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Changed my 245's springs this weekend. I've done this many times (whoops...on other cars that is), but decided I'd try the "tilt the strut out, caliper in place" method. No ABS on this car, but it does have new bushings up front so things are pretty snug.
Having had lots of experience with top nuts, I loosened all that first. Put compressors on while the strut was in. As expected, no amount of prying or pushing would get the top of the strut clear of the fender without damage. Eventually I went back to my old system of unbolting the ball joint. Usually I do this before unbolting the top of the strut from the strut tower. This time I hung the strut from a wrench across the tower opening while I took the BJ off. To get proper wiggle room, I unbolted the brake line bracket and slipped the strut under the center of the car, bottom first, on a small, rolling dolly I have. Much care with brake lines. Finished the spring install from that position and put the struts back in.
I'm not looking under my '83 right now, but I seem to recall the brake line setup being a little different. Regardless, I've never been able to get the clearance at the top of the strut to get this system to work and the brakes are always an additional hurdle. I read a ton of posts before starting. The idea of removing the rear a-arm bushing pocket is good, but I don't see that this is any less work than dropping the ball joint and removing strut. Same alignment problems apply, though there is somewhat less chance of camber change.
It would appear that what people are trying to avoid is loosening the brake lines and/or unbolting the bottom of the strut. My experience is that the best way to handle this is to remove the caliper and hang it in the fender well, then put the strut on a bench, especially if you are doing cartridges as well as springs, or just cartridges. However with the '83 currently no here, I cannot verify my suspicion that the attachment of the brake lines to the struts on the earlier cars is different and more easily removed than on the '91.
I would welcome some input on this. I'd especially like to know if someone out there has "the trick" to doing the struts without removing either the ball joint, brake lines or caliper.
Brickboard for president in 2007 1/2, a Volvo in every garage and....
DS
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