mejojo Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 Okay...I couldn't find many references to a rear strut replace procedure. This one from lextreme Lextreme Rear Strut is about the most detailed (which is not very), and addresses replacing air suspension with conventional struts, but I did not have much success following this one. I ran into a number of issues once I began on the left side. Any comments on this procedure? Links to others? Advice? I don't want to spend another 3 hours on the right side, especially not as frustrating a 3 hours as the left side was. As an example, I had issues lining up the 3 bolts on the top mount with the holes in the deck, leading to recompressing the spring in-place and reaching my hand up and twisting the top mount until the bolts lined up with the holes. I just didn't really know to pay attention to that before I shoved the strut back in place. I'm tired....lol. (Yes, I could have a shop do it, but that's just not very convenient for me, plus I enjoy doing this stuff when I have enough information.) I had no problem getting the rear seat out (except it would have been even easier if I knew to PUSH the tab, not PULL the tab.) Here are the words from the procedure I referenced from lextreme. ========= Rear Strut Installation: The rear is slightly complex due to the rear seat. However, its not impossible. Here are the procedure of changing the rear struts: 1) Raise and support vehicle. Remove rear seat cushion and rear seat back. Please see Upgrade Fuel Pump for rear seat removal instruction. Remove right and left scuff plates. Remove right and left roof side inner garnishes. Remove package trim. 2) Disconnect right and left stabilizer bar links from stabilizer bar. Remove 2 brake caliper bolts from rear axle carrier. Hang caliper with wire. Remove nut on lower side of shock absorber. Support rear axle carrier with jack. Remove dust cap on top of strut. 3) Loosen strut rod center nut (do not remove nut). Remove 3 suspension support retaining nuts. Lower rear axle carrier and remove lower shock absorber. 4) For Air Suspension Equipped LS400. You need to remove the in air inlet line. Its almost impossible to loosen the 14 mm bolt from the bottom. The easiest way to remove this bolt is from the trunk. Open the trunk and on both left and right side of trunk is where you can access. 1) Install strut assembly on vehicle. Tighten 3 mounting nuts to specification. Install shock absorber cap. Tighten lower strut-to-axle carrier bolt to specification. Tighten upper strut center nut to specification. 2) Install brake caliper, tighten mounting bolt to specification. Connect right and left stabilizer bar links. To complete installation, reverse removal procedure. Check wheel alignment. ===== Sounds very EASY! I didn't find it so easy..... Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanW Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 Okay...I couldn't find many references to a rear strut replace procedure. This one from lextreme Lextreme Rear Strut is about the most detailed (which is not very), and addresses replacing air suspension with conventional struts, but I did not have much success following this one. I ran into a number of issues once I began on the left side. Any comments on this procedure? Links to others? Advice?I don't want to spend another 3 hours on the right side, especially not as frustrating a 3 hours as the left side was. As an example, I had issues lining up the 3 bolts on the top mount with the holes in the deck, leading to recompressing the spring in-place and reaching my hand up and twisting the top mount until the bolts lined up with the holes. I just didn't really know to pay attention to that before I shoved the strut back in place. I'm tired....lol. (Yes, I could have a shop do it, but that's just not very convenient for me, plus I enjoy doing this stuff when I have enough information.) I had no problem getting the rear seat out (except it would have been even easier if I knew to PUSH the tab, not PULL the tab.) Here are the words from the procedure I referenced from lextreme. ========= Rear Strut Installation: The rear is slightly complex due to the rear seat. However, its not impossible. Here are the procedure of changing the rear struts: 1) Raise and support vehicle. Remove rear seat cushion and rear seat back. Please see Upgrade Fuel Pump for rear seat removal instruction. Remove right and left scuff plates. Remove right and left roof side inner garnishes. Remove package trim. 2) Disconnect right and left stabilizer bar links from stabilizer bar. Remove 2 brake caliper bolts from rear axle carrier. Hang caliper with wire. Remove nut on lower side of shock absorber. Support rear axle carrier with jack. Remove dust cap on top of strut. 3) Loosen strut rod center nut (do not remove nut). Remove 3 suspension support retaining nuts. Lower rear axle carrier and remove lower shock absorber. 4) For Air Suspension Equipped LS400. You need to remove the in air inlet line. Its almost impossible to loosen the 14 mm bolt from the bottom. The easiest way to remove this bolt is from the trunk. Open the trunk and on both left and right side of trunk is where you can access. 1) Install strut assembly on vehicle. Tighten 3 mounting nuts to specification. Install shock absorber cap. Tighten lower strut-to-axle carrier bolt to specification. Tighten upper strut center nut to specification. 2) Install brake caliper, tighten mounting bolt to specification. Connect right and left stabilizer bar links. To complete installation, reverse removal procedure. Check wheel alignment. ===== Sounds very EASY! I didn't find it so easy..... Joe I did this last year to replace conventional with conventional....is that what you're doing? 1) remove rear seat 2) lift the car and remove the wheel 3) remove the upper end of the sway bar link 4) remove the 19MM bolt on the bottom end of the strut. This will be on very tight, mind the brake line 5) remove the 3 bolts on top (do not mess with the one in the center) you probably don't have to remove the package tray...I got a 14mm socket wrench under there just fine. 6) work the axle carrier up and down and pull the strut down through it as far as you can, sliding it past the axle...mine the rubber boot. Then pull the top of the strut toward you and out from under the fender. putting a jack under the axle carrier to control the height of it when your installing the new strut is very helpful. I think that's about it......hope that helps. Again, that was removing a conventional stut, I wouldn't think the air struts are in there much differently except for the air lines and stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mejojo Posted September 23, 2007 Author Share Posted September 23, 2007 I did this last year to replace conventional with conventional....is that what you're doing?1) remove rear seat 2) lift the car and remove the wheel 3) remove the upper end of the sway bar link 4) remove the 19MM bolt on the bottom end of the strut. This will be on very tight, mind the brake line 5) remove the 3 bolts on top (do not mess with the one in the center) you probably don't have to remove the package tray...I got a 14mm socket wrench under there just fine. 6) work the axle carrier up and down and pull the strut down through it as far as you can, sliding it past the axle...mine the rubber boot. Then pull the top of the strut toward you and out from under the fender. putting a jack under the axle carrier to control the height of it when your installing the new strut is very helpful. I think that's about it......hope that helps. Again, that was removing a conventional stut, I wouldn't think the air struts are in there much differently except for the air lines and stuff. Dan, thanks very much...sadly, that's pretty much exactly what I did. I had problems getting the strut up past the axle when installing. So much so that I kept thinking that I must be doing it wrong. Well, hopefully I learned enough so that it will be easier. Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanW Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 I did this last year to replace conventional with conventional....is that what you're doing?1) remove rear seat 2) lift the car and remove the wheel 3) remove the upper end of the sway bar link 4) remove the 19MM bolt on the bottom end of the strut. This will be on very tight, mind the brake line 5) remove the 3 bolts on top (do not mess with the one in the center) you probably don't have to remove the package tray...I got a 14mm socket wrench under there just fine. 6) work the axle carrier up and down and pull the strut down through it as far as you can, sliding it past the axle...mine the rubber boot. Then pull the top of the strut toward you and out from under the fender. putting a jack under the axle carrier to control the height of it when your installing the new strut is very helpful. I think that's about it......hope that helps. Again, that was removing a conventional stut, I wouldn't think the air struts are in there much differently except for the air lines and stuff. Dan, thanks very much...sadly, that's pretty much exactly what I did. I had problems getting the strut up past the axle when installing. So much so that I kept thinking that I must be doing it wrong. Well, hopefully I learned enough so that it will be easier. Joe That part was tricky...I recall that rotating the strut 90 degrees from where it should be helped get it down past the axle.... also moving the carrier up and down helps slide it through. I think I just experimented with those two until it went it. Its a very tight fit unless you take the axle off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glenmore Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 As mentioned, the key to getting the shock in and out is to twist it 90 degrees. If you are expending great effort here, STOP! It will literally fall out on its own weight when you twist it right. Also as mentioned watch your axle boots because you can damage them when dropping the shock assembly. I also had problems with the shock not being square to its bottom mounting bracket after securing the shock mount at the top. The key to doing this is that you have to compress the spring very evenly and uniformly. Then look down the length of your assembly from the shock mount end. Orient one of the bolts of the shock mount at 12 o'clock. Then as you sight down the length of the assembly, the bolt hole of the shock at the other end should be vertical also. If not, with the spring compressed, rotate the shock into position. You have to maintain this orientation as you slowly uncompress the spring. (For the front struts, with the shock mount stud at 12 o'clock, the bolt hole is oriented horizontally.) As careful as I was to do this there was still a slight twist to it after I installed the assembly. Then what I did was with the shock mounted, I marked which way it needed to be twisted, took it back out again, compressed the spring, gave it a little twist and tried again. Good Luck, glenmore 1990 LS400 1991 300CE 2000 C280 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mejojo Posted September 23, 2007 Author Share Posted September 23, 2007 Thanks for the input, guys. It turns out the way to get it to fall out was to not only turn the strut 90 degrees, but also, once the bottom is out of the bracker, to raise the axle very high, which is counterintuitive at that point. It turns out I had to re-do the one I did yesterday...when I compress in-place, it turns out I did not get a good seat on the top mount, and it made all kinds of spring-y racket. So, doing the left one over again took me 2 hours, including replacing the brake pads and figuring out how to make it fall out like glenmore said. Doing the right one, now that I know more tricks, took less than an hour, including the brake pads. Well, all done and I'm glad! Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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