Changing struts

[lilred]

I got kyb struts for christmas and i am goin to put them on and was wondering if anyone has some advice

edited: my car is a 91 L with a five speed, 2door, 1.3l

[mattswabb]

Is your car rusty? The rear mounts on the beam can be a pain. The sleeve inside the eyelet on the bottom of the rear struts will fuse to the bolt.

[lilred]

it is kinda rusty. I was also talking to the original owner and the struts are original and the car has over 210,000

[monkeyracing]

You may end up having to grind off the bolts to get the struts out. Be careful you don't cut into the mounting brackets.

[muscle_Car1]

Get PB blaster & soak the bolt for days. It comes out so much easier after that. You really dont want to bust that captive nuit loose. :angry5: That really sucks, truast me.

[lilred]

Does anybody know were to get those bolts that hold the bottum of the strut on. I went to take them off and someone had beat me to rounding them off. Any good way to get them off now

[dahodges]

It might be easier to take the strut and steering assy. off together. then get the rounded bolts off. There is one bolt at the bottom side of the steering assy. which holds the assy to the ball joint.

[DuritzCrows17]

I used an impact gun and it came right off no problems.

[lilred]

i am doing the rear struts...probly should have mentioned that

[25Horseplay]

I had to cut the bottom of the strut and rubber off and use a die grinder to cut the sleeve off the bolt. I did it this way to avaoid snapping off the bolt because it wasn't going to come out. By cutting this stuff off I was able to heat the nut end up and remove the bolt without breaking it or breaking the nut loose on the inside.

[lilred]

i tried a impact and the bolt rounded off

[Festy46]

Do 25Horseplay's method except if you have an acetylene torch you can heat the bolt sleeve red hot and the bolt should turn inside the sleeve. If all you have is a little propane torch, you will probably have to remove the sleeve because the torch won't get it hot enough. Try an "American" six point socket (not a metric) that is too small to fit the rounded head, but one you can drive on with a hammer. With the nut heated, you should be able to get it out. If you can't do that and you have access to a welder, take a nut that is big enough to fit over the rounded bolt head. Put the nut over the bolt head and weld it fast. Then use a wrench on the bigger nut that you welded onto the bolt head.

[lilred]

thanx i will try that