Front strut bearing/tightness

I

ISG

Well-known user
May 30, 2013
122
17
Lithuania
Hi,

So I bought new Monroe reflex struts, and Apex lowering springs. Tired to put them together today. Everytging seemed to be fine, except one thing. When I assembled whole strut thing, I noticed that I barely can turn the upper mount arround. (it turns, but its really quite hard) It seems strange to me because I taught that the bearing should make it super easy to turn it (bearing is ok, it slides arround sooo smooth till the nut that holds the mount is not tightened). So I didnt put the strut into the car, wanted to ask you about this... how easy it should be to turn the strut mount arround while it is not on the car? o_O
Thanks for any ideas. (I didnt realized to try to turn it with the old assembly, unfortunatelly, so now I dont immagine how it should turn)
 
The nut should turn fairly easy and smooth as it is essentially the nut to the bolt which is the hydraulic ram (shock absorber). The shack absorber is basically a hydraulic ram ie: a cylinder (outer casing) and a piston ( the chrome part with the threaded top which the nut screws onto). The piston has nylon type seals, like piston rings for compression. These resist up/down movement but have hardly any resistance to turning inside the cylinder, so yes, you should be able to turn it.
 
Damn, it drives me nuts... what could possibly go wrong.... spring seats tight and nicely... bearing sits in the spring seat, that metal/rubber mount sits ok also, the nut on top is fastened till the end...
Any ideas? :(
 
If your trying to turn the top mount by hand, then it will be heavy going. Providing you've assembled everything properly and the top nut is tight it should be ok. Have you connected the steering? Does it feel ok at the wheel (steering wheel).
 
No, I just tried it by hand (strut is not on the car), and it is quite hard as I wrote. But it turns. So Im guessing is everything is fine or not o_O
 
Yeah, so thats why i think that it should turn easily without the weight of the car. Also it makes some noise, like grinding or something, but its quite.. I will try to take a vid tomorrow :(
 
I don't get your thinking. Surely if something is designed to move under stress, it probably won't move without the stress applied?
 
Well, if you know what a bearing is, you should know that it is there to make things as smooth as possible, and if tou can not move that mount under a stress of a spring alone, then ir will take 50 times more energy to move it under the pressure of the car, and then your tie rod and tie rod ends dies every few years. You need a lot of energy to spin a wheel, but if you have a new hub bearing you will be able to easily turn it on the lifted car... Also i had cars in the past, and i can say that the whole strut mounting/strut tower on the cougar is pathetic. Everything holds on one nut, if you have a little worn mounting, everything gets loose and unstabe, same is with that strut bearing, other makes have a lot better designs... I used to turn that mounting with two fingers in my old car, because it was separate from the spring, and 100% touhg metal, not cheap plastic. And if it wiil appear that it is normal working order when you barely can rotate it with one hand, well, congrats Ford engineers! Same with strut removal when you have to beat the hell into the hub to get it loose, and then beat it again to put the strut back, othervise you have to remove the hub itself just to change the strut... But oh well, gotta live with that... Still i cannot understand why ford makes such stupid decissions when others just do simplier more convenient and reliable. Just look at the procedure of changing the fuel pump! They did not managed o align the hole behind the seat with fuel pump assembly, how can you argument that? Same goes to the french cars, i have seen such stupid things there, it seems that they engineer everything backwards :) And at the end you have to remove the wheel to change the headlight bulb, and remove the inner wing to reach the battery (really pays off in the winter when the batt dies) :)
 
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