Changing front struts

[cjman15]

OK, still not clear on how to change my front struts. Once the car is up and supported, do I have to remove tha c/c plates to get tha strut out?? Wouldn't that mess up my alignment? The rear shocks are easy and straight forward, but these struts do mess with my mind a little bit. Anyone know a good site for info or something? Something visual

thanks

 

[cjman15]

any help

 

[HISSIN50]

a repair manual will help you. i dont have CC plates so i dont know about that. on stockers, you can remove the middle nut (air helps, since the strut rod wants to turn too). then two bolts below. dont forget the shims.

my two cents worth. good luck.

 

[cjman15]

i got my haynes manual, but i was just unsure

 

[drgn5.0]

you can mark the stock plates, put a mark on the plate, then one on the fender, after you finish everything you can reinstall them and match up with your marks.
you probably will need air tool to get the struts off though, at least in my experience of doing struts (not on stangs though)

 

[stangzroastrice]

a breaker bar worked for me

 

[cjman15]

impact gun ok?

 

[drgn5.0]

should work.

 

[cjman15]

cool, a friend of mine has one... i will have to borrow it... gonna need a big can of wd-40 too...haha

 

[drgn5.0]

yeah, that'll help and as long as you can get a load of torque on the nut it should come off.

 

[cjman15]

how much do i torque it back down to

 

[cjman15]

should i try to loosen tha top bolt when its still on tha ground? prolly get more torque on her

 

[drgn5.0]

not sure, its probably 60-70 ft lbs guessing . your manual should tell u torque spec. definitely take it off on the ground though.

 

[cjman15]

alright man, thanks alot... i'll keep ya updated on my progress!!

 

[drgn5.0]

no prob, hope everything goes smoothly.

 

[HISSIN50]

yeah, you got it. try to at least loosen the top nut with the suspension loaded up (on the ground). i think i had to use some vice grips on the piston arm to keep it from rotating (kind of how you have to with shocks sometimes, so the nut doesnt just spin).

also, as i said, you should only need to remove the one center nut. you could come real close to not even needing an alignment if you dont move the other surrounding nuts (i was confused about the CC plate mentioning - the plate on a stock car is not a real CC plate, as you cant really adjust castor with it). i consider dedicated CC plates as aftermarket only parts.

when you have the struts out, check the top bushing. sometimes they dont look too hot. if you are ever gonna get real CC plates, now would be the time, as they dont use the stock bushings up there (so you could save some money, if you need top bushings).

sorry for the repair manual dig - i could not remember how good the write up is in there, and im always amazed at how many people dont have one (i did not realize it was you, CJ - i know you know what's up).
good luck.

 

[cjman15]

thanks alot with tha help guys... should be doing my install today if it stops raining like a motherUCK!

 

[HISSIN50]

how did it go? it should be pretty easy.

 

[cjman15]

rained too much, didnt get to do it... tmrw is my planned day... one other small question, when supporting the front when i take out tha strut, under what should i put tha jack? tha lower control arm? that looks like it holds tha spring in... i'm not sure

 

[PNY PWR]

That control arm will be under alot of pressure from the spring. Get the front of the car on jack stands then use your jack under the cotrol arm and jacked up before removing strut. Let it down slowly while guiding the top of the strut out of the mount.

If it's a stock spring it should stay in the cradles. Aftermarket or shorter springs may just pop right out. Watch out for the spring popping out just in case, if you let the control arm all the way down.