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Marty,
I did the strut replacement yesterday. It took me from 9:45AM to 6:00PM. Within this period, I did the job very easy to avoid sweating too much (even inside the garage, it was really hot outside!!), and made lunch for my kids and myself, doing dishes after lunch and cleaning up all the tools, mess and garage.
Everything went very well than I expected. The 2 strut to steering knuckle (17mm/18mm) bolts/nuts were very easy to unlose. I replaced the swaybar end links last time when I did the brake pads/rotors replacement. Therefore, the swaybar end link bolt (15mm) came right out. The top 3 small nuts/washers (10mm) also very easy to unlose without any problem. When I took the strut out (quite heavy, as mentioned by others - about 30lbs), I also unscrewed the ABS sensor (10mm) bolt and took out the ABS sensor to clean it up. The bolt had all the rust metal chips sticking to it due to the magnet inside the ABS sensor. I cleaned up the 10mm bolt with Rust blaster first before I unscrewed it. Then I cleaned up the bolt with brake cleaner. I used a rag to clean the ABS sensor.
The big nut and star nut that held the upper strut mount were also very easy to unscrew. It may be that I bought the Volvo tools for the big nut and star nut. Both nuts were not rust at all, I used 1 1/2" long ratchet and a 1/2" breaker bar to unlose the big nut and star nut. Of course, I had to compress the spring first down to about 300mm (11.81"). Then I unscrewed the big nut and star nut. I replaced the upper strut mount, the metal plate that attached to the rubber bump stopper, the plastic bellow, new star nut, and new big nut. I didn't use the big nut that came with the Bilstein strut. I used Volvo new big nut instead. This is only personal perference, nothing special in particular. The hex socket for Bilstein was 7mm which was bigger and stronger than the one used in the Bilstein shocks. You need to transfer the L-shape braket for holding the ABS wire from the old strut to new strut. The bracket was held by 2 T25 torx screws. They were quite tight. You need a good quality T25 torx bit with a long ratchet. I used the Whia T25 bit with a adapter to the 1/2" long ratchet to unscrew it. I unscrewed a little bit by bit to avoid stripping the Torx screws. I used 2 new T25 torx screws with the old bracket in the Bilstein strut. Both the star nut and the big nut are torqued to 70Nm.
When you put it back, it was easier to use the 3 old 10mm nuts to hold the new strut from the strut tower (top). Then you can attach the strut to the steering knuckle with 2 hands. You need some force to seat the strut back to steering knucle. After you bolt the strut to steering knuckle with new bolts and nuts torqued to 65Nm and then another 90 degree, and you can replace the 3 old 10mm nuts/washers on the strut tower with new nuts and washers and torqued to 25Nm. The last thing I did was to put back the swaybar end links torqued to 50Nm, the ABS wires, and then the wheel torqued to 110Nm.
There is a link that has all the necessary pictures to do the strut replacement. I learned a lot and confidence from the website such that I had the gut to do it myself.
http://members.shaw.ca/heeeeee/strut/
Last but not least, don't forget to have the car in for 4 wheels alignment to set the camber correctly.
Ching-Ho Cheng
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1995 855 NA, Bilstein Strut & Shocks, K&N Filter, E-Code Lens, Apline CD-Changer, AutoDim RearView Mirror
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