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Idiots guide to removal of a macpherson strut
dellyend1 - 15/10/19 at 08:46 AM

Hi all, after some help please. I need to remove temporarily remove a rear macpherson strut on my fisher fury as I need to access the strut tower to tighten a nut that secured the roll bar to the rear face of the suspension tower. I can’t see a way to do it ( as hands to big to squeeze into gap between strut tower and spring), so need to temp remove the strut. The two bottom bolts look easy, but I’m confused with the top . Can I just undo the central large nut and that will drop the strut or do I need to also remove the four bolts that i believe secure the top of the strut / spring cap to the strut tower ? Sorry if this is a dumb question and all help gratefully received. I can’t work out how to upload a photo from my phone so apologies for the description.

Thanks

Jeremy

tweek - 15/10/19 at 09:20 AM

Hi,

The central nut holds the strut together, if you aren't planning to replace the spring then I'd leave it alone.

The four radial nuts should attach the strut to the tower, I think these are the ones you're looking for.

Hope that helps.
John

nick205 - 15/10/19 at 02:22 PM

Leave the large central nut at the top alone, it holds the strut together! If you undo it without spring compressors on the spring there's high risk of damage and injury. The strut itself is usually secured into the stru tower with 3 or 4 smaller nuts over threaded studs that are part of the strut top mount.

Please take care - I've removed and rebuilt struts on the front of tin tops before and it's not difficult, but if you don't pay attention there's risk of injury. From your description it doesn't sound like you need to dismantle the strut, just take it the assembly out whole and put it back in whole.

Work slowly and stay safe!

dellyend1 - 15/10/19 at 02:31 PM

Thank you both for the advice, much appreciated.

I don't need to dismantle the strut so will leave well alone. I have four outer / radial bolts on top of the strut tower so I will remove these. I've taken out suspension on a TR6 before , so have spring clamps etc and will take my time.

Just wish there was an easy access way to get to the roll bar nut as it's a lot of faff (however, far lesser problem than a failing roll bar) to just tighten one nut !

Best Wishes

Jeremy

nick205 - 15/10/19 at 02:53 PM

Can you not get a long spanner in there to reach the nut?

Might have to buy a suitable spanner, but might be easier than removing the strut to get to it.

Mash - 15/10/19 at 04:56 PM

Undo the 4 nuts equally a bit at a time until you establish that the strut is coming loose, just in case they are holding the spring cap on. If it does not start to move about fairly freely, then that's a warning that they are still under tension and you may be in the verge of disconnecting the spring cap which would be scary

nick205 - 16/10/19 at 09:42 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Mash
Undo the 4 nuts equally a bit at a time until you establish that the strut is coming loose, just in case they are holding the spring cap on. If it does not start to move about fairly freely, then that's a warning that they are still under tension and you may be in the verge of disconnecting the spring cap which would be scary



Good point - my experience is with front (steering) MacPherson struts on tin top cars. The top section of the strut is a bearing to allow the vehicle's steering to work. This may of course be different if the strut is designed for the rear only without a bearing.

dellyend1 - 17/10/19 at 02:30 PM

Just to close out the thread - undid the top radial bolts very slowly and looked for top of strut to start dropping which it did. I could then see quite clearly that the bolts secured the top of the strut to the chassis turret. Undid the bolts and dropped the strut 20cm and this allowed me to access the bolts from the top of the turret. Thanks for all the assistance .

I also e-mailed Steve Hughes at Fury Sports Cars and he was great in confirming what you guys had suggested.

Cheers. Jeremy