I just bought a '98 Legacy Wagon. 214K. One of the rear struts has failed to the extent that the strut cartridge insert and rod has pulled out from the main tube of the strut assembly. So, there's nothing to limit the travel of the spring if the weight of the car is not on the strut assembly and it's unbolted from the car.

 

I need to replace the strut (duh) and if I try to unbolt this thing as an assembly, I think the spring might go flying. I guess I could see if I can get a spring compressor on it while the hub is resting on a jack... has anyone run into this problem, and if so, how did you work around it?

 

Nathan

If I understand correctly, the upper rod has pulled out of the lower cartridge?

 

If so, don't worry about compressing it, just jack up the car and it will reach it's max extension without flying out.

Yeah I wouldn't worry about it too much. The springs are only about an inch longer when uncompressed. That much won't make any difference to the suspension.

Thanks guys- good to know. I'm really (overly?) cautious with compressed springs. Knowing that it'll decompress enough w/o flying off and impaling something or someone is a big help.

 

Nathan

Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but if you are going to replace the strut but keep the old spring it you are going to need to procure a spring compressor anyway.

For what it is worth, in replacing a shock or strut, I put a bottle jack on the very bottom of the shock/strut, then jack it up to the proper height, so I can easily bolt the top in place. This technique has worked great for me in the past. I use pieces of 2X4 or whatever, placed under the bottle jack to get the desired height before jacking.

I installed the new struts today. The "broken" side (longer than a normal strut assembly where the spring extension is limited by the strut rod) took a bit of maneuvering to get past the lower suspension arms, but came out OK. I was planning on taking pictures of the bad strut, but I left them out back and the metal scrapmen took them before I had the chance to get my camera!

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

Nathan

What brand and model strut did you install? Was the spring bad as well?

I installed KYBs. The old spring was just fine. I think the strut which failed was OEM...'98 with 200+K miles on it- the tube was incredibly badly rusted- never seen anything like it before, even on older cars than this.

I installed KYBs. The old spring was just fine. I think the strut which failed was OEM...'98 with 200+K miles on it- the tube was incredibly badly rusted- never seen anything like it before, even on older cars than this.

 

Enjoy the KYBs. A great strut at a reasonable price. KYBs are what I always install.