Help removing air strut from my 95 conti...

[infowill]

Hey guys, I got the conversion kit to do this myself and got most of the fasteners and nuts, etc... off the first strut (right front) but am now stuck. I cannot get the knuckle pinch bolt out. I got the nut off with a 13/16 socket and breaker bar, and my brother (who is a mechanic in another city) said the bold should just come out with a few taps of a hammer to loosen it.

Unfortunately it won't budge. I tried the help line from my conversion kit provider (Strutmasters) but they said all the service techs are out till Monday. I was really looking forward to getting this job done over the weekend. Is there something I'm missing here in removing this bolt??? It has an anti-trun clip between the bolt head and the knuckle so I'm assuming it is not supposed to turn. I did try to find a socket to fit, with absolutely no luck...

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[aristo1963]

if you see alot of rust around the strut knuckle give a good soak with pbblaster also it helps to make sure the anti turn clip and the bracket holes are lined up.use a small jack to lightly raise the strut if you have to.use a wedge to loosen the pinch points a bit.the sockets are 18mm or at least my 96's are.and the bolts will turn the clip is so the strut cant turn and should a bolt loosen the strut is held captive and wont fall out.

 

[infowill]

Thanks Aristo, I finally pried the clip off and was able to get an 18mm socket on it and break it loose and get it most of the way out with a combination of a breaker bar and some pressure from a crowbar on the other end of the bolt. Amazing what ten or so years will do to a bolt.

I now have only one more connection to get loose and it's soaking with wd40 right now. That's the upper stabilizer bar link nut. Man these instruction pages make it look so easy... I just broke my 3/8 to 1/4 socket drive adapter, so it's back to sears to find a 3/8 drive 8mm socket for the bolt end.

I keep telling myself it'll be faster with the left side cause now I almost know what I'm doing



:L

 

[MichiganTeddyBear]

probably will be faster... I know when I changed front struts on my 92 cougar, right side (first) took damn near all day fighting with spring swap. left side took like 10 minutes to do spring swap. Also learned from mistake done on right side about installing the new strut that made left side MUCH easier and faster.

Personally, I am NOT looking forward to changing the air struts over to springs on my 91 continental, or the bigger job I have waiting for me on my 94 gmc Jimmy. (complete rebuild of front suspension, bushings and all)

 

[aristo1963]

teddybear did you ever get that pulley off?

 

[infowill]

Finally got one side done. Guess I should have anticipated needing to compress the springs to get it seated, so one more trip to the tool store and the first one is done! One unforseen problem is that the new strut bracket wasn't threaded for the brake hose bracket like the original, so I had to replace the original bolt with a bolt and nut.

Do the people who write the tech manuals for these things also write puzzle books? If it weren't for advice on here and from Strutmasters and my brother I don't think this would even be possible for a weekend mechanic like me

Well... on to the left front!

 

[MichiganTeddyBear]

yea, I got the old pump out of car, and pulley removed. just waiting on $ to get new one now.

 

[remote1234]

Air Struts
I had one side go out in my 96 cont. I replaced both fronts with active coil overs from stutmaster. These struts by pass the load leveling in front, but let you adjust the ride frimness. Thats what strutmaster says. I took me 2 years lots of agrivation to get them to work. If the ride is not exactly the same with the coil overs as the air struts, the computer will throw codes and the car rides very stiff, Every tar line shakes the car and passengers! Lincoln dealers will not look at it, speed shops screw arround for weeks at a time, and give the car back basically telling me the car is F...ed up. Strut master says go look at the trouble codes and fix the problem.
Problem codes were left front time out up, right front time out down. This means the ride height sensors need to be recalibrated. This procedure requires a Star Testor ll. This is an expensive dealer code reader. I located one, and the recalibrate procedure requires the suspension to go into the test mode. This will cause the suspension to raise up and lower to test output of the sensors, pump, lines solinoids. Once this is performed, this star tester will allow the suspension height to be adjusted, saved, and thus calibrated.
With the coil over struts, the up down setup test will not cycle and the calibration is over, no adjusting or calibration will be set. In other words Strutmaster said they cannot help me any more. The car rides like a rock, and the computer keeps throwing a code.
I was able to fix the problem my self. Don't ask me why the engineers at strutmasters could'nt figure it out. I placed the car on a level surface, used a volt meter to monitor the voltage out put of the front ride height sensors, reaching in with a 11mm box wrench, I adjusted the sensors to the correct voltage. Turned the car off, reset the computer, start the car, problem solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Now the car rides great, I can adjust the ride stiffness, no error codes and the rear leveling works. The bad part is, had I checked the voltage in the first place, I would not have had to replace the air strut with the coil over in the first place, a very expensive mistake.
Some times you just have to tell the EXPERTS, to go jump in the lake, and think for your self. If you have any questions and you think I can help, contact me by e mail.
Christo.
chris.stoffels@comcast.net