1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Ok...about four hours of struggling to get just one side. I never would have done it without your post, Dean. Thanks.
A few pointers:
1) The axle nut was absolutely dead frozen, I actually broke my breaker bar trying to wrestle it off. I've never seen a wrench shatter like that, good thing nobody was hurt. I finally got the nut off by soaking it overnight in WD40, then running a blowtorch over it for about ten minutes. Since my breaker bar was gone, I took an appropriate deep wall socket (it's a 32MM axle socket, not 1 1/4) and put a huge plumbers pipe wrench around it. Stood on the wrench, jumped up and down, and reluctantly, the bolt let go. If you ever need to replace one of these, the axle nut from a 90-94 Subaru is a pefect fit, and at $4 from the local auto parts store, it's probably a quarter of what Saab would charge.
2) Rather than remove the antilock sensor, I unplugged it at the connector, which is mounted on the splash shield. This saved me from undoing a few rusty torx fasteners.
3) The lower ball joint could not be undone until the axle bolt was free, since there's not enough headspace to get a box end wrench in there. Once the axle gave, I was able to pull it forward a bit, and get the wrench in. As for freeing up the joint, I just used a pickle fork. This sacrifices the gaiter, but hopefully I can get a new one at the local Napa. Otherwise, a new ball joint at this point is a piece of cake.
The rest seems pretty straight forward. Now that it's apart, I can see that the whole problem was the shock mount. The struts themselves are fine, as is the bearing. But I think I'll replace the whole mess. I'm also going to do the brakes, since everythings apart.
Thanks again,
Mike
posted by 206.28.2...
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