[Vwdiesel] Struts Replaced

[Nate Wall]

The (almost) new assembled KYB struts w/ springs (from
a '91 Jetta) and rear shocks) I paid $150 for on
e-Bay, arrived Friday, super fast. They were brand new
looking. My two special strut nut tools from The Tool
Store did not. Well, being bored Saturday, I ground
flat and filed two sides of a 22 socket and got a real
snug fit w/ a 25 MM open end wrench. That, w/ an allen
wrench worked great for the top nuts. The allen
stripped out on one of the struts, and I tried the
candle wax trick for the first time (heat real well
and press a candle on the hot threaded part). Boy, it
worked too. The springs on the new struts were
extremely rusted, especially on the bottom ends. Lots
of wire brushing and Krylon primer and gloss black got
them looking new. The springs from my '85 were rust
free, and I never painted them, go figure. The strut
carriers/housings from the '91 said "Made in Mexico".
I was unable to grind the spacers flat with the top
mounting plates (like in Roger B.'s picture), because
the spacer actually was the slotted nut holding the
strut assembly together and I had no spring compressor
and socket for it, and the nut was quite recessed.
And, it did project about 3 MM ABOVE the top plate,
dang, talk about slop. There is a little knocking from
that area when I go over bumps, so after my tools
arrive, I may attempt it if it gets bad. I'll at least
see if the upper mounting nuts (under the hood) can be
tightened down a little more now. But this is a vast
improvement on the dead struts that were in there.
BTW, I checked my receipts and the old struts were on
the car for about 140,000 miles!

--Nate

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