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joecitizennn · Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 2096 Location: no mans land

Kind of a no brainer, but for those who are not familiar with the proscess, here are some how-to tips.

First order of business, if you are going to change your front shocks (strut inserts) you are going to have to have some specialized tools to break down the strut assembly. Tools to have are:

-High quality spring compressor set. (rent one from your local parts store)
-A jack and two jackstands.
-Metric socket set.
-Huge chanel-lock pliers, or even better a pipe wrench.
-Hammer and broad punch.
-Possibly an air impact gun.

The latter you may be able to get by without using. Carefully.

A sure sign of suspension failure. Shock oil all over the place!!!

Step 1, squirt a little penetrating oil on the top center shock nut inside the engine compartment the night before. Loosen your wheel lugs, then jack up the car on BOTH sides and place on jackstands. THis is necessary because with one side of the vehicle down, the sway bar will prevent you from dropping the suspension arm enough to get the strut past the fender. Remove the front wheels. Before you do anything else, see if you can loosen the top center shock nut. THis is really important if you dont have air tools. I have been able to loosen SOME without an impact gun. If you are disposing of the shock because it is bad, you can grip the piston rod with vice grips or a pipe wrench. THis will ruin the rod, but if the shock is bad, who cares right? IF the shock is to be saved, you can grip the spring plate located at the top of the spring with a pair of vice grips while attempting to loosen the shock nut with a breaker bar. I have found this to be the best method. If you get it loose, DO NOT REMOVE IT! YOu only want it loose at this point
There is a good chance the bolt will be frozen with rust and will require an impact gun. If you dont have one, drive to a shop that does and have them break the nut loose. Again, the nut should NOT be removed. Drive the car home and jack it back up and pop the wheels off.

Step 2, Now you get to use the spring compressors. Put them on opposite sides of the strut as shown.

Now tighten them equally untill your spring is compressed a few inches. At this point you can remove the shock nut and let the shock drop through the bearing.

Now compress the spring more and more untill you can tilt the strut past the fender. This is harder than it sounds, you will have to press down on the whole suspension arm to clear the fender. Challenging, but do-able. You may want to tape a towel over the outside of your fender to protect it.

Once you get the strut past the fender, you can simply lift the spring off.

THis leaves the beastly task of removing the strut tube cap. If you thought the shock nut was a pain in the nutts, this is worse. This is where your hammer, punch, and long pipe wrench or chanel-locks come into play.

The cap must be unscrewed, and it takes some muscle. You can either do it by grabbing it with a pipe wrench, or by tapping the notch counter clockwise with a hammer and punch. It took a little bit of both to do this one.

With the cap off the shock simply slides up and out. Your new shock may have assorted spacers to make it fit the tube. You may also find that your shocks are the old oil type, not the nice clean gas unit you just bought. In this case you just pull everything out and mop the oil out of the tube with a rag. Important note here, if you are racing or driving vigerously enough to generate alot of heat in the shock tower, you can put some transmission fluid in the tube before you put the gas insert in. THis helps to cool the cartridge. The fluid should come no more than two thirds up the tube when the insert is in place. This prevents boil over and leakage.
Assembly is the reverse of what you just did. Make sure to be careful to line up the bumps in the spring shelf and spring topper plate with the spring ends.

It is easy once you do it a time or two. Have fun! I know I did.

morghen · Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 8883 Location: Romania

haha...whats better than a 924S..? two 924S

good info i bet that there are people that dont know this.
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bruni · Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 114 Location: South Africa

Good post. It looks like you have a RH disc fitted to the left hand side

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1982 931
1975 harley sportster

joecitizennn · Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 2096 Location: no mans land

I actually drilled that disc. The vents in the disc are straight so the orientation of the holes does not matter.

Joes924Racer · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:33 am Post subject:

Thats how its done.

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1979 porsche 924 Na
1980 porsche Turbo 931GT Replica
Have u ever driven a turbo.

bruni · Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 114 Location: South Africa

Rasta Monsta · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 11724 Location: PacNW

If its an S disc, it's vented.

Good to see you back Joe C. . .you disappeared for a while.
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Toofah King Bad

WeiBe (1987 924S 2.5t) - 931 S3

joecitizennn · Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 2096 Location: no mans land

It is vented and cross-drilled. The vents do not curve, they radiate straight out from the hub. . The arrangement of the holes in spirals is cosmetic and does not indicate spiraling vents.

I ended switching the sides the rotors were on so now it looks cosmetic-correct.

joecitizennn · Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 2096 Location: no mans land

MikeJinCO · Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 3:35 am Post subject:

Having just finished my struts, I'll add a little info for newbies like me. Using the new mounts P/N 944 343 071 00, there is a 6mm spacer needed below the mount that does not seem to be available anywhere. I used two 1/2" washers and a 5/16" fender washer drilled and ground out to size. came out .022" too thick, but I'll live with it. The mount also needs a bushing inserted into the top. The bushing is in the original mount bearing and can be pulled out. Hope this helps someone as it had me really confused for a time.
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Mike

'67 MG Midget Dp
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Brendan · Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 63 Location: Maine USA

Mike--

It took a couple years, but that was a huge help for me.

Thanks,
Brendan

Slam · Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 1:21 pm Post subject:

Good write-up, but spring compressors scare the crap out of me. I posted some pics and procedural stuff in the thread below for those who don't want to use compressors.

http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=33966&highlight=
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'84 944 - kid blew motor
'83 944 - resting comfortably. For 12 years
'87 944 - sideswiped by trucker
'80 924 - gone
'78 924 - gone
'77 924 - rusting comfortably

joecitizennn · Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 2096 Location: no mans land

You could paste that here on this thread if you wanted. The more pictures the merrier.
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87 924s
88 924SE gone
447 hp cgt clone
87 924S gone
84 944 sold
83 944 sold
89 turbo S LSD, ABS etc
86 951 white rocket
85 944 sport everything.
84 944 sold.
87 944 sold