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Strut/Shock Replacement...Part Question


Zero Knievel

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Well, the saga continues.

 

One last try.  When I got replacement tools, I got two breaker bars.  I got one to replace the one I broke and the other is the longest one the store had (1/2” drive).  I suppose leaving the nuts alone for a couple of days helped.  The nuts finally came off with some effort and the super-large breaker bar.  Got the driver front one off, but the top nut fought coming loose...the shaft was spinning.  I thought to fire up the impact gun again, but I broke the pressure regulator on the compressor. :(  The last time I used it I loosened it too much and it came apart.  When I put it back together, I didn’t line things up right, and since it was made of plastic, I crushed the needle.  Fortunately, I made it work with a pair of vise grips.

 

So, now both front struts are off the car.  Time to put the new ones on.  I worked similar to how I did the rear struts.  However, the front end had a mind of its own.  I’m trying to line up both bottom bolt holes.  I’m gently working a bottle jack to help align things.  Then, with a POP, the propeller shaft came out of the transaxle.  The boot popped loose (didn’t tear, thankfully), and mom called a neighbor for help.  Here I am mopping up grease and putting the CV joint back together, but it doesn’t want to go back in.  Neighbor arrives, and he’s had this happen to him before, so he knows what to do.  We get the driver side shaft back in and eventually get the strut in.  The passenger side was almost as much trouble as the rear passenger one.  This time I used a power drill to widen the top holes so the bolts could work back through.  The passenger side propeller shaft came out as well, but didn’t pop off the boot.  So, it just needed to be reinserted.

 

Had to engineer a new clamp for the driver side boot from a couple of large hose clamps.  So, at least the CV joint is sealed and protected for now.

 

The next step is getting the car to a shop where they can replace the improvised clamp with a proper one and shoot some grease in there to replace what came out.  When things went south a lot of tension was put on the wire running to the wheel.  Warning lights are on in the car...all of which are likely tied to this one wire.  Hopefully the engine code will identify specific wheels.  I’m hoping it’s only the driver front wheel as that one was the worst.

 

BUT THINK OF ALL THE MONEY WE SAVED DOING THE WORK OURSELVES. :unsure:

Edited by Aunt Zero
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I never coulda dreamt the actual details of cluster fucks, nor that you'd end up drilling out holes in the car, but it went about as expected.  By the time you pay the shop to fix it you mighta saved enough to pay yourself half of minimum wage.

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Well, can’t say anything about how it handles.  She’s to use it to the minimum.  A local guy can shoot in some replace grease and put a proper boot clamp on.  I told her to drive as little as possible until that’s done.  My clamp should hold, but I’d rather have one actually designed for the job.

 

She’ll stop by the auto place to have the codes read and reset.  If a sensor wire was damaged, it’s $160 for each wheel, and I hope it’s only the driver front.  We did turn the car on (no motor) and put it in drive at one point.  That might have thrown a code as the wheels were not mounted at the time.

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Zero, I'm honestly puzzled as to how you had that many issues.  How did the CV axle come apart?  Why did you have to enlarge holes?  These are questions that I would be asking myself if it happened to me, but I can't figure it out armchair quarterbacking on the other end of a computer screen.  The only possible way I can think of the axle issue is if you just hung the lower control arm down with no support (please tell me you didn't do that.)  I'm not being a dick, I'm just hoping that you take stock of this and figure out what you did wrong so it doesn't happen again.

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Well as far as enlarging holes, the top three bolts on the right struts were not straight.  So, the tips of them struck the edge of the holes. I had to hammer out the rear and the front came out easy but you could only (at best) get two to line up.  I put a tapered grinding bit on a power drill and bored the holes a little to give just enough extra clearance so the tips could shift past.  The top of the strut had some flex to it, but there was no way to get the leverage to realign the bolt once it was in place.  The left side struts had no such issue.

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As far as the CV joint, I didn’t account for the front knuckle being prone to move on a vertical axis not did I think the propeller shafts just slide out of a socket.  Prior experience told me CV joints were a machined set with a shaft going into the transaxle.  I suppose there are different designs or they changed since I last had to deal with them.

 

IIRC, I put a bottle jack under the suspension to keep it up.  On reassembly, I got the strut in position, snugged the bolts on the top, attached other linkages (only one in this case)...and that just left the bottom bolts.  I used a tapered rod to align one of the two holes and keep it “together” while I worked to align the other hole and slip in the bolt.

 

It was a struggle to get these holes  to align.  In this struggle, the bottle jack slipped enough that the wheel turned and put it all popped.  The other side did something similar, but not enough to pull the boot off.  We only had to wiggle the joint back into the socket. I was using a floor jack for the side I wasn’t working on, which likely prevented the same happening on the other side.

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In other news, mom just got done with Toyota.  Suspension work tends to make a lot of error codes. As I suspected, the driver front sensor is bad (took the worst hit), but all the vehicle needed was a reset and recalibration.  $85 bucks +/-.  She’ll get a proper boot clamp for the mechanic who will deal with the boot, and I’m ordering a new sensor to install myself.  Toyota wants over $300 for a part available for $165.

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On 12/27/2017 at 8:05 AM, Aunt Zero said:

Suspension work tends to make a lot of error codes.

No, it does not.  I've never had a code caused by doing suspension work and can't see any reason it would, as long as the work isn't totally botched of course.

 

Any time a replacement part won't fit, like your strut hole issue, logic would dictate that either the part is wrong or the installer is doing it wrong.  For you to think Toyota made a mistake on the holes, but were able to fit the struts anyway, and the holes needed to be corrected by you is dumb.  Enlarging the holes to make it easier on yourself to get it all together, which is likely the case here, is a whole different story.  Other than having lost the rust protection enlarging them a little is probably no issue, but I've seen these kinds of "fixes" cause serious issues.

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On 12/30/2017 at 9:56 AM, Aunt Zero said:

The parts  that wouldn’t fit were the original Toyota part.  So, yes, someone on the assembly line “finessed” the installation.

Finessed; AKA installed correctly.

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