springs removal question, Shock finally out!!!!!

hi guys, the car is on the lift and ready for the h&r springs install im not sure of something, regarding this picture do i need to take off the nut and the allen nut, it just seems that both of them are turning free might sound stupid.... hehe , thanks for the help

its a good idea to loosen them in the car if you can. DO NOT REMOVE!! if you take that off the spring go flying - well if its in the car, the shock go flying - but you get the idea

i 'm able to loosen them, but i thought i had to get them off hehe, one of the allen nut is not in good condition, could i change it for a new one when its off??

The allen is not a nut it is the threaded part of the strut shaft. So you would have to replace the whole strut or just clean it up the best you can while out of the car. Good luck with the install.

as stated - its the top of the strut - if replacing strut you are replacing it... if not, do the best you can with it

thanks guys!!

Looks more like "torx" then hex (allen). If you get the right tool it might save it. I have not pulled a strut from a 996 but many others. Normally the nut holds the compressed spring onto the strut. If you just spin it off you could be releasing a lot of stored up energy in the spring. Think of the joke can of nuts that releases a "worm" when the victim opens the top except this "worm" can take a couple of fingers with it. Do you have a way to contain it? IE: spring compressor?

Front is a 7mm hex.

Thank you, hard to tell from the pic

A pass through socket set is in order here. This allows the hex head tool to hold the shaft while loosening the nut. Or air should spin the nut off. Either way wait until you get it out and use spring compressors.

You should mark the position of the other three nuts so that you can put the strut back in then same, or a very close approximation to the same position. You will still need to have an alignment. If you are foing to remove the nut with the allen head socket you need to have a set of spring compressors installed. Some time these nuts are hard to get off as they have been on there for a long time. An air impact wrench will usually work pretty quickly.

hi guys, im currently doing the job i removed the brake caliper, the sensors the 18mm bolt and the 3 13mm i feel the strut is loose, i can move it a little up and down, i zip ties the spring, but i cant get it out from the spindle ??? is it possible that i need to get the brake disk hanging llike that? if so how you do that, which bolt do i need to remove, i took that pic from another thread

You need to somehow put pressure down. Be careful with the brake lines. Someone can get underneath and pull the Brake Disc assembly down while the other person gets the strut out without scraping your fender well.

but is it normal that my brake disc isnt loose like the picture above? it it gonna get loose as the strut go down??? thx

use a 1 gallon house paint can to set the caliper on... work great to keep from putting all that stress on the brake line... then with your foot step on the rotor and push it down far enough to get the top of the spring out of the fender well (push WAY DOWN) - once the spring is away from the fender watch that it doesnt hit the fender = scratch paint pull the strut out of the spindle OH and I never tied the spring down with tie wraps, dont think they are strong enoough but if it works cool, just careful they dont release unexpectedly

OH the brake disc stays on... (re-read your question)

OK, I hope you have a lot of zip ties, very heavy duty ones. Do your self a favor and go spend a few bucks on a set of spring compressors. I think I paid less than $15 at Harbor Freights. There is a lot of compression on the springs. Trying it with zip ties is dangerous to both you and to your car. I hope your marked the three nuts at the top of the strut so you can put it back in at the same location, you will still need an alignment when all is said and done. The top plate on a C4 has a bearing assembly in it, clean it and grease it while you are in there. You will need the spring compressors to get the top of the strut off and to get it back on. If you have a C4 your are not going to get the springs/shocks out from under the fenders with some more Work. With a C2 the wheel carrier will usually drop down enough that you can get the top of the strut out from under the fender. With a C4 the drive shaft prevents this. You will need a ball joint separator. You have to separate the ball joint that holds the the wheels carrier to the lower controls arm, and may have to separate the ball joint that holds the main control arm to the front control arm. With this done you will be able to pull the wheel carrier out enough that is can lower enough to get the shock out. You also have to deal with the drive shaft which is held into the wheel carrier with a nut on the end of a splined shaft. The torque on the nut is 300 ft. lbs. I undid one with an air impact wrench put could not get the splined shaft out of the wheel carrier, I think you need a press of some kind. Rather than taking the drive shaft out of the wheel carrier I slid the other end out of the differential. The splined shaft on the differential end just slides in and out of the differential. To really see what you are doing you need to take the plastic shield off the bottom of the car. Once the shaft is out of the differential protect the splined end with a cloth. Once the shaft is out of the differential you can basically take the whole strut, wheel carrier and drive shaft out as an assembly. Loosen the blots on the carrier that holds the strut in and you can remove the strut. Do you have manuals, there are some diagrams of this in the manuals. Don't have pictures but I can help guide you through this.

Doug, I am about to do an X74 install. I have heard of people slackening the differential bolts to provide play so that they don't have to do all of this. Any thoughts on this approach? It might help Seb as well.

Quotes source post: 8312819

That is exactly what I did and worked like a charm. Loosened bolts removed the cross bracing without getting into splines and other ugly stuff. It creates a teeter totter effect from LF to RF. Once the 1st comes out the 2nd just falls out. Still have to be careful not to scratch the fender.

I did this last summer and posted some pictures and words which may help here: https://rennlist.com/forums/7391952-post19.html Three points: 1) At first I did not remove my sway bar link. This prevented me from bringing the top of the strut low enough to clear the fender. I also bent that sway bar link. It's written in my post. 2) I used an impact wrench to spin off the top nut. With the impact wrench I did not have to hold the centre post in place. 3) There was no tension on the spring at all. I took off the nut and the whole thing came apart very easily. I did not have to use spring compressors. I think you could tell if the spring is tensioned. If it wiggles up and down or back and forth at all, then there is no tension. Mis en garde, bon chance.

i dont see the information on how to remove the diffential stuff... slackening the differential bolts where is that??? any picture seems like im at a dead end and need to remove those

Jasper's pictures are for a C2, no drive shafts to deal with. I did not try to loosen the differential bolts to get some play in the drive shafts so I am not sure how this would work. But I can tell you that the shafts slide right in and out of the differential. What I forgot to say in my post is that when you slide the splned shafts back into the differential you have to make sure they go all the way in. There are races on the shaft and bearings in the case. Use a wooden drift and a small hammer to lightly tap the shafts back in until the races are all the way into the bearings. This is why you need to remove the plastic shield on the bottom. You can do it with the shield in place but it is harder to see. When I first put mine back together I only slid the shafts in by hand and they were not all the way in. Went for a drive and had differential fluid spraying all over. Had to tap the shafts the rest of the way in and refill the differential (the fluid is expensive and hard to find unless you want to buy a big container). Not sure but I think it might be easier/faster to slide the shafts out than to loosen/lower the differential. With the PSS10's you use some of the parts from the original struts including the top bearing plates adn the spring compressors were definitely required. And if there is compression/tension on the springs zip ties are just an accident waiting to happen.

Seb, my info was/is for C2 also - not the same....

Seb- The biggest tip is to remove the plastic underbody cover if you have not done so yet. Crawl underneath and you will see what is in the way. I'm sorry but don't have pics.

alright, i will remove the plastic and see if i see the nut do i only need to remove the shaft from the differential and/or the one in the wheel carrier...

are you guys talking about the 6-7 bolts that hold the boot to the differential, are you talking about that when you say loose them... heres some pictures from underneath, do i have a fluid leak in the driver boot? also, in another picture, is my swaybar bushing done? also, is it normal that my swaybar is rubbing the arm? that might explains the knock i hear when driving also, leak driver wheel boot???

hehe, im so happy, finally the driver front shock is out, thanks everyone, i did remove the 6 shaft bolts, and damnit you need to pry so much to get the shock out but its done, more update tomorrow