I thought I would mention that I discovered a modification to the method posted in the 700FAQ.

A few months back when everyone was replacing their struts, I was busy and was sitting on my new bilstiens, waiting until I had time to put them in. At the time I copied some usefull posts for future reference. Someone mentioned that in order to get the strut to clear the wheel well they had to loosen up the ball joint nuts so they could push the strut down further. I didn't have to do this, and I think it is because I disconnected the tie rod.

While I was at this job I was also replacing the steering rack boots because they were torn. I did this before going at the struts and after I greased up the ball joint and put on the new boot I left it disconnected thinking it might free things up a bit. And it did too.

I had planned to use the method of loosening up the ball joint mounting nuts but after compressing the spring while it was in the well and disconnecting the tierod, I found that I didn't have to. It came out without any force needed.

After replacing the struts and bearings I found that one of them didn't want to go back in as freely as it had come out. So, I ended up bolting the new bearing into place and then guiding the top of the strut into the bearing. This worked extremely well.

With my new bilstiens I am tearing around corners like I have never been able to before. :^)



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- Mike