Saturday, November 20, 2010

How hard is it to change the struts on a 90' Firebird, what has to be done?

Ive changed brakes, rotors, and that kind of thing, so was wondering how hard it would be to change the struts my self.How hard is it to change the struts on a 90%26039; Firebird, what has to be done?
You don't need a spring compressor to change the struts.. Your not removing spring.



Place a floor jack under the lower A arm, jack up, place stand under it.



Take wheel off, take caliper off (don't loosen the brake hose though) sit or hang caliper so its not pulling on brake line.



Open hood up, on each side of car is a strut tower with a black strut bearing mount with a cone looking thing on top.. Pop that cone shaped cover off.. Remove the large nut you see in there.



Now back to the wheel side. You have 2 large bolts holding strut to spindle.. Also the brake line is help to strut with a clip.. Remove that clip, then take the 2 strut to spindle bolts off.



Lift up on the strut to compress it and move it off the mount, now left it go down and just pull it out.



On new strut put top rod through 1st, hand start the top nut, then pull strut down and put 2 lower bolts on..



The lower bolts needs to be torqued to 125 ft lbs then turned 120 degrees more



Top nut is then torqued to 44 ft lbs



Put caliper and well back on.How hard is it to change the struts on a 90%26039; Firebird, what has to be done?
not to hard you will need some spring compressors, or you wont be abel to do it. just take all the bolts off to the strut, use 1 or 2 spring compressors for each side and compress the spring.

should be simple just be carful they can be dangerous and deadly if the compressor slips off.