Rear strut mount indexing, '95 Impreza

[avk]

I am replacing rear struts on a '95 wagon (both totally busted at 118K miles, by the way). On this model, upper spring seat and strut-to-body mount are separate parts. My question is about the rotational position of the mount relative to the rest of the assembly. FSM shows the mount indexed to the shaft in such a way that one of its three studs points in the direction parallel to the strut-to-knuckle mounting brackets. The question: is this relationship exact, or is there a finer adjustment? How critical is it? Will the mount, already loaded by the spring,  be able to rotate a little on the shaft to make up for a small misalignment? The manual only says to make "4WD" stamping face outboard, and nothing about the actual orientation of the mount.

Edited August 19, 2013 by avk

[Gloyale]

Get it close when installing the springs.

 

It can be fudged from there.  meaning you can pry the knuckle mount around fairly easily to get it in position.

 

More critical to get the end of the spring positioned in the hat correctly.

[avk]

Get it close when installing the springs.

 

It can be fudged from there.  meaning you can pry the knuckle mount around fairly easily to get it in position.

 

More critical to get the end of the spring positioned in the hat correctly.

Thank you. Fudging it should solve the problem then. You probably mean that the upper seat needs to be aligned as well. I just assumed it should be sitting symmetrically with the top hat, because there's no step on it to locate the spring, unlike on the lower seat.

[Fairtax4me]

Some of the ones I've seen have an arrow that points out.

The rear mounts will only fit into the holes in the body one way, so if you get it wrong (120° off) they won't mount up correctly. As long as the arrow or marking indicating the outward facing edge is in the correct position (within a few degrees ateast) you can use a prybar to twist the strut housing into the correct position once the top hat is bolted to the car.

[avk]

Thanks again. I'll probably stick something into the bolt holes on the bottom and twist the strut to align it with the knuckle. Also, I wasn't realizing the mounts would fit only one way.

[Gloyale]

 

The rear mounts will only fit into the holes in the body one way, so if you get it wrong (120° off) they won't mount up correctly.

 

Only on second gen Legacies and forresters.

 

First gen Legacies, and Imps have an equallateral triangle pattern, and can be rotated and mounted any of the 3 positiions, but only one is correct.

[avk]

Only on second gen Legacies and forresters.

 

First gen Legacies, and Imps have an equallateral triangle pattern, and can be rotated and mounted any of the 3 positiions, but only one is correct.

Thanks. I ordered Monroe mounts from RockAuto. They have not arrrived yet. Hopefully they're marked in some way, but what if they're not? Presumably, orientation is important because the axis of the center "cup", where the shaft goes through, is not perpendicular to the triangle. 

[avk]

The new top mounts came in. As far as I can tell, they're fully symmetric with respect to 120 degree rotations about the center hole.They do have part number marked on one side, but there is no way to tell how that side would be different from the two others. No instructions are included, except for a tiny piece of paper that refers to FSM or to the instructions included with replacement struts. I do have the latter, but they say to mark everything with paint before diassembly, which is obvioulsy of no help here. I'm starting to think that the purpose of the FSM instructions is to ensure that the mount is re-installed its original position, should it be removed from the car and put back on.

Edited August 22, 2013 by avk

[Fairtax4me]

Did you test fit the new mounts to the car to see of they will only mount one way?

The second gen Legacy mounts look symmetrical but the outer stud is about 1/4" further out. Hard to tell by just by eye.

[avk]

Simple test: I held two mounts against each other face-to-face so that their studs in each corner would align. Rotated 1/3 turn and they were still in alignment.

Edited August 22, 2013 by avk

[Fairtax4me]

That works too, though I always test fit new parts to the car if possible to make sure I got the correct part.

 

Now you'll need to compare the new with the old and see if the center hole of the mount is offset slightly. Also check to see if its straight up and down, or tilted off to one side.

[avk]

Thanks. Those offsets, by radius or by angle, cannot be exluded yet, and I'd have to look more closely. The initial eyeballing wasn't enough to tell. Now, there is more of the tricky business, with clocking of the upper spring seats a.k.a. perches, which is also not documented in the FSM. The rear strut assembly/disassembly section refers to the procedure for the front strut. The spring seat on the front has a single orientation mark, "OUT", that should point to the steering khuckle. The rear spring seats, however, have three notches, something like 15 degrees apart, marked "4WL", "FF", and "4WR". I am reading this so  that on an AWD model, "4WL" should point to the knuckle when installed on the left side, and "4WR" should be used on the right. FWD models would use the middle "FF" notch, whatever the second "F" stands for (perhaps just meaning the same notch on either sides). I checked with opposedforces and verified that there is only one number for that part, same for AWD/FWD and for left/right. None of that is mentioned in the FSM.

 

That works too, though I always test fit new parts to the car if possible to make sure I got the correct part.

Now you'll need to compare the new with the old and see if the center hole of the mount is offset slightly. Also check to see if its straight up and down, or tilted off to one side.

Edited August 22, 2013 by avk

[Fairtax4me]

I would mark the spring plate at the end of the top spring coil before disassembly and try to re-install it in the same position relative to the coil.

[avk]

Unfortunately, stupid me didn't mark the parts before disassembly, but the seats were rusty at the location of the cut end of the spring, maybe because the paint was rubbed off, even with the insulator in place. It was deep rust that had to be removed, luckily in a single spot on each side. So I would indeed be able to re-position the upper seats.

I am actually replacing the springs. Bought new ones just in case because the rear end was sagging, and it wasn't clear if that was only due to the blown struts. The springs are Moog brand. They are correct for the wagon, according to the catalog at Federal-Mogul, but are wound a little tighter than stock and the top end is at a different clock position. They still fit because the upper seat is not indented and hopefully, they'll work fine with the original clocking of the parts.

Edited August 22, 2013 by avk