Front Shocks and Springs R&R - what's involved?

[Jean]

Whatever you do..use only a rubber hammer on the tie rod and CA bolt...ask me how I know.

You don't use the hammer on the bolt/thread itself, you hit the side of the strut where the tie rod and control arm bolts on to

[allwheeldrive]

A rubber mallet would take forever to try to separate the tie rod from the knuckle. There isn't enough shock with a rubber or plastic hammer. Gotta be metal, and you just have to have good aim. If not, buy a separator of some kind to do it.

[TwistyTunedE30]

A rubber mallet would take forever to try to separate the tie rod from the knuckle. There isn't enough shock with a rubber or plastic hammer. Gotta be metal, and you just have to have good aim. If not, buy a separator of some kind to do it.

Great idea if you want to tear the shit out of the boots...

[emi325i]

impact gun helps a lot. you may have to use a torch to get rusted nuts off.. the collar nut on the strut housing may be rusted to hell, and a bitch to remove.. torch it without blowing up the shock.. (use at your own risk)

[emi325i]

To separate the control arm and steering arm I used an impact hammer from the top. it will vibrate the heck out it and will push it down... works quite well. It comes out in seconds without damaging anything.

[backtrail69]

Pipe wrench for the collar nut. Put the strut assembly in a vise and ream on it. Works great. Or a spanner wrench if you are all "fancy".

[emi325i]

Pipe wrench for the collar nut. Put the strut assembly in a vise and ream on it. Works great. Or a spanner wrench if you are all "fancy".

That's the way to do it.. I had trouble even with that.. lol.. I PB-blasted it, let it sit for 30 minutes and it still wouldn't budge... so I got pissed off and torched it - it came lose relatively easy after that. My friend's audi 90 put up a fight too.. the collar nut was so rusted I could barely grab onto it with the pipe wrench.

Ah.. that takes me back.. such memories!

[CntrlcoastE30's]

A hammer is not needed anywhere during this job. I understand that some do not have the professional tools that others do, so there is some trade off as to the methods. By substituting certain tools the chance of damaging something goes up. If someone has to use one then a BIG brass hammer would be the one recommended.

I also understand that in certain areas of the country it is much more difficult to get most parts seperated from one another. I am all for making my own tools (which is done quite often). Using tools that are not needed or are not designed for a certain job only invites problems to the table.

Also drinking while working on cars (whether someone is being serious or not, even the mention of it) is purely idiotic. Once the job is done then ya go for it and pat yourself on the back with a job completed and a few drinks of whatever. Mixing the two is only asking for someone to pay the price for something missed or forgotten. A large number of people on this forum are not even old enough to drink legally.

Either a person does a job in a professional manner or not. It should not matter what the job is or what tools are involved. Remember that there is always plenty of time to do a job over or twice, yet never enough time to do it right the first time.

Take your time. Clean everything up and off. Paint or touch up if needed. Think about the fact that when someone looks at your work if they would say that a hack put the thing together.

[kway]

Pipe wrench for the collar nut. Put the strut assembly in a vise and ream on it. Works great. Or a spanner wrench if you are all "fancy".

I'll just add that it's helpful to break the collar nut loose while the strut is still on the car if you can. Sometimes the angles don't work out, and you can't get in there, or get enough leverage, etc. When it works out though, makes it much easier later in the job.