bucks it costs per side to do this with the shim and just add fender
washers from the hardware store to the three studs (below the tower) that hold the
whole thing to the top of the tower.  You can also add them without having to remove
the strut, which you have to do to get the spacer in, since it won't go through the
hole in the top of the tower (I "think"....it's been a LONG time since I did this to
my cars, and I remember someone else saying it might fit through the top....but it's
pretty big and I haven't tried it.)  You have to maneuver the strut around with the
corner jacked up, and it can be a bit cumbersome, but it is definitely easier than
having to take the whole thing apart.

Anyway, just lower the whole shebang in the tower by an 8th of an inch or so with
one spacer or the other, and the groaning while turning will go away.

Kegel and I got into an interesting discussion about whether using washers would
work (actually whether it was safe) if the welds had been cut.  I had to give him
the edge in that particular debate since his logic was particularly good that day!!

;-)

George