Replacing front Upper Strut Bushing, What's the trick? Options

[BeatNavy]

So, how does one remove and then reinstall the rubber bushing from the supporting mount? I have a press, but I'm scratching my head about how best to tackle this. Can't seem to find any relevant threads on this topic...

[BeatNavy]

Ok, Mark, perhaps a day late and a dollar short, but we have pics on a car as well as a road test! In addition to the previous pictures, I offer the following abbreviated installation tutorial:

First, I got the car jacked up and removed the wheel. At the top of the strut, bend back the fold on the safety washer and then loosen the top strut nut (in my case, with a 22 mm socket). Here is the old strut mount and bushing on car.



Once I removed the nut I pulled the strut down to compress it and then carefully swung the whole assembly into the wheel well. Removal of the strut mount is pretty easy. It requires a #8 hex for the 3 mounting bolts. The biggest annoyance is that, on the passenger side you need to unbolt two bolts and move the fuel expansion tank out of the way to get access to the third hex bolt. (This may not be true for later cars.) Also (and this is important), before you remove the bolts take a fine marker and outline where the plates are located. This way you shouldn't mess up your caster or camber (unless you were planning on doing a full alignment anyway). Pic below is with the plates outlined:



At this point, if you don't have an extra set of strut mounts from a project car like I did, you'd use a press or vice to remove the old bushings and install the new ones. Sorry, no pics of that process. I did this a couple of weeks ago. Remounting is easy peasy, although it may take slide fiddling to get the plates lined back up with your marks. It would be a good idea to use new schnorr washers under the hex bolts.



And here is a pic from underneath:



Getting the strut back up through the mount can be a slight challenge. I used a floor jack to help push up. It's a good idea to make sure the strut top is aligned properly with the hold. Once you do get the top through the bushing, put the washer(s) on, tighten to spec, and bend up the edge of the washer.

All done passenger's side:



and driver's side (yes, I probably need a new washer):



After taking it out for a short test drive, I can give these a big thumbs up (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) I replaced the struts and ball joints two weeks ago, and put turbo tie rods on last week, but after putting these on, the car handles better than ever.