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95 ElDorado ETC Front Strut removal


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Well I am deep into replaceing my front struts. I can not seem to figure out how to remove the large round connector? on the back of the strut. I am not sure if this is an airline or a wire ?I see no way to"remove" the piece it goes into from the strut body itself........the new struts are passive and do not have this piece on them...

Also the sway bar arm does not want to break free from the strut body either. I see a note to "thread it back through with a T20" while holding the nut - does nothing but round off my T20bits - arghhhh.

Thanks - Randy

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Well , I now see it's just a "wire" that goes to the big round "plug" if you will , on the backside of the strut. I was also able to dremel the threaded female part that the top of the sway bar link went into off of the strut body itself.

Could of picked a better day than a holiday weekend to do this.

The " wire" must be the one talked about in other links that has to have a resistor wired into it........

Now to assemble the new strut - should of bought the whole thing assembled - arghhhhhh

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You will not be able to remove the passive strut valve. It is internal to the strut.

Also Anytime I replace struts I replace the swaybar links. It saves headaches, and typically they are worn anyway

GM FAN FOREVER

Nice, clean, luxury= fine automobile

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Thanks Rock , I am thinking that will be what I have to do. Will have to cut it off the sway bar end, as it will also not "unscrew".

Also giveing up on even trying to compress the spring with my set of spring compressors - to be safe will take it into a local place and have them reassemble them - feeling pretty defeated right about now.Been at it most of the day and only have one side off and apart.Too far to compress safely to get the new parts together...

But will prevail !! : ). I hope -lol.

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Hmmmmmm - noticed on the new struts the hole where the top of the sway bar link goes through isn't threaded.....old one seemed to have some kind of threaded round nut -( wich I hacked apart to get the end out) - new one has nothing but a hole . Anyone have a solution to this or run across it ?

Thanks again - R

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I have been where you are at before.

The springs are heavy and can hurt someone if not done very carefully. Link to strut hole should be fine.

GM FAN FOREVER

Nice, clean, luxury= fine automobile

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The sway bar links are a morse taper aren't they? A blast from an air chisel will pop them right out.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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  • 1 month later...

No , actually these are threaded. The stem part of the link threads into the hole in the strut. It has a T20 torx hole in the end of it, wich you are "supposed" to be able to turn while holding the lock down nut and thread it back out of the strut. Allmost 20 years old - doesn't happen. I ruined 2 bits and it wouldn't budge with heat , or vise grips etc. I have new links now, but will have to pull it apart again to drill out the old ones.

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weird. Usually the link stud goes through the hole in the strut and is secured with a nut. The torx is used in case when you are tightening or loosening the bolt and the ball stud turns. nothing more

GM FAN FOREVER

Nice, clean, luxury= fine automobile

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Wish I could draw a picture - or try to explain better -there was a round metal ( i would say like a 1/4" thick washer looking piece) , and it was tacked or welded? to the strut and threaded inside. The link did pass through the actually strut ( the thickness of the material that it is made of) and then threaded through this other piece. I had to dremel them apart carefully,allmost like you would do with a nut splitter , and remove them that way from the end of the link.

I then had to find a spacer of the same thickess for the link to pass through to reattach it to the strut. It appears to be inserted into the sway bar end the same way....

The new strut was as mentioned above by KHE , and I now have yet to deal with the end that is in the sway bar to be able to install the new ones...I still have the old struts , maybe I can get a picture..

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We could use a scanned figure out of the FSM at this point.

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Is the washer on the backside of the sway bar link, behind the strut? Sometimes when they get stubborn I get a long prybar under the sway bar and the subframe and lift the bar up thus will put pressure on the link. I hit it with a 15mm or 18mm on a impact and it breaks loose.

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No, it is out on the front side, the nut tightens up against it , odd , I am still amiss with this setup.......something just isn't right in my mind, as to why it had to come apart like it did....and the new struts have no thick "sleeve or washer" if you will. So about a 1/4"+ of bare unthreaded link stud shows.....it definetly needs some kind of spacer......

On another note , I installed the resistors to take away the suspension code error that shows on the info screen , and it is still there .......does it have to be actually cleared ??

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