New shock/strut assembly question

[shane10]

It will be a bit longer than stock for you because your "stock" is old the spring and shock are permanently compressed.

If the shock absorber bolt hole is way off, see if dropping the entire strut out and rotating one bolt hole will help. Does that make sense?

I don't understand what you mean sorry, bolt hole at the top? bottom?

You can use a large screwdriver to turn the shockabsorber a bit and get the bolt to line up with the hole. You may need to use your extender pipe to push down the LCA enough to get the bottom of the shock absorber to seat.

Where should I push on the LCA? All my body weight will only budge it down maybe an inch

In this video he lifts the LCA to fit the shock absorber hole, just a different strut I assume?

THANKS!
LMHmedchem

 

[shane10]

I think the best thing to do is to seat the bottom of the strut in the LCA and slide the shock absorber bolt in place. You may need to use your extender pipe to push down the LCA some. It is spring loaded and should move down with some pressure. After you get the bolt in place, move the top into position. If the bolts don't quite line up, you can use a large screwdriver to try and turn the top of the strut a bit to get it lined up. Slide the screwdriver between the top bolts and the center of the housing and you should be able to get it to turn a bit. Use the biggest screw driver you have.

The only way it would be possible to get the shock absorber bolt in first, and then be able to move the top into mounting position would be to remove the UCA, is that what you're suggesting? As you know I'm doing UCA's anyway so it wouldn't be a problem.
If I get the shock absorber bolt in first I don't think it would be possible to move the top into position

This is the 1A video for the front struts,

LMHmedchem

 

[LMHmedchem]

If you seat the bottom of the strut in the LCA, and then push down on the LCA with your bar, you should be able to move the LCA down enough to clear the UCA and tilt the strut into place. If you watch the video I posted the link to at 3:14, you will see the mechanic seating the bottom of the strut into the LCA and then tilting it into position. You can see the the top of the strut should clear under the UCA. If it doesn't, you should be able to push down the spring loaded LCA enough to get it to fit.

If it absolutely won't fit, you could remove the UCA, but I would carefully check the size of your part first.

LMHmedchem

 

[apenland01]

Read this

Front Strut Coilovers Replaced


If you are doing the UCA's too, just knock them out at the same time, it wont take you much longer at all.

 

[LMHmedchem]

Pertaining to the post by apenland01, did you remove the sway bar link? I know you said that one of them was missing.

If you just can't get it in place, I would just go ahead and remove the UCA since you are doing that anyway. I don't see any reason to fight with it more than you need to.

Also, double check the part number to make sure you are putting the front strut on the front and don't have a rear strut or something like that. That kind of thing seems to happen now and then no matter what you do to avoid it.

LMHmedchem

 

[apenland01]

Also, drop the bottom of the strut through the LCA first, bring the strut up to nearly mate with the top, stick the bottom bolt, but don't tighten. Now you can relax a bit. If the 3 bolts on the top of the strut don't line up just right just right, it's a lot easier to turn the big fat part of the strut with your hands, than screwing with the little nubby part of the strut on the bottom.

 

[shane10]

Read this

Front Strut Coilovers Replaced

and do this

If you are doing the UCA's too, just knock them out at the same time, it wont take you much longer at all.

Thank you! I'll try that out. So just drop the knuckle, (remove UCA while i'm there) put in strut and good to go?

 

[shane10]

Pertaining to the post by apenland01, did you remove the sway bar link? I know you said that one of them was missing.

If you just can't get it in place, I would just go ahead and remove the UCA since you are doing that anyway. I don't see any reason to fight with it more than you need to.

Also, double check the part number to make sure you are putting the front strut on the front and don't have a rear strut or something like that. That kind of thing seems to happen now and then no matter what you do to avoid it.

LMHmedchem

The part # is right, I have both struts out but the drivers side sway bar is missing, which is what i'm working on now. Thanks for the help ill let you know my progress

 

[shane10]

Also, drop the bottom of the strut through the LCA first, bring the strut up to nearly mate with the top, stick the bottom bolt, but don't tighten. Now you can relax a bit. If the 3 bolts on the top of the strut don't line up just right just right, it's a lot easier to turn the big fat part of the strut with your hands, than screwing with the little nubby part of the strut on the bottom.

I love you!! success! got the strut in and UCA replaced all in one swing.
Love all you guys here this is my new favorite website.
THANKS!

 

[shane10]

ONE MORE QUESTION! Haha.. I have the new struts and UCA's installed. The UCA's seem to be under a huge amount of force, being pulled downward, it almost looks as if it's sagging. I assume this is because the extra length of the new struts? It looks really odd, when I put the jack under one tire, the UCA lifts again and it all looks normal.
Anything to be concerned about? thanks

 

[shane10]

Got the left front strut in and re assembled.
I still can't figure out how to rotate the bottom of the strut so it's facing the right direction. I know I have to rotate it 180 degrees, but the way it's positioned won't even allow me to put the top 3 bolts thru so I can get some leverage and turn it.

 

[Number4]

Got the left front strut in and re assembled.
I still can't figure out how to rotate the bottom of the strut so it's facing the right direction. I know I have to rotate it 180 degrees, but the way it's positioned won't even allow me to put the top 3 bolts thru so I can get some leverage and turn it.

You shouldn't have to rotate it. Contact the seller for a warranty. It was made for the Explorer, which means its supposed to just "drop" right in. I don't know what damage if any would be caused by rotating it.

 

[apenland01]

ONE MORE QUESTION! Haha.. I have the new struts and UCA's installed. The UCA's seem to be under a huge amount of force, being pulled downward, it almost looks as if it's sagging. I assume this is because the extra length of the new struts? It looks really odd, when I put the jack under one tire, the UCA lifts again and it all looks normal.
Anything to be concerned about? thanks

Shouldn't be anything to worry about, it's just that you have new bushings on both sides. Did you loosen the bushing nuts prior to putting in the UCA's? If I remember right, you loosen the nuts, install it, connect the ball joint/knuckle, then tighten those bolts on the bushings down.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that is what I did when I put my UCA's in. Also, you don't tighten anything down until you load the suspension again.

 

[LMHmedchem]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that is what I did when I put my UCA's in. Also, you don't tighten anything down until you load the suspension again.

I actually needed to load my suspension by jacking up the on the LCA to get the top bolts all the way through the holes. By doing this, you are compressing the spring some, so you need to put load on to squeeze everything together and then tighten up the top nuts and the sway bar link. I replaced my sway bar links at the same time because one was missing.

If the strut won't line up at all, it is either in backwards or something like that. It would help to post some pictures at this point.

You often have to turn one end of the strut a little to get it lined up but you shouldn't have to do any more than that. Take out the strut and hold it in front of you so that one of the top bolts lines up with the back hole. Look at the bottom and see how well the shock absorber bolt hole lines up with the LCA. You can rotate the strut with each bolt as the back bolt. See which orientation has the best alignment with the bolt through the LCA. If none of them is very close, then you should contact the seller.

LMHmedchem

 

[apenland01]

Yeah LMH, I remember having to jack up the LCA to get them through. You're right in that the KYB shouldn't have to be rotated very much at all. I think I maybe had to turn the worst one a few degrees to get the bolts and holes to line up. I just remember leaving everything loose and going back and torqueing stuff after I lowered it to the ground to fully load the suspension.

 

[shane10]

Shouldn't be anything to worry about, it's just that you have new bushings on both sides. Did you loosen the bushing nuts prior to putting in the UCA's? If I remember right, you loosen the nuts, install it, connect the ball joint/knuckle, then tighten those bolts on the bushings down.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that is what I did when I put my UCA's in. Also, you don't tighten anything down until you load the suspension again.

The bushing nuts were fully torqued when shipped and I couldnt get them loosened before installation. I was able to get them loosened up a bit once it was on the car, and did jack it up and torque again, but nothing seemed to have changed

 

[LMHmedchem]

The bushing nuts were fully torqued when shipped and I couldnt get them loosened before installation. I was able to get them loosened up a bit once it was on the car, and did jack it up and torque again, but nothing seemed to have changed

Do you mean the one nut on the top of the shock? There should be a sheet in the box that gives the torque settings. In my case, I didn't have to touch that nut at all. If you had to loosen this for some reason, just get it back to the torque specified on the sheet.

So where are you at with this? Do you have both sides installed now?

What apenland01 was suggesting is that you tighten everything things reasonably and then put the tire back on and put the truck back on the ground. Then use your torque wrench to tighten to the final torque settings. You can access the top nuts through the hood, but those can just be tightened as hand tight as you can reasonable get with your wrench. The rear top nuts are difficult to tighten after the tire is on. I think the swaybar links are tightened to 24lb, but most just compress the bushings to about the same diameter as the washers on either side.

You can also use your jack under the LCA and jack the assembly up until the top of the strut is flush and you start actually lifting the truck. Then you can tighten everything up. Make sure you don't accidentally lift your truck off of the jack stands if you do that. I like that method because you have better access with the tire off, though it wouldn't hurt to recheck your torque settings after the tire is on and the truck back on the ground.

LMHmedchem

 

[shane10]

Do you mean the one nut on the top of the shock? There should be a sheet in the box that gives the torque settings. In my case, I didn't have to touch that nut at all. If you had to loosen this for some reason, just get it back to the torque specified on the sheet.

So where are you at with this? Do you have both sides installed now?

What apenland01 was suggesting is that you tighten everything things reasonably and then put the tire back on and put the truck back on the ground. Then use your torque wrench to tighten to the final torque settings. You can access the top nuts through the hood, but those can just be tightened as hand tight as you can reasonable get with your wrench. The rear top nuts are difficult to tighten after the tire is on. I think the swaybar links are tightened to 24lb, but most just compress the bushings to about the same diameter as the washers on either side.
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You can also use your jack under the LCA and jack the assembly up until the top of the strut is flush and you start actually lifting the truck. Then you can tighten everything up. Make sure you don't accidentally lift your truck off of the jack stands if you do that. I like that method because you have better access with the tire off, though it wouldn't hurt to recheck your torque settings after the tire is on and the truck back on the ground.

LMHmedchem

No I was talking about the UCA bushings, there's two bolts on each side that allow the unit to "rotate' up and down slightly, from the videos I've seen, you keep these loose, install the UCA, put weight on the tire, and then torque them. They were too tight to loosen off the car, so I installed, loosened, put weight on and retorqued, which seemed to have no effect on anything. I haven't done anything with the top strut bolt, no death wish for me.
I understand torquing everything with full vehicle weight on.
I gave up last night with only the driver side installed. I'm in the process of emailing KYB o figure out the problem, they wanted pictures of everything and said it may have been assembled wrong at factory :thumbdwn:
I would be happy to post some pictures if I figure out how. But I'll try and describe it the best I can.
Picture the top 3 nuts on the strut, two of these are close together and one is a "loner", now picture the bottom of the strut that the big bolt goes through, one side is "extended" and longer than the other side, this long side should be lined up with the two bolts on top which are close together. Instead it is reverse, the long part of the bottom is facing the single lone bolt on top.
I can't get the bottom to fit the LCA, and because of this, I can't even get the top 3 bolts in
Thanks

EDIT: in other words, if the top strut mount was turned 180 degrees I think it would fit. Still waiting on a response from KYB but would this involve is of a spring compressed, disassembling the whole shock/strut, turning the mount and reassembling? I really don't want to this, nor do I want to wait for an exchange if that's what it comes to.
I assume I'd have to reinstall the stock strut on the drivers side to match the passenger

 

[shane10]

KYB just gave me a response. It was clocked in wrong as assembly... @%#$!!!
So I have to return and wait for a new one, great. Next question, should I just go ahead and replace the stock strut on the passenger side? Or should I replace both stock struts for an even ride.

 

[LMHmedchem]

KYB just gave me a response. It was clocked in wrong as assembly... @%#$!!!
So I have to return and wait for a new one, great. Next question, should I just go ahead and replace the stock strut on the passenger side? Or should I replace both stock struts for an even ride.

You might ask if they will cross ship the new part so you will get it faster.

I am a bit past the point where I could do both sides in one afternoon so I did mine about a week apart. As long as the stock strut is not broken, it shouldn't be a huge deal to have one new and one old. I wouldn't drive to Alaska or anything like that, but mine was ****eyed from a broken spring for quite a while, so I figured the new strut was an improvement even if it wasn't exactly the same.

It's too bad you got a bad part. Buying quality dramatically reduces the chances that you get a lemon, but nothing will completely remove that possibility. It is the same thing in may other fields as well as with auto parts. All you can do is to check out the retailer to make sure they don't have frequent problems and then you just roll the dice like everyone else. This is one reason why customer support is so important. Everyone screws up now and again. How it gets handled when that happens is as important to me as their pricing.

LMHmedchem