1. Place the front of the car on jacks and remove the
wheel.
2. Remove all the lines (brake, ABS sensor and wear sensor) out of
the strut housing.
3. Remove the brake caliper and
support it to the frame with strong wire. You can remove
the rotor also if you are afraid of damaging it. |
|
|
|
4. Remove the ABS sensor (5mm hex).
5. Remove the top nut of the sway bar link.
|
| 6. Remove the 3x19mm bolts attaching the strut assembly
to the steering ( you might want to use a long bar to provide more
torque). |
|
|
|
|
| 7. Remove the strut bearing protective cap. Support
the strut assembly from below and remove the 3x13mm nuts holding the
strut bearing (under the hood). |
|
|
|
8. Slide a flat screwdrive or prybar between the bottom
of the strut assembly and the steering plate. Pry on the tool holding
the strut assembly and the strut will come out.
|
|
|
9. Remove the strut assembly and install the spring
compressor. |
|
|
|
|
10. Remove the 19mm or 22mm nut holding the strut bearing. Easy
with power tools.
Trick for the 22mm nut: use a 1/2" drive 7/8"spark plug socket (craftsman,
22mm & 7/8" are close enough) with hex on top on the nut. Pur a
3/8" drive 6" extention with allen thru the socket. Hold the socket
with a 7/8" box end wrench and use a 3/8" breaker bar to hold the
shock while turning the nut with the socket-whrench.
The nut holding the shock inside the housing is usually hard
to remove. Get someone to help you and one or two pipe wrenches.
One pipe wrench or a pipe (like in the pic) hold the strut housing,
the other pipe wrench removes the housing nut. You can use a hammer
to help you (Gordon prefers the control arm).
11. Change the shock absorber and installation is the reverse of
removal.
If you are using a lower spring,
remove part of the bump stop.
If you are using gas shocks, remove all the oil out of the
housing.
|
Thanks to Gordon, Dmitry and Bill Sours
|
