Front Strut replacement

[Deusexmachina77]

Does anyone have instructions written on replacing the front struts? Do I need any specialized tools? What is the difficulty rating for a newbie?

[dr914]

nothing to it, do not even have to remove the tires. There is a procedure in the 914 "Tech Tips 700" book

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Do you mean replacing just the shock absorbers, or replacing the whole strut assembly? The former is pretty easy, the latter is more difficult.

For the first, the only specialized tool you need is a wrench to remove the "gland nut" that holds the shock absorber into the strut. I used a pipe wrench, and it worked fine. There may be some that need a pin wrench (a bar of metal with two metal pins that go into holes on top of the nut) but I believe most are removable with a pipe wrench.

I did remove the tires, to give me more room to work in the fender. What I did was:

- Open the front trunk.
- Loosen the lug bolts.
- Put that corner of the car in the air and support it well.
- Remove the large nut that holds the strut rod in the upper mount. That's the big one inside the trunk. You will probably need to hold the rod steady to do this, but different shocks provide you different ways to do that. Some have a hex-shaped hole for an Allen wrench, some have small flats, etc. If you have an impact gun, you probably won't need to hold the rod steady.
- Pull down on the strut rod to collapse it into the strut, so that it comes out of the mount and is short enough to swing the top of the strut outside the fender.
- Pull the cover off the strut.
- Put the strut back into position and the strut rod back into the hole through the mount. This is for support for the next step.
- Use the pipe wrench to remove the gland nut holding the shock into the strut assembly.
- Collapse the strut rod again, and swing the strut out so it points out of the fender again.
- Pull the shock out of the strut. Clean up the strut and threads and such.
- Pour a little bit of motor oil into the strut to help with heat transfer from the body of the shock to the outside air, and to help stop corrosion.
- Insert the new shock. Start the gland nut on by hand.
- Put the new strut rod back into the upper mount.
- Tighten the gland nut with the pipe wrench.
- Collapse the strut rod and swing the top out of the fender.
- Replace the cover.
- Put the strut back into place and through the upper mount.
- Thread on the upper mounting nut and torque to spec.
- Replace the tire.
- Lower the vehicle.
- Torque lug bolts to spec.

--DD

[zoomcat]

I couldn’t get sufficient grip on rusty midwestern parts, so I used this:
https://www.amazon.com/OEMTOOLS-25965-Bearing-Locknut-Socket/dp/B004FDJDE2

It’s not a perfect fit, but it worked fine with an impact wrench.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

That looks like what you'd use to replace the ball joints, not the strut inserts ("shock absorbers").

--DD

[zoomcat]

Dave is of course correct, the tool I referred to is for the ball joint.

The factory manual appears to suggest that you need to remove the whole strut to change the insert; seems a bit of overkill. A gift to flat rate mechanics.