3000GT/Stealth International Message Center - View Single Post

tachyon_ftl · 04-28-2008, 05:52 AM

Well, I did the swap and it went fine... just not on my car! One of the guys went to a show last weekend and wanted to lower the car first, so we put my stuff on his 1996. No problem; hardest part is getting the old struts off, and sometimes you even luck out there and they come off the studs without too much trouble.

You definitely want an impact wrench for this, either air or electric. Getting the top nut off the strut would be a major pain without one as there is very little to grab onto to keep the rod in the strut from turning. With an impact, no problem. The rears in particular that nut is easy with an impact, it's only 18 ft-lbs. Fronts are 58 ft-lbs. It's a 19mm nut.

Only other thing I noticed is that when you put the spring and all the bushings together, you want to get the top insulator plate lined up so that the studs are aligned to hit the holes in the strut tower. There is a big rubber bushing that the top of the spring sets into, and if you twist things (after it's all assembled) to line up the studs that go into the tower, it'll twist the spring with it and that causes the bottom to be misaligned on the strut perch. Not a big deal, we just fixed it, but it would have been easier to have it all aligned at the beginning. For a VR4, it is about as easy a swap as it gets.

04-28-2008, 05:52 AM	#7 (permalink)
tachyon_ftl '96 VR4 Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Hollis, NH Drives: It's spos'd to move? Trader Rating: (12)	Re: Another Ground Controls question Well, I did the swap and it went fine... just not on my car! One of the guys went to a show last weekend and wanted to lower the car first, so we put my stuff on his 1996. No problem; hardest part is getting the old struts off, and sometimes you even luck out there and they come off the studs without too much trouble. You definitely want an impact wrench for this, either air or electric. Getting the top nut off the strut would be a major pain without one as there is very little to grab onto to keep the rod in the strut from turning. With an impact, no problem. The rears in particular that nut is easy with an impact, it's only 18 ft-lbs. Fronts are 58 ft-lbs. It's a 19mm nut. Only other thing I noticed is that when you put the spring and all the bushings together, you want to get the top insulator plate lined up so that the studs are aligned to hit the holes in the strut tower. There is a big rubber bushing that the top of the spring sets into, and if you twist things (after it's all assembled) to line up the studs that go into the tower, it'll twist the spring with it and that causes the bottom to be misaligned on the strut perch. Not a big deal, we just fixed it, but it would have been easier to have it all aligned at the beginning. For a VR4, it is about as easy a swap as it gets.