I'm about to do the struts in my '84 245 and I was wondering if theres any way of checking the strut bearings?


Thanks in advance,
Chris (high atop the berkshires)

'84 245, 123k miles, '86 SAAB 900, 176k miles

I was told by my alignment shop that the best way to tell if they are worn out is to head across a rough gravel parking lot at about 20 mph. If you hear the rattling out of the top end of the suspension then it is time to replace these bearings.

Brian
--
86 240GL, 86 740GLE & others

The mounting rubber around the bearing is likely to be cracked. If the cracks are mild, they're hard to see when there is no load on the bearings (ie: removed from the car). Pry the cap off over the top strut nut and look at the rubber. Examine again when off the car. The bearings can be re-packed by prying off the side shields, flushing with carb cleaner, turning by hand to free up and applying new grease and re-inserting the shields. jp

I tried just that on my '92 as a stopgap measure, and the bearing shields would not budge. Must be a difference in bearings between yours and mine.

No difference from my 83 to your 92 per the FCP Groton catalog. The bearing shields (seals) are a little tricky to remove, especially on small bearing like the strut bearings. An awl and real small screwdriver worked for me. A pen knife is recommended by the following tech data site http://www.airmotor.com/catalog2/df-test/df-193.htm. They snap back in. jp

I'm no stranger to shielded ('sealed') bearings... these guys would not budge. I destructively opened them up after the fact, from the back side (seemed to be an epoxy sealant on that side), and one was corroded badly to the point it was frozen, and the other had only fossilized grease and was quite rough. No regrets at replacing them!

That's interesting. I might run into the same situation some day so I'll file that bit of information from your experience away in the back of my head. I'll ask my SKF and NGK bearing reps at work about this too. Thanks. jp

The simplest, although not free, way to do it is to buy the strut bearings to have on hand, and then return them if you don't need them. The bearing (actually, a bearing plate" come off when the strut is disassembled, and the thing to do is to rotate the inner race by hand. If they are unturnable, stiff, or rough, put in new ones. With a new set on hand you can tell how free they should be. Chances are, living in New England you'll need new ones unless a PO repalced them along the way. Just did mine ('92 at 168K) and the old ones were completely shot.

But seriously, folks . . .

I'm assuming you mean the upper strut mount bearings. I had no conclusive proof that my strut mount bearings were bad. With the front wheels in the air, when I forced the steering from end to end by grabbing the wheel at 9 and 3 o'clock, I definitely felt some rough spots, but I figured it was the rack.

I would suggest that you have replacement mounts available, since with all the labour involved in getting the struts out, you can easily check the mounts when they're removed. The mounts in my '86 were pretty rough; if your '84's are original, I imagine they are too.

I bought the SKF's from FCP Groton, which are supposedly OEM.

Aren't those the same as muffler bearings?

Similar, but i just replaced 'em last month