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The brake caliper and ABS sensor need to be disconnected, the ball joint, the hardest task, and the tie rod taper. Press down* the antisway bar and control arms to get the ball joint taper pin free of the hub, and pull out the bottom of the stut off of the spline of the drive shaft, while ensuring that the spline shaft does not come out of the trany! You need to have the top end 3 nuts loose to pull out the bottom of the srut. Now, support the strut by reaching down and grasping the coil spring while removing the remaining top nuts. Don't loose the one washer.
The spine nut is very tight and you need to remove that with the wheel mounted and tire on the ground.
After getting the stut out, you need to compress the spring, then remove the top shaft nut. With the OEM shock you should find a hex on the shaft to help undo the large nut. You can safely loosen that nut while the vehilce is resting on the tire, as the weight of the vehilce is holding the spring down and there is really no load on the nut at this time, but keep the nut fully thread engaged!
The energy in the compressed spring is dangerous. Use the compressor carefully.
After the spring is compressed, remove the top nut then the mount and bearing, put the new one in place and make sure that the spring seats in the top rubber spring seat the way that it did before, and be sure that the lower end of the spring seats in the indent at the botton. As you back off the spring compresssor the torque applied to the compressors and spring will easily misposition the lower end of the spring. So be careful with that and check things before you commit to backing off the spring compressor completely.
The job should take around 4 hours. The lower ball joint taper pin is the most critical item.
This is not a very difficult job, but is a major piece of work. So take your time. You cannot replace the top mount without removal of the complete strut. I did investigate that extensively and it is impossible or totally impractable.
* the anti sway bar can be very difficult to press down as you are fighting with it. If you only jack up one corner of the vehicle, then you will really be fighting with it. One is meant to remove the sway bar swivel bolt from the conrol arm which is probably going to be the easiest method for most folks.
posted by 208.24.17...
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