struts

[marcus18]

I'm looking to change them today. anyone have instructions?


marcus

[Chris A]

The back ones are pretty easy. Take out the two main bolts in the spindle, and undo the upper bolts. It will fall out. I do it with the car jacked up by the center and use another jack to raise the spindle since sometimes it won't want to go up easily.

The fronts are a different story. You have to use the special tool to loosen the cartridge from the strut body. If you don't have that tool, I've never done it without it. Someone was talking about it  somewhere, you might do a search here and at wbody.com.

If you have the special tool, you have to take the upper strut plate off, take out the nut, the rubber insulator the bump stop and maybe some washers. Then use the tool to get in there and loosen the strut cartridge. Try to suck out as much of the old strut oil as possible. When you put the new one in the oil may spill over the side of the strut if you don't get it all out. Sometimes the strut body will shift around under the weight of the car so you might have to push on the side or front of the car to get it lined up and tighten the nut. DON'T Jack the front of the car up or the whole mess will come apart and be a pain to get lined back up.

Chris

[90TGP]

$700 for 4 sens-a-tracks!? You're getting ripped off. My local Monroe place quoted me $500 for four Monroe Re-Flex [better then the sensa-tracks, just as good as KYB GR2s] struts, alignment, install, and labor. But I'm getting KYB's shortly.

[1trucavalier]

If  you don't have the $24-29 strut removal tool you can use the big mouth vise-grips (what i did) and just hit it with a hammer and it comes loose.  To remove the fronts you must loosen the top plate jacked up, then loosen the top shock piston nut, then  lower the car so the weight of the car pushing the shock bushing upward, then totally remove the nut and after you finish removing the shock body cap screw the shock slides right out.  easy as pie  :lol: !

[TGPilot]

Didn't we go through the front strut removal once before? :shock:  Easiest way is to get a W-Body Front Strut removal tool. This tool is specific to W-Body cars...you do not compress the strut spring on W-Body cars like the rest of the MacPherson Strut world!! Work through the top of the car from start to finish without having to jack anything. My Checker Auto-Parts and Auto-Zone both have this tool on their tool loaner program. Makes life extremely easy and you can do both Struts in an hour with the tool... 8)


It costs $99.00 to purchase it or free to borrow it from them at their store. Worth it's weight in gold!! http://www.partsamerica.com/SelectParts.asp?SourceArea=SHOP&CategoryCode=3492+&SourcePage=SelectCategory&TopLevelCategoryCode=T&TopLevelCatDesc=&SearchFor=Chassis+Tools

Then go here... POWERBUILT TOOLS 648609  $99.99 GM W-body Strut Removal Kit: #19  (It wouldn't let me copy the entire lnk).

[1trucavalier]

I am sorry but I don't agree with the not jacking up thing :?:   If  you try to remove the top black plate without jacking the car there will be madddd tension on the underside of the plate unless your shocks were completely blown (but of course you don't know that until you take them out).  The purpose of the plate is to keep the shock piston/black rubber retainer from flying straight up through your hood when the car bounces.  It clearly says in the repair manual to jack up the car so the shock tension is pulled downward taking the pressure off the bottom of the plate.  Then your slowing let  it down to push the the black rubber retainer upwards to dislodge it cuz that sucker is tight.   Well i guess this is one of those to each his own type things!  There are always more than one way to skin a cat!!! :lol:

[TGPilot]

1trucavalier... You have obviously never done a W-body front strut the proper way!! Marcus18...Do it however you want, but I highly recommend you do it with the W-Body Tool. There is a reason that this is a special tool! Because it works and was designed for the W-Body car...hense it's name. I have done the struts in my car twice and two other W-bodys with the tool and there is NO preload on the strut. In fact...I just replaced the control arm to frame bushings and the ball joint on the control arm and the strut comes out as a unit completely intact. If you take the weight of the car off the strut then you will have a ton of preload on the center nut!! There is no tension on that center nut on a W-body like there is on a conventional MacPherson strut when the weight of the car is on it. Remove the weight and you have full spring tension on that center nut. When you do the front struts you use the tools supplied to turn the center nut and the allen wrench to hold the shock cartridge from turning. Once that is removed you PRY the center black shock tower bushing out! Once that is removed you thread on the extension rod to the top of the shock cartridge for leverage to insert the removal sleave. When that is in place you use the next tool in the kit to unscrew the cartridge retaining nut and the stock cartridge comes out. There is hydralic fluid in there that you may want to remove or leave it in there and the new sealed cartridge will displace most of the fluid on the floor. If you do any of this with the car jacked off the floor you will cause the shock to drop down below the shock tower opening and you will play hell getting back in line so you can remove the cartridge retainer collar. If you want to do this the hard way...jack it up and go in through the wheel well. Do it the easy way with the W-Body tool and you will be done in 2 hours on your first try... 8)

[marcus18]

I installed them monday. they were the rear struts. piece of cake.
thanks for the input people.


marcus

[TGPilot]

The fronts are even easier with the proper tools!! Good job man and you saved yourself a bunch of money doing it yourself?? That is the idea of these forums!!

Good Job man!!

8)

[Dotcutnup]

Not that I do not support ingenuity, but please guys, be careful with using tools not designed for changing struts!  I would hate to see someone get seriously hurt or injured.  BTW, why risk damaging your rare and pretty TGP with inferior tools and equipment.  I wouldnt dare to use a hammer and pliers on installing my radio, lol.

[maximage]

The fronts are even easier with the proper tools!! Good job man and you saved yourself a bunch of money doing it yourself?? That is the idea of these forums!!

Good Job man!!

8)

And of these cars.. hehehe ... If you dont learn to work on these cars, they will COST A LOT!!