Lamb Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 Brethren, I completed a 4 - KYB strut replacement in my 05 LGT, Turbo, Automatic. After the strut change, which went seemingly uneventful, I took the car in to get aligned. My go-to Subaru auto mechanic, said he didnt feel comfortable completing the alignment, because he suspects the driver side front spring, is not seated correctly in the strut assembly. I replaced the whole assembley, except for the factory springs, new mounts, nuts, and bellows. The Spring was not seated corectly, after I got the car home and took the strut out again. I was able to compress it, and re-align it in the strut housing, cranked the top nut down again, the spring then jumped out of the "seating ridges" after I got the strut back into the car and was tirghtening all the nuts down. I pulled the strut out again yesterday, noticed that if I used a 17mm socket on the top nut while strut is in the car, it will rotate the spring. I again fully disassembled the stack up, and saw no issues. reassembled and tighten the top nut down with an impact gun. I did see that the rubber gasket at the top underneath the mounting plate, was not completely lined up with the top of the spring. the old markings from the factory stack up and new struts weren't exact. But I figured that would sort itself out, once the weight of the car compressed the spring even further. After doing this. I took the car for a drive and for the first 5 minutes no issues. I then made some slow, tight left and right circles in a parking lot, and then I heard the driver front strut, almost pop and clunk and rotate again in the strut housing. Everything online says my stack up is wrong, or I'm not getting enough tightening on the nut prior to releasing the springs in the assembly. I'm about to start doing this for a 4th time, and need to finish this job. I'm at my wits end. Anyone have any ideas. I can provide pics if anyone will help me and needs more visuals. Broke LGT owner in Denver:mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cseagle08 Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 If you tighten the top-nut with a ratchet or impact it may just be rotating the nut and strut-piston around together instead of actually tightening the nut on the rod. I think there's a spot for like an allen-head in the top of the strut to hold the rod still, while tightening the nut on with a wrench. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relative4 Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 If you tighten the top-nut with a ratchet or impact it may just be rotating the nut and strut-piston around together instead of actually tightening the nut on the rod. I think there's a spot for like an allen-head in the top of the strut to hold the rod still, while tightening the nut on with a wrench. Exactly correct. OP, you have to use a special socket-and-Allen pair to tighten the top nut properly. Here's my home-fab setup. Note the flats I cut in the socket to hold it with an open-end wrench, and how I cut plastic off the handle of the Allen wrench so it can reach through the socket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relative4 Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 Just noticed you're in Denver. If you want to swing by and use mine, we can knock it out in like 30 seconds. A little longer if we need to do the backs, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apexi Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 I think the conical washer might be in the wrong place, or maybe upside down, I did that a few years ago. In the link below you can see the spring twist, and then pop when it releases. http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/do-need-tighten-my-strut-mounti-232290.html?p=4964369 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamb Posted March 31, 2018 Author Share Posted March 31, 2018 Thank you for the response. I believe the issue is not being able to tighten the top nut down correctly. I reached out to relative4, and maybe we can knock this out tomorrow or this weekend. Apexi, that video though is exactly what the noise sounds like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infosecdad Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 I think you're right, I had that once and it was because I hadn't tightened down the nut enough. Hopefully relative4 can help you out this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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