help needed about lowering springs Options

[JustinCapps]

so i got the pass. side easy, now im working on the driver side, and i cant seem to get the strut assembly back in.

the problem im having is on the lower part of the assembly, i cannot for the life of me get the top bolt on.

any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Euphoria]

I know those bolts are annoying to get off without a air compressor but I dunno why they'd be hard to get back on, so you have compressed the springs down?

Explain more what you mean.

[JustinCapps]

lol, thats my problem i believe, i dont have the springs compressed at all, yet the pass side was easy but the driver side is giving me hell.

i thought it was possible without.. maybe im wrong.

[SwissFerdi]

Rent a compressor from Autozone?

[trdproven]

You can easily get that off with a good leverage socket wrench like a long 1/2 wrench. Or if you want you can attached a small piece of pipe to add length to your socket wrench again for leverage. Easy... Soak in some penetration oil too. I have a compressor too but ive only used it for putting air in my tires.

This post has been edited by trdproven: Nov 11, 2009 - 5:06 PM

[JustinCapps]

alright so i got spring compressors, didnt work for me.
i cannot for the life of me get the the two big bolt holes to line up..
ive tried lowering and raising my cars height, also tried bolting the assembly to the caliper then forcing it up to the top that didnt work either..

its not getting them out thats giving me problems, its putting the bolts back in.


This post has been edited by JustinCapps: Nov 11, 2009 - 5:15 PM

[95CelicaST]

Put a jack under the hub/knuckle assy and lift it until things line up. If you're still having trouble put a request out over on pstoc.org and I'm sure someone can drive out to help you. I believe Joe (KoreanJoey) lives in Gig Harbor, so either PM him on Celicatech or Pstoc and see if he can help you.

[Spider77]

I just did this like a few days ago. I didnt have any problems, just had to play with it a bit. But if I usually have a problem lining something up, I'll use a good sized punch (or a beefy screwdriver) and slide it in and force it over. If that dosent work I'll take a mallet and tap it over. As 95 stated, it does make things easier when you jack up the knuckle.

[JustinCapps]

so i did some research, and found out the my axle might of popped out

[95CelicaST]

Why would it have popped out? Were you yanking on it? I've never heard of that.

Can you post pictures of your setup so we can see how it isn't lining up?


And worst comes to worst, you can have some of us locals come out to help.

[JustinCapps]

Alright! I finally finished the front!
so when i went to take it out in the first place, i must done something wrong, causing the CV joint to pop out.
so i took the boot off that was close to the tranny, fitted the bearing back into place.

after that everything lined up perfectly!

thank you guys very much!

[trdproven]

sometimes when you change struts the pass side axle slip out you can easily line it back in by playing around with wiggling by holding the hub, also I use like a scissor jack to push up the knuckle to align the assembly to the holes.

[JustinCapps]

I fixed my problem

Problem was the axle, the cv joint popped out while taking the assembly out so I took the boot off and slipped the ball joints right back in easy as that hah