Whats up guys....

O have a 98 Saturn SL....The drivers side strut mount is bad and needs to be replaced. I have already baught the new strut mount. Any help on how to change it out would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Strut Removal:
<LI>On SL,SL1,and SL2remove the rear seat side bolsters
<LI>Remove screws from molding holding down rear deck to the side of the cargo area
<LI>On '91 and some '92 models, remove speaker grille fasteners and speaker grilles from package shelf. '93 and after skip this.
<LI>Remove seat belt bezels from the rear deck and separate seat belts from deck by guiding them through the little cutout under the belt
<LI>Remove rear deck carpeting
<LI>On a level surface, chock front wheels
<LI>Raise car up on a jack and secure on jackstands
<LI>Remove rear wheels
<LI>ABS vehicles: disconnect speed sensor wiring harness from bracket
<LI>Loosen the two rear wheel/knuckle-to-strut bolts, don't remove
<LI>Raise jack and place under the rear wheel/knuckle to support it
<LI>Remove the three strut assembly-to-tower nuts
<LI>Slowly lower the jack to bring the strut assembly down
<LI>Remove the two rear wheel/knuckle-to-strut bolts and guide the strut assembly out </LI>


Spring Removal:
<LI>Compress springwith coil spring compressor
<LI>Compress the spring enough so that the upper strut mount can be removed.
<LI>Remove the strut shaft nut while holding the strut shaft still with a Torx socket wrench
<LI>Remove the upper strut mount, isolator/dust cover and strut from the spring. Be careful not to pop the bearing housing open or the bearings will fall out.
<LI>Release spring tension by loosening the spring compressors </LI>

 

Very good write up from Low above.


A couple of additional things to keep in mind.


When you remove the two rear wheel/knuckle-to-strut bolts , you will lose your camber adjustment (top to bottom level if you will). Not a big deal if you will take it for an alignment soon afterwards, but here are a couple of alternatives to get you close.


If you are going to reuse your strut, you can put a couple of marks from the strut to the adjusting plate (top and bottom). When you put it back together, just match the marks up and you'll be very close.


What I did when I replaced my rear struts was the following. Before removing the tire, I would adjust the height on the jack until my tire rim was level from top to bottom (24 inch aluminum level worked for mine). Verify this, but when you remove the tire, the rear lug bolts should also now be level. Now do the replacement as above. Befor you tighten the bottom two bolts, adjust the top to bottom back to level. Although a little fiddly, you can now come very close to the original camber adjustment. I did this on all four of mine and when I took it for an alignment, they didn't even bother making any adjustments (nor did they charge me).