Impressive job there, I should have fitted new bolts when I changed mine, will do when I get chance.

ransoman wrote:

Where did you get the strut spreader from? I ended up using progressively larger hex sockets but I rounded the corners off of my cheap ones so it made the job that much harder. one of these definately seems like an essential tool.

Thanks., I'll get one ordered in for my next suspension job.

Hi, I am on doing this now myself and am facing a lot of the same troubles that you have.

Just wondering if anyone knows that the dots go to the top like in the photo? It looks like they do to me but I remember reading in Land Rover Owners International that a land rover garage but them on the wrong way up so just wanted to check.

what i did was take photographs of the old spring and the positions the ends sat in in the cups on the shocker and compare the new one to how it would sit

I replaced my Passenger side strut last night and thanks to the tip-offs on this forum, I bought a knuckle spreader tool.

In the end, this one was the one I bought:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Q6F2WCH?psc...ct_details

I wanted a brand I had heard of and didn't want a crappy chinese klmfem non-branded one and this one seemed to do the trick. The tool is very good quality and did the job perfectly.

Quote:

Report post
I replaced my Passenger side strut last night and thanks to the tip-offs on this forum, I bought a knuckle spreader tool.

In the end, this one was the one I bought:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Q6F2WCH?psc...ct_details

Now that's a tool worth having in your box

Oooo Matron !

deadbeatdad wrote:

ha i wish, i still have the other side to do and im going to tackle that oil seal myself. Ive order an oil seal puller and a steering knuckle spreading tool.

I am getting a slight knocking noise when going over bumps from the side ive just done, im thinking its those top mounts which were a loose fit rather than a tight one like the old ones i took out

Arctic wrote:

Quote:

Report post
I replaced my Passenger side strut last night and thanks to the tip-offs on this forum, I bought a knuckle spreader tool.

In the end, this one was the one I bought:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Q6F2WCH?psc...ct_details

Now that's a tool worth having in your box

Quote:

Arctic wrote:

Quote:

Report post
I replaced my Passenger side strut last night and thanks to the tip-offs on this forum, I bought a knuckle spreader tool.

In the end, this one was the one I bought:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Q6F2WCH?psc...ct_details

Now that's a tool worth having in your box

Well now i wished i had purchased that tool, because yesterday my NS spring broke

This happened to me yesterday just as i was driving onto our drive, there is a little hump to get on the drive and twang clonk just as though a spanner had dropped onto the under tray, so car up on the ramps to investigate.

It didn't take me long to find this below on the lower arm.
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TD4 MY07 125,000 miles so not bad really it's a known fact that between November to middle of March there is more chance of your springs breaking because of the cold weather, the FL as been down a few pot holed country lanes in the last three months while going to my friends home to sort out his Freelander one, so maybe that as put extra pressure on the old springs.

Looks like it had an air line crack because the break is clean, anyways i think i may have found a good decent second hand strut shocker spring all in one which i put on until the weather gets better and warmer then change the both together.

The jobs are building up come early summer late spring, four new Calipers, discs and pads, timing belt and water pump last done in 2017 = 25,000 miles so doing because of year only not by mileage, all parts waiting for the right time.

Well i spent at least 3 hours today wire wheeling the threads, and using penetrating fluid then using a hugger gun on the strut bolt never even budged all the others that might need removing i got started and nipped them back up.

I will give it another try tomorrow and apply some heat and a long bar fingers crossed i can get it to move.

Well today i decided to try the old method as above and got the bolt moving nicely, little at a time using heat, plus gas, long bar and a long ratchet.

You can what i was dealing with below.
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After a while slowly got it started and the bolts was moving, so tightening and undoing bit by bit.
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The disaster stuck and the bolts snapped.
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Now i have the task of trying to remove the thread out of the hub

That must have ruined your day, Arctic...

When i changed my rear shocks, I had a "near miss" with the strut bolts. The picture below shows the difference between the 13 year old bolt I removed & a new one. The original bolt shank has rusted where exposed to the elements (the split in the knuckle). When I removed the old bolt, it stiffened up noticeably, to the point where the bolt bent slightly at the narrow corroded part. Fortunately, I was lucky & it did not shear. (I was using a breaker bar - but not as big a breaker bar as yours...). I was a lot more careful when doing the other side.



Corrosion of the bolt shank is the issue. The rust & crud gets compressed in the knuckle bolt hole - the more the bolt gets reversed out (against the flow of the thread), the tighter debris binds up & the bolt shears. Additionally, by the time it gets to this point - the bolt has backed out 10-15mm and there is a tendency to think that the danger is over...

Hope the removal of the remnants of the bolt thread goes well. Good Luck!