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Strut bearing replacement



Couple thoughts on this whole schlemeazle schlemazle.
1. you may be able to get the spring, and or, upper bearing out by removing 
the three bolts (two little, one big) at the top of the strut with the car 
on the ground and then jacking it up. Getting it all back together and 
lining it up by reversing the procedure is sure to be a huge pain in the 
ass!  This is one of those iffy approaches that you get half way through and 
then curse yourself, your car and the universe and wonder why you didn't 
just take the damn strut out and use a spring compressor.

2. Contrary to what Brian Haygood has written, you can NOT adjust camber 
without affecting toe. The simple way to demonstrate this is to turn the 
upper camber bolt and watch how both camber and toe change simultaneously. 
And for this reason I strongly suggest that you do not mark the camber bolts 
assuming that if they are "apparently" in the same position, that the camber 
and toe will be the same.  There is enough clearance in the various holes 
and between the strut housing and upper bolt eccentrics that this procedure 
does not replicate the alignment with anywhere near enough accuracy. Try 
this to illustrate; remove one front tire and loosen the upper camber 
adjustment bolt just enough to turn it. Keep the lower bolt kutentite! Now 
test how much you can rotate the upper bolt without changing camber.

3. If the biggest concern is not having to do an alignment, then don't 
loosen the bolts that affect it. Namely the camber adjustment bolts and the 
tie rod end adjustment on the tie rod. It's not that difficult to remove the 
strut as one piece with the hub carrier, service your strut or upper strut 
bearing or whatever and reassemble. Bear in mind that if you're changing to 
a different spring the car ought to be aligned afterwards anyway.

And lastly, toe is the biggest adjustment that will cause tire wear and like 
it or not, small changes in camber adjustment do affect it. Camber is almost 
a secondary consideration. It should be even side to side although there is 
a pretty wide tolerance here. Factory spec is both sides should be the same 
within 1° which is alot in my opinion. Moderate negative camber (-1°) is 
better for performance and will not affect tire wear.
It's worthwhile getting your toe checked. It's cheap compared to the price 
of tires and it ought to be considered an occasional maintenance item 
anyway.
my <.02
Dan

From: "Allyn" <amalventano1@tds.net>
Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 12:35 AM
Subject: RE: Strut bearing replacement


>>   If you unscrew the strut bearing's center bolt, the spring
>> will blow everything apart, so you need strut spring
>> compressors to get the bearing off without killing yourself.
>
> I've removed both upper bolts with the car on the ground, then jacked up 
> from the front of the car.  Sure there is a thud sound
> made, but I've never had a factory spring go flying, as long as the wheel 
> was in place.  I've managed to replace rear factory
> springs by using the cars weight to compress the spring, doing it solo 
> even, but I needed a hand accomplishing such a feat on the
> fronts, and that was with 8v springs.  16v springs would be much more 
> difficuly (and risky).
>
>> The exception is that if you have crappy lowering springs
>> that don't touch the top of the strut when the strut is
>> extended.
>
> I don't believe I've seen an aftermarket front spring that _did not_ 
> slacken with the strut fully extended.  Basically anything more
> aggressive than stock will do this, even progressive rate neuspeed 
> softsports.  (note - rears are a different animal - even
> aftermarket is usually slightly compressed at full extension).
>
>>   I'm pretty sure it isn't practical to do this without
>> removing the whole strut.
>
> If the bearing is all that needs to be replaced, there should be no need 
> to remove anything beyond the center nut and both retaining
> nuts from each upper tower.
>
>>   It is easier to do the alignment yourself.  Actually, it is
>> quite easy.  I'll elaborate ad nausium, so go grab a piece of
>> pecan pie to eat while you read.
>
> Assuming alignment was good prior-to, there will be minimal, but some 
> impact on alignment, due to a rise in ride height if factory
> springs are kept.
>
>> Camber is the
>> angle of the wheel relative to the ground.  Positive camber
>> is when the top of the wheel leans toward the center of the
>> car.
>
> Bzzzzt:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_angle
> "if the bottom of the wheel is further out than the top, it is called 
> negative camber"
>
>> I usually use full positive
>> camber.
>
> See above?
>
>> That means the bolt is moved toward the center of
>> the car in that slot it moves along in the strut, and the top
>> of the steering knuckle is leaning toward the center of the
>> car as much as possible.
>
> Holy crap, that is *severe* negative camber.  Note that on any lowered 
> scirocco, adjusting to the other end of the range (strut
> housing moves outward, closest to you), still results in a slightly 
> negative camber (usually just within the factory spec, depending
> on ride height).
>
>>    Now put the wheels on and drive the car.  If it pulls to
>> the left, adjust the right-hand bolt for less positive camber
>> (i.e. move the bolt in the slot away from the center of the
>> car).  If it pulls to the right, do the oppositte.  In the
>> last two cars I did this on, the cars tracked perfectly
>> straight the first time around.  You can adjust the strut
>> without removing the wheel, but use a jackstand before you
>> crawl under the car to do so.
>
> Side note here, don't bother adjusting toe (if you are going to) without 
> settling on the camber values first - as vw geometry
> results in them impacting eachother.  Also, disregard where the steering 
> wheel sits (i.e. don't try to adjust suspension to get it
> to sit centered - you are adjusting for how the car wants to track, not 
> for where the steering wheel ends up, as you will just
> remove+recenter the wheel when all is said and done anyhow).
>
> HTH
> Al
>
>
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