Arkansawyer Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 The part # for my '93 LS 400 and I am assuming all 1st Gen's is #48674-50030. Pretty straight forward and I would say the level of difficulty is the same as changing sway bar bushings. IOW its easy. Jack up the car remove the wheels and take down the front half of the plastic under pan. The strut bar bushing is sandwiched between two 24mm nuts, but only one is removed. The strut bar sort of passes through the wheel well and the threaded end is visible from the front. Hence the necessity of getting the under pan out of the way. There are also three 14mm nut that help hold the bushing on and are accessible inside the fender well. Just remove the front 24mm nut with a wrench as I found it difficult with the breaker bar because of a lack of room. There is a large flat washer on the back side of the nut which should be removed also. Next remove the three 14mm nuts and begin wiggling the strut bar while pulling on the cushion. To get the cushion completely out I had to push down on the strut bar in the direction of the floor. This allowed the cushion to be removed. Take your new cushion and again push down on the strut bar and insert the cushion. There in no "proper" orientation of the cushion that I was able to determine. Once the new cushion is in I was only able to start a few threads of the 14mm nut, but as I tightened it pulled the cushion up flush and started the other 14mm nuts. I put the large flat washer back on and threaded the 24mm nut. I don't have a manual to tell me how many ftlbs and just tightened it to my liking. Make sure all nuts are tight and replace wheels. All done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryp Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 14mm nuts are 59 ft lbs 24mm nut is 87 ft lbs Just in case you want to crawl under there and snug them up! These are for 91 LS but i'm sure they're the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumart1 Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Arkansawyer - I know you are in the process of rebuilding your front suspension. Did you actually experience a clunking during hard braking prompting you to change the cushions? What kinds of wear did your originals have, and have you noticed an improvement in your ride since? I just removed my originals with 250k miles, and was surprised to see that they look pretty good. I had purchased new ones from Sewell but I have 14 days to return them and I'm not sure what to do. They were about $100 each which is not cheap! I did not have a the typical strut rod noise, but with 250k miles I feel like I can't go wrong replacing all of my rubber bushings. But I was surprised that besides some minor cracking, it wasn't compressed or compromised in any way. By the way thanks for the pics and the tips - very easy job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkansawyer Posted March 18, 2006 Author Share Posted March 18, 2006 Well I had pretty much decided not to replace them. When rebuilding the front suspension I started on the passenger side. Having the strut bar unbolted form the lower arm, I was able to flex the strut bar and didn't feel any excessive play. However when getting to the driver's side the strut bar flex IMO way too much and was able to see cracks as it flexed. I figured while I was refurbishing the front I might as well replace them. Easy to get to and again saw visible wear. The items I didn't replace on the front were outer or inner tie rods...these felt snug and did not have any play that I could detect. Nor did I replace the upper bsuhings or upper ball joint. Again no play was detected in the joint and the bushings "looked" fine. I was not able to push the upper A arm for or aft when I had it loose from the spindle. I know this was not a very technical way to check them but..... The lower ball joint did have play in it and these are the joints that carry the weight of the car and usually wear first. Honestly when I got the pressed out lower bushings they looked good. From all of this work on the front I have not noticed any difference in ride....better or worse. But when I spend big bucks on the Michelin tires that will go on, I know that I will get nice even wear. I am thinking that the majority of my problems are coming from the rear. This will be remedied soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikk777 Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 Where did you buy the strut bar cushion and for how much? park place wants $118 each for it but I've read somewhere about it only being $35 each. Please help! Also, noticed a Fram oil filter....big no no if you research it. Evidently Fram is one of the worst oil filters you can use. I made the same mistake too so just trying to spread the word. There was a website somewhere that had a breakdown of comparisons between several different filters(15+). A/C Delco was actually one of the best for the money. Mobil was great but at 3 times the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkansawyer Posted November 8, 2006 Author Share Posted November 8, 2006 Honestly Nik I don't remember where I bought the strut bushings. Seems like I looked them up on one of the online Lexus parts places. Sorry I'm not much help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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