Monday, April 14, 2008 - 09:49 am, by: Mike Thomas(Petcanizzle)
I got all the bolts out, main one in the bottom, 3 at the top. no amount of pulling pushing, standing on the caliper to push the whole assembly down, or jacking it any direction, would free the strut.. it was loose inside its U shaped bracket.... but couldnt clear the edges and had nowhere to go front or rear.
how do i remove my front suspension, what am i missing?
Monday, April 14, 2008 - 10:43 am, by: Gavin Smith(Gavs)
I assume you mean your "coil-over dampers", aka, shock absorbers.How do you get dampers out? Well, it's easy, you compress them with some muscle!!! Then while compressed, you move the bottom away from it's mount and the whole thing just falls out. Easy!
Monday, April 14, 2008 - 01:10 pm, by: Dave Cazes(Cazman)
^ what the... Anyway to answer your question mike thomas You must remove the upper control arm bolt, i dont have a link to the walkthrough and i dont have time to find it as i am at work atm. Once the upper control arm bolt is removed it becaomes alot easier.
Also have both wheels of the ground so the swaybar isnt acting on the suspension arms
Monday, April 14, 2008 - 01:49 pm, by: Mike Thomas(Petcanizzle)
is it a huge bolt about a foot long going horizontally through what i imagine are upper control arm bushes and holds that big steel V that goes on either side of the strut? how does removing it help me? i was wondering about that bolt, but the point of the V (which is the part you stand on right by th rotor.. some kinda knuckle..) is sealed.. cant remove it.... i dont think, so u can only remove that one back bolt?
Monday, April 14, 2008 - 06:55 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
Here is my write up. It may be on here somewhere already. Still looking for pics...
Fitting Coilover suspension
1. Follow all preparation steps as per manufacturer’s guidelines (torque nuts etc).
Front Struts
2. Jack up the front of the car and support on stands. Ensure suspension is free to move. It is much easier if both sides are jacked up as there will be less tension on the sway bar etc. 3. Remove the wheels. 4. Remove the lower strut bolt (19mm). 5. Remove the sway bar link from the lower strut mount. You may not need to but I had to on one side. 6. Remove the lower strut mount by removing the two 14mm bolts and sliding out from under the strut. 7. Remove the three 12 mm nuts from the upper mount (strut tower). 8. Remove the strut assembly from the vehicle. Get a helper to either stand on the hub or use a lever on the upper wish bone to give you sufficient room to get the strut out. 9. Insert the new coilover and finger tighten the three upper mount nuts. 10. Replace the lower strut mount and bolts. 11. Align the lower strut mount with the coilover and replace the bolt, nut and washer. A screw driver will come in handy here to get it all to line up. You will need to lift the hub assembly due to the fact it is shorter than the stock strut. A jack or helper with a lever works well. 12. Tighten the upper strut nuts. 13. Check all nuts and bolts are tightened and replace the wheels- unless you want to have a play with the ride height.
Rear Struts
14. Chock the front wheels. Jack up the rear of the car and support on stands. 15. Remove the lower strut bolt (19mm). 16. Remove the three 12 mm nuts from the cover on the upper mount (strut tower in the boot) and remove the cover. 17. Remove the three 12 mm nuts from the upper mount (strut tower). 18. Remove the strut assembly from the vehicle. Get a helper to either stand on the hub or use a lever on the upper wish bone to give you sufficient room to get the strut out. These are much easier than the rears. 19. Insert the new coilover and finger tighten the three upper mount nuts. Do not replace the cover at this stage. 20. Align the coilover with the lower strut mount and replace the bolt, nut and washer. Use the same procedure as the fronts. 21. Tighten the three upper mounting nuts and replace the cover. I left my cover off so I could recheck all nuts after a test drive. You may want to drill a hole in the cover so you can adjust the damping rate easier later on. 22. Check all nuts and bolts are tightened and replace the wheels. 23. Take the car for a test drive. I would suggest a few slow slaloms and figure eights if you have a safe place to do so and then recheck all nuts and bolts including the wheel nuts. 24. Experiment with ride height and once you are happy go and get an alignment done by an expert.
Other points
25. The whole process is much easier if you can jack all four corners up and support on stands. 26. Just to be sure I used Loctite thread locker on all bolts as I do not have access to the Toyota torque settings for the suspension components. This may be overkill, and I may regret it later on!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 05:58 am, by: Mike Thomas(Petcanizzle)
i tried to remove the sway bar link cuz it was in the way. it spun and spun and spun and wouldnt come out.. now theres a grease comuing out of the little rubber boot on the other side of it.. the rubber boot that you can see in that photo.. against the outside of the bracket.. on bolt #3...
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 06:02 am, by: Mike Thomas(Petcanizzle)
also thank you VERY much for this help. i thought i should remove that whole bracket but couldnt get any of my wrenches in there to get at those two bottom bolts... and didnt have the right size socket. will get a new set and assault it again
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 07:16 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
I just undo top and bottom nuts, remove bolt, and then use a spring compressor in-situ. Once spring is compressed, just compress the shock down and out it comes.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 07:09 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
Mike,
You may be able to get the bracket out of the way with the sway bar link still connected. Alternatively remove the top bolt of the link?
You could remove the upper wishbone as Andrew and others have suggested. I have never tried this - sounds like it may be easier than what you are dealing with.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 - 02:19 pm, by: Mike Delsey(Gyuji)
Mike,
I just did the coilovers on my Soarer and Ben's walkthrough above is spot on to the word. With that bracket out and some downward leverage on the suspension arms you can weasel the assembly out without having to compress it. If you want to undo the swaybar link, you need to hold the bolt with an allen wrench (the end is keyed) and turn the nut with an open wrench or box wrench. In retrospect, though, I think I could have gotten away with not removing it. As for accessing the bracket bolts, a u-joint for your ratchet helps a lot. I was able to lever the suspension arm down enough to catch the bottom of the strut on the innermost bolt head so that i could undo the outer one and then used the u-joint for the remaining bolt.