how to replace strut cartridges

[mrbacardi]

hi, i just ordered some new shock absorbers and need to replace the existing ones with these.

I have a 1992 toyota camry with serviceable non-sealed struts, i have tried searching and can't find an installation guide on how to actually remove the shock absorber cartridge from the strut housing, can anyone help with this please?

Thanks

[DAMON]

there is just a big nut, you loosen that and pull it off and there ya go... the cartridge comes right out. try a search, i think ive had pics of this up before

[mrbacardi]

hey man, can u send me pics or something or help me out please, my struts are super dirty and shit, and i can't find this huge nut anywhere, i've got the strut off now and need to get this done asap, thanks man

[rusty9]

if you cant find the giant nut where the piston meets the casing, then you dont have servicable struts.

[Eye8Pussies]

^ what he said

the nut really can't be missed.

and even to this point, it isn't guaranteed which gen3 cars have sealed or serviceable struts. it seems as though during production, they randomly installed them, though usually the 92 and 93 have serviceable struts

[DAMON]

did you get it done alright?

[mrbacardi]

no man, i have sealed non-serviceable struts on my 92 camry, pissed me off cause i thought for sure my 92 camry had serviceable struts and i went ahead and bought some tokico inserts already.

I've found the front left serviceable strut housing at a junkyard and bought that and installed the insert, easier than i thought. But now i need to find the rears and the front right, i'm going back to the junkyard today, hopefully they'll have them and i'll give you an update.

[DAMON]

good luck man, people should just stick to buying full replacements... i would have just done that had i known it would fit. that way you can swap your lowering springs/struts for stock without even using a spring compressor. thatd be nice for winter

keep us updated

[mrbacardi]

OK!

i'm finally done, it took over 8 hours in total to complete all this @#$$!@!@.

Anyways, let me break it down:

first day, i thought i had serviceable struts being a 92 camry and all, but i didn't, so i had to go to the junkyard and buy some on saturday, could only find two and they were for the front. so i come home and remove the springs and find out that only one of them is serviceable (Front Left) and the other isn't (Front Right), all this chews up the whole day and now i have a car stuck in the garage for the rest of the weekend, (junkyards closed on sundays)

second day (monday), i phoned a junkyard and had them remove a few struts from the 93 camry they had, but they only had 3 of them, FR, RR, RL, luckily that's exactly what i need, i go pick them up, and they are serviceable (i took pics with me) evening i get the whole left side of the car done, the most time consuming part is aligning the strut into the mounts for the rear and making sure the during reassembly of the strut with spring and stuff, it is all aligned and the spring seats properly.

third day (tuesday (today)), got some friends over to help me with the right side, one huge problem here, the mounting on the strut to the axle were pinched in (the one through which the two huge bolts slide through). so my friends sat and hammered away to widen it up, they must've spent an hour doing that while me and another guy worked on the back right, which was quick and easy.

finally getting everything on, it felt so good, another time consuming part was cleanup, budget at least 45 min for that.

after took it for a ride, and it's awesome now, no bounce.

note: i was using a hydraulic jack and power tools, had i not had these, it would've easily taken an extra day.

[Eye8Pussies]

good to hear you got it all figured out....


but wow....that took awhile.....it should only take about 2 or 3 hours for two people to do your suspension not including the time it takes the put the entire car up on stands....

but I guess you'll know exactly what to do next time, eh?

[mrbacardi]

this was my second time doing it (last time i changed to lowering springs a couple years ago)

anyhow, when i drove to work this morning, the rear right strut is making a load bumping noise, it has had this problem before, but now it's a different type of noise, i am so pissed, i thought that problem would be solved

[Eye8Pussies]

the rear usually has the most problems....check your bushings

[mrbacardi]

which bushing, got a pic of it?

if you're talking about the swaybar bushing, then that's for sure ok, i know that's not causing the problem.

another thing, the sound goes away when there's a lot of weight in the rear.

[HATEnFATE]

coil spring insulator.

[mrbacardi]

need pic