Struts: what am I doing wrong Topic is solved

[amblerman]

Hi Folks.

I have a 1999 s70 base and I'm trying to replace my struts.
I am trying to re-assemble my struts and they keep coming out strange.

Here's the top of my strut. See how twisted the strut seat is? That isn't right is it?
The parts in question are:
bilstein TC struts
INA strut mount.

top3.png (1.15 MiB) Viewed 1883 times

I have verified that the ends of the springs are sitting in both the spring seat and the strut itself.
The way I'm putting these together is this:
1) compress spring so that it fits loosely on new strut

2) put on bump stop/bellows/metal cap onto strut.

3) put sprint over strut.

4) Put on spring seat and the cross nut (cross facing up). I tighten the cross nut up best I can.

5) I then loosen spring compressors just enough so that I can rotate things around so the spring ends are in the seats.

6) undo the spring compressors in such a way that I loosen all sides gradually.

7) stare at my strut and wonder why it isn't straight and how I could screw up something that should be simple.

Please note that I am 99.99% sure I have the spring the right orientation.

Here's a shot of the whole strut.

[cn90]

I posted the DIY a while back:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28455

[oragex]

Could it be the spring is upside down?
Here,s a few tricks to make sure the spring doesn't have torsional tension once the spring compressors are removed

Not sure I'd leave it compressed with only the cross nut.

[amblerman]

Thanks guys,

Just like I thought, a second set (or more) of eyes on this would point out what I was doing wrong.

Oragex, while you were replying, I realized the very issue you just pointed out. I was watching an FCP Euro video on the topic and realized I wasn't assembling them correctly. For some reason I thought it was reasonable to remove the spring tension BEFORE putting on the strut bearing and the top cap/washer. That seems completely wrong to me now and I don't really understand why I did that.
(tired and in a rush I suppose)

I'm sure having those on there will lessen the twisting of the strut mount..

I'll report back once I put everything back together the right way.

-A

[cn90]

I thought the spring is symmetrical (may be wrong).

When I did any strut work, I use white paint and paint the bottom end, where it meets the strut perch.
This way it goes back to the original configuration.

But again, I thought the spring is symmetrical, i.e., it does not matter which end goes up or down. Any spring guru here?

[amblerman]

cn90.

I did read your thread and that's a good one.
In fact, that thread really helped me with my sway bar end links. Your thread mentioned the 16mm cone wrench and I dug those out of my long dormant bike repair toolbox. Worked like a charm.

-A

[amblerman]

Hi folks .

My strut issue is completely solved. My strut issues pictured above was 100% due to the fact that I did not put on my strut bearing,mount cap and top nut before relieving spring tension. Once I did that everything looks as it should .

I think I now know why I ended up in the situation above. I was very focused on getting the spring ends into their seats properly. So once I had the spring seat installed, I wanted to relieve some spring tension so that I could get the spring properly seated. Good plan but where I went wrong was that I removed ALL the spring tension before trying to but on the bearing/end cap. That just didn't work at all. I should have loosened the springs just enough so that they made contact with the spring seat.

My goal in relieving some of the spring tension was so the spring would hold the strut and spring seat together so I didn't have to try to hold everything together myself plus work the spring compressors (since I don't have a 3rd arm).

Thanks again for the quick replies.

[oragex]

Good find. I think there was someone else with the same result, good to know what the issue was. As you mention, we usually compress the spring enough to have both ends properly seated just loose inside the spring and strut seats, then tighten the cross nut, place the cap (rubber edge downwards) and final tighten the top nut. Then finally release the spring tension/compressors.

[erikv11]

Good job amblerman and oragex, kudos (and thanks) for figuring this out and posting it up.

As a side note, I don't think the coil springs are symmetrical. Definitely the rears are not, they have a top and bottom.