I think I owe you an apology and I didn't intend to come across like it did. Yes you are entitled to your opinion like all of us. I don't want to argue with you because that's something old men like me try to avoid.

As far as shortcuts or improvements over the FSM I can only add a few that I'm hoping you won't find insane or dangerous. The FSM has you drop the cross member and disconnect the steering knuckle to change motor mounts; it's easier and faster to loosen the X-member, raise the engine some, and do one side at a time to keep the engine from shifting side to side similar to Clarks method. Another is changing a broken door handle from the outside by removing the roll pin on the drop piece. I'm no genius but if someone shows me a better method to do something I'm willing to at least listen and judge for myself.

Again my apologies if I came across other than just trying to give the poster another option used by countless people. I had no call to question your comments or reasoning and should have just let them go.

Peace

No apology required. I think we old men got caught up in arguing opinions instead of offering advice to the person who started this thread in the first place.

I gave up and took mine to a shop. I installed the rear shocks (Bilstein) myself, but the struts proved to be an issue. For one, that top locknut is a *****. Two, who has a spanner wrench? Three, the spring is a crazy issue. And four, I wanted the alignment done at the same time.

If you ever try it again it really helps to use an impact wrench for that top nut while the car is on the ground; it not that tight but this helps to keep the shaft from turning. For that threaded collar a standard pipe wrench works well or just use a long punch and a hammer on the spanner holes to loosen it. What was the 'crazy issue' with the springs? Sorry you had so many problems with it. If Roseville wasn't so far I could have given you a hand, I'm in Elk Grove.

I used an impact wrench also. I used a pipe wrench to open the cartridge. I don't want to bring up old stuff here but, to me, it it much easier to totally remove the strut to work on than leaving it on the car. I took my strut assemblies to my nieghborhood High School auto shop to get the springs removed. They had a very nice spring compressor device that was sturdy and safe.

After cleaning and painting the struts, I went back to reassemble them.

An impact wrench can damage the strut. I think the OEM boge stuff is like bilstein and has a hole for an allen wrench at the top. That plus a 22mm offset box wrench works well. For Koni shocks you need a 10 or 11mm wrench and the 22mm offset box wrench. For the Konis though Id suggest using a flare nut wrench as the nuts on the top of the shaft are easilly rounded. :cool:

I was talking about 'removing' the nut and it doesn't matter since you are changing out the strut. I've used an impact several times for reassembly but only on the lowest setting that turns the locknut until the car is back on the ground. I torque them with a wrench after I've bounced the car several times. I don't think I've ever damaged one yet.

I know you can buy a special tool, I believe for about $20 that is designed to remove the top nut of the strut. Rather than spending the money on the tool, I did some research and found that an impact wrench can essentially do the same thing in most cases. The pipe wrench was suggested by the auto shop teacher. Actually, I used 2 of them One to hold the cartridge, the other to loosen the cap.

It's funny but I did the same thing 2Tight did to tighten the nut. I didn't use security nuts but full nuts and lock washers. I guess great minds think alike........maybe not.