Problems with strut replacement 2004 tacoma

I am having trouble reinstalling strut. It seems too long, spring is compressed, but still won't seat on lower mount. Any suggestions?

 

Undo the sway bar and have someone stand on the hub.

 

or a long breaker bar of some sort, wedge between lca and frame, push downwards and have someone align lower shock bolt into mount.

 

I used the bottle jack (mounted up-side down) to push the a-arm down

 

most videos don't show you the correct way, you need to remove the sway bar link connection to the arm so it has more movement to give you room to push the arm down enough to line things back up, if you disconnect the sway bar end, you only need a little hand pressure to get things to move so it fits.

disconnecting the sway bar doesn't "look" like it will do much but you remove the spring tension of the sway bar from keeping the arm from moving down where it needs to be.

sure you can use a jack or big lever bar to overcome this tension but why? why all you have to do is disconnect it.

 

Prying on the suspension is too much work. I just remove the 4 lower ball joint bolts and separate the knuckle from the lower control arm. Now you have plenty of room to install the strut assembly. Then just jack the lower control arm back up to the knuckle where they just meet and bolt back together and torque. No fighting or cursing.

 

Hmmmm. I disconnected my sway bar thereby gaining about 1/4 inch of downward movement. Then I used a 3-foot pry bar and all of my weight (210 lbs) on the end to pry the control arm low enough that i could use a guide pin and a hammer to get things attached. Had to do that for both sides. Wonder what I did wrong...

I thought about the 4 bolts holding the LBJ but at the time I didn't want to deal with what that implies.

 

Rick is right use the bottle jack, invert it under your wheelwell and just using your fingers screw down on the upper control arm. The lower arm will drop giving you plenty of room to slide in the strut aline and bolt into place. I did mine last week 15 - 20 min a side.

 

well THATS your problem, the lower ball joint "has to" come off to give you the movement you need to lower the arm to get it all back together.

often after removing the lbj people don't also disconnect the sway bar end link and that's a common mistake, but the lbj has to be removed from the arm so it can drop. I only needed hand pressure to push it down enough to get the bottom bolt in place, then use a jack to lift the arm up enough to reconnect the lbj and sway bar link.

 

grab an extra pair of hands, and make sure to put the top in and start the nuts on the threads to about half way.

so which one is it? you say two different things.

for me it was mainly getting the lower bolt in behind the dam CV axle but had no problems with the movement of the LCA. the LBJ doesn't need removed but w/e works go for it.

 

no, my first response was assuming he knew it was required that he remove the lbj so I was only addressing the step where many forget (or don't know) they also need to disconnect the sway bar end link. once I realized he didn't do this I added further info about removing the lbj is mandatory to do the job safely

as long as you do both the job is easy with little effort needed, if you only remove the lbj then the job requires a lot more force to get things lined up again so that's where you see the advice of using bottle jacks and big pry bars.

if you try to do it without removing the lbj then its damn near impossible and the force you need to apply gets to be unsafe and very dangerous.

 

>>if you try to do it without removing the lbj then its damn near impossible and the force you need to apply gets to be unsafe and very dangerous.<<

The next time I replace my front shocks I'll replace the springs as well. I'll also remove the LBJs and disconnect the sway bar as you suggested.

 

All that's needed is to disconnect the sway bar and pry the control arm down. Done this a hundred times if I've done it once, on the trail and off. The only resistance is from twisting the rubber in the upper and lower control arm bushings
If you are spending more than half an hour to R+R both front shocks your goofing off or doing something wrong.

Unless the lower mount bolt looks like this (cleaned up).

 

@keaker maybe I didn't get the intent on the first post but nothing about the LBJ was mentioned. but as @Dirty Pool said it doesn't take tons of force to move it unless something else is holding it up. having a second set of hands to "hold" the pry bar in place is awesome. I'm half tempted this weekend when I remove the little spacer to reverse the dam nut/bolt

 

Bottle jack, pogo stick etc etc

 

yep, like I said, I didn't mention anything about the lbj in the first post because I "thought" he already knew to do that.

if you remove the lbj then no pry bar is needed at all, thats why its the better way, but many use the pry bar or bottle jack and do it by working much harder. its all up to the individual, but the poor guy doing it for the first time, if you tell him to do it the hard way and not disconnect the lbj, he is going to bust some knuckles and possibly bend or break things fighting it rather then have the job so smoothly and easy.

I never did a strut replacement before in my life, but after I got the wheel off, disconnected the lbj, realized the sway bar end link was holding it from moving down even more, I disconnected it and the old strut had no spring tension left and came right out. the new strut was slightly longer with the new spring so just some hand pressure got the arm down enough to slide the bolt in. and that was it, I use a floor jack to raise the arm up compressing the spring until the lbj could bolt in place, replaced the sway bar end link, and put the tire back on. not counting tire removal and reinstall, I had the old strut off and the new strut on in 20 minutes

as to the nut and bolt, I thought about reversing it too, but after giving it a lot of thought I assumed it was on that way for "some" reason so I left it that way. it does look like it should go the other way but I rather stick with the old "always put stuff back on the same way it was before" rule lol.

an extra advantage to disconnecting the lbj is it gives you a very rare chance to check it "unloaded" to really see if its getting worn and becoming loose.

 

Removing the LBJ is the absolute longest, most complicated and completely unnecessary method out there once the SB is disconnected.

I just happened to be doing some seasonal inspection this morning and stuck the "special tool" in place. It's plenty at 18" in length.
Lean in and drape your arm pit over the end of the "tool" leaving both your arms dangling down to remove/install the lower bolt. Takes about ten seconds unless your ticklish.

 

well I am not completely removing the lbj, im just unbolting the lbj mounting bolts and dropping the lower arm loose from the lbj.

it only took a few minutes to pop it lose on mine, it took longer to remove the sway bar link then to drop the lower arm loose from the lbj.

as can be seen here in this video at time stamp 3:50 he undoes the 4 bolts holding the spindle to the lower ball joint and the lower arm is then free to drop down and extra 2".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQCb894F_M

you can see how the lower ball joint is only connected to the lower arm by 4 bolts and nothing else needs to be disconnected but those 4 bolts and the arm drops down 2" releasing all the tension left in the strut and the bolt slide right out with finger pressure. the lbj stays connected to the lower arm and the tie rod ends. you don't do any of the other disconnecting stuff in that video, you only remove the 4 bolts with the lower arm supported by a jack of course, and the upper spindle is free to be tied up or just turned out of the way and the lower arm can then be safely lowered by jacking up on the frame or putting a jack stand under it to support the truck while you lower the jack out from under the lower arm until all spring pressure is released. now the lbj can move down 2" more, giving you all the clearance you need.

now it doesn't take you all that much time to remove 4 bolts, so you don't need to be prying on things when its not necessary to.

 

Frizzman, if you need help this weekend let me know. I'm on the North Side of the 'Burgh and just got a "my first tacoma" I'd love to help and gain useful info on maintenence/upkeep.

 

thx for the offer @Topic Thunder !, unfortunately I got sidelined by some kind of sickness starting Friday night and it zapped all the energy I had (just now back to work but not 100%). Also with the weather being it's usual self may not get to it for awhile now with other things to accomplish.