Rear Strut Install experience
 

First, mucho credit goes out to mbtoloczko, who posted an excellent write-up in the How To's on changing struts. :cool:

On to my story: I finally got the time today to change my rear struts and thought I might add a few notes from my own experience. I pretty much followed his write-up, so my stuff is only an add on, not a replacement article.

1) If you don't have a helper (I couldn't find one at the time I wanted to start) you can remove one of the two strut to knuckle bolts, then remove all three nuts at the top of the strut (inside the car), then go back and remove the last strut to knuckle bolt. There was enough friction between strut and knuckle that the strut didn't fall out. When it's time to reinstall, I shoved the strut up so the three bolts went into their holes up into the interior. Then I used a bit of the friction between the knuckle and strut to hold the strut in place while I went inside. The interior bolts stick up enough to get them started.

2) The allen wrench and socket bit: I found a new tool at Sears called the GearRachet. It works like a regular rachet except the extension is hollow. The rachet itself is like a racheting wrench and fits over the sockets/extension with a proprietary engagement. So basically I stuck their 17mm socket on the 3" extension, then just passed the allen wrench down through the hollow middle of this thing - once you see the GearRachet you will understand. BTW, I couldn't get enough force on the 17mm nut to turn it while holding the allen wrench all by myself, so I used an impact wrench to get it broke loose, then finished it off using the Gear Rachet and 6mm allen per write-up.

3) You will want a glue gun or some contact cement to glue back down these foam things they have covering the struts nuts inside and under the rear tray cover. I took the opportunity to use the glue gun to tack down some of the felt on the rear tray that was loose.

In all other ways I followed mbtoloczko's write-up (well one exception, I reused my stock springs), and all is now well. Speed bumps are no longer a truckish thing to cross. :) :) :)

Re: Rear Strut Install experience
 

Good to hear that it worked well for you. :-) I've since been able to get the struts out by myself too using the method you mentioned. The friction between the strut and the knuckle seems to be enough.

Thank You for the extra info. Lee. I don't think I require replacement struts yet as the ride still seems good and there is no bounce. I wonder what milage you have on your SVX and what type of strut you used as replacement.
Happy Trails.........Ralph

119K miles, and I bought OEM replacement struts from Mike at Kerven @ $72.42 each - plus shipping. FYI, I had no bounce either, just very hard high speed compression damping. Note: the struts didn't seem to be leaking, the rear of the car just took speed bumps about like my wife's 4Runner.


BTW, someone was looking for used struts sometime back, can't remember who or why. Will hold these a week to see if anyone responds, then off to the trash bin they go. The struts would be free, but there's 30 pounds of shipping costs.

Who is this Mike at Kevern?

That is a heck of a deal on OE replacement SVX struts.

Thanks - Jon

Mike is a forum member/SVX owner and took a part time job working parts at Kerven Subaru where he was kind enough to offer a discount of OEM parts. He recently had to cut back his hours due to college class work load.

press the search button and look for kerven subaru as a user name. If Mike is out of business SubaruPartsGirl has been plying her parts trade of late with about equally good prices. Then of course there's Subaruparts.com and 1tSubaruparts.com to try as well - SubaruParts has been good enough to put exploded parts diagrams on their web site. Mostly I think it depends on which end of the country you're in (the latter two are left coast dealers). If I left any out, I'm sorry, not intentional. I personally have bought from 1stSubaru and from Kerven with good results both places.