Rear Struts/shocks /94 Euro w transverse spring - How to / Help

[sad-lumina-owner]

Once the lower bolts were knocked out, it was fairly easy to get the old strut out of the car.

The next part of the task was to take off the upper bracket, held by a large nut on top of the strut.

I used a torx bit and a ratchet along with a wrench to loosen the top nut. IN the process, the torx bit was severely deformed (see photo below)!



I'm not very impressed with this result. It may be possible to use the lower part of the strut as something to brace against, but I did not do this.

After this, I discovered I could salvage the plastic bounce-limiter and shaft protector. They wanted over $50 for these two pieces of plastic at the store, but it was obvious that the old pieces had plenty of mileage left, given that they had lasted 14 years so far.

I tried a variety of solvents to clean off the grease and dirt, but settled with dish detergent and a small wire brush inside and out. This was very effective in cleaning off all the old dirt and grit:



Inside

[sad-lumina-owner]

Don't forget the following step:

You should fully extend and compress the strut/shock quite a few times in the vertical position (in which it will be mounted) right side up, to prime the oil in it (after shipping and storage), and you should hear the 'air' inside work out and the shock gets less noisey.

[sad-lumina-owner]

The top bracket was also quite rusted, but I chose to clean it off with a wirebrush, and re-use it. The thing has lasted 14 years, and I don't know if I'll see another 5 or 10 out of this car before it has to be scrapped.

It is actually a rather thick piece of steel after all, and I doubt there is any immediate danger in sticking it back in.



Just to be sure of slowing down the deterioration process, I treated it with "Rust Converter", which hardens the rust and creates a primer-like undercoat that is paintable.



Nobody had the upper bracket and nuts in stock, so I wasn't going to wait around.


Similarly, I gave the underside of the wheel-well top a scrub-down with the wire-brush on my drill, and sprayed it with rust-remover.



Notice that I have covered the brake pads and rotor with a plastic garbage bag while I strip off the rust flakes and old paint from inside the wheel well.

[sad-lumina-owner]

here's how I screwed the top nut back on, using the torsion bar.



This I think was a mistake. The hex-key stripped out the hole in the top of the shaft.

I doubt I got the required 75 ft-lbs of tightness here.

I think there must be another way to get the torque. Perhaps the shaft only turns a limited amount in one direction or the other. In that case, I should have put the lower half of the strut in a vise.

[sad-lumina-owner]

Getting the the strut back in was a bit tricky.

I had envisioned putting in the bottom bolt, and hinging the thing back and forth to get the original camber/alignment.



When I got it in there, it was obvious that the emergency brake bracket was in the way of the strut at the angle required to clear the fender.

Rather than remove the bracket, I figured out that I had to compress the strut shock absorber to get the top of the strut vertical. Then I was able to align the lower holes and insert a bolt.

[sad-lumina-owner]

Once I got the strut vertical and one bolt halfway in, I was able to insert the upper bolt also.

The following photo is worth looking at:



You can see the lower bolt is in, but the upper holes are not aligned. The wheel knuckle is hanging down where it was left when I removed the old strut.

I took the wood beside the floorjack here (a 1x4) and put it sideways/vertical under the knuckle behind the disc-brake shield (see arrow). I used the floor jack to push the knuckle up and hinge it into position so that the holes aligned. Then I inserted the second upper bolt.

This bent the shield slightly, and I had to rebend it to give adequate clearance for the rotor.

[sad-lumina-owner]

next, I used a smaller bolt and the sledge to ram the bolts almost all the way in.

I believe this also was a mistake. The bolts did not go in without a lot of pounding, and I could not get them flush in any case.

You can see the damage to the bolt-heads in the following photo:



I continued after this by just tightening the nuts. This actually pulled the bolts into their proper position, and I think now that I could have done this when the bolts were only halfway in, and saved pounding the bolts and possibly distorting them. who knows if they can be removed again now.

[sad-lumina-owner]

here I am again using the c-clamp to align the stabilizer bar so that the rubber and clip can be put on before installing the nuts.




Finally, the lower nuts were cranked completely on using the torque ratchet set to 135 foot-lbs.

Just for reference, the upper bolts are suppost to be 34 ft-lbs (46 Nm)
the top nut is supposed to be 74 ft-lbs (100 Nm) - according to Monroe
and the bottom nuts are 133 ft-lbs (180 Nm)



I did not use this torque ratchet to actually remove the nuts. I purchased a similar sized Johnson bar ($40) and the visible impact LONG 24 mm socket for this job. I had previously bought the torque ratchet for $60 on sale (usually $100+).

[sad-lumina-owner]

I hooked up the top of the strut last. It was approximately aligned, but camber was the least of my worries while doing this job. [

I found I could push the strut in with one hand and get the front bolt in and threaded. Then I used that bolt as a hinge/lever to push the back hole close enough to align the back bolt.

I found some good news in putting back the bolts. They appear to be not stripped after all. I think I just failed to tighten down the back bolt sufficiently to clamp the plate down, and had fooled myself into thinking it was stripped.

These bolts are fine thread (metric, the middle size that nobody carries) and take forever to tighten up.

\

I may pull this off again if I can get upper brackets from the wreckers that are in good shape. I'm hoping that will be a cheaper solution. At the same time, I could then replace the knuckle/bearing assembly too.

I doubt the camber is that bad, but I will try to get it aligned before doing too much highway driving.