Front struts

I have a 97 GP GT and i am putting some of the monroe quick struts, the all in one strut package. i have the three bolts on the top in but the botton hangs about a half inch too far down to get the bolts in. I have loosened the sway bar and that did not seem to help get me any closer. Any ideas?

i did read the how to do it section but it did not really cover this issue?????

I ran into this before. You said you loosened the sway bar. You need to remove the bolt and bushings completely and push down the a-arm alot. Once you get the bolts on the bottom of the strut you may need to put a seperate jack under the a-arm to move it up so you can put the bolt back into the sway arm. You may also consider that you have the wrong strut if this doesn't work.

Got the drivers side in with some gentle persuasion and a little swearing. On to the passenger side now. Thanks for the advice, hopefully this side will be a little smoother.

i had the exact same problem. mine were quite a bit more then a half inch off though. it just took lots of fighting and swearing. once you get the first hole even remotely aligned be sure to stick a screwdriver or something in there. i also used the monroe quick struts.

The passenger side went much smoother. I think the issue was the lower mounting bracket on the strut was very tight but a couple taps with my trusty hammer on the knuckle and it lined right up. Since this was my first time with struts i was unsure of the procedure, live and learn. My gp has 192000 miles on it and was way overdue for struts. This forum is a tremendous help in keeping the old girl running.