Automotive springs are under an incredible amount of pressure when compressed in the strut assembly. Serious injury or death may occur if you are not careful.
DO NOT remove the center nut in the strut assembly until the springs are completely compressed.
If the spring compressors slip while compressing, BE VERY CAREFUL and slowly decompress spring.
When starting to compress springs, make sure compressors are equally spaced on the spring.

When torquing the center nut on the strut, do not hold the smooth part of the cartridge with pliers or anything that may scratch the metal. This will cause your seals to wear prematurely. The top of the threads should have one side cut out so you can grip it there.

Personally I used Eibach Springs (pro kit) and Tokico Illumina struts. I reused the spring seats and strut mount brackets.

Here are the basics on installing springs and shocks:
Equipment: Jack stands, breaker bar, spring compressor, metric sockets and torque wrench.

1. Remove the front tire. Remove the two 17mm bolts at the bottom of the front shock assembly. The nuts are 19mm. Open the hood and remove the three 14mm bolts at the top of the shock tower.

2. Once the bolts have been removed take out the shock assembly. Note which way the upper spring seat is directed. The notch needs to point out when you reassemble.

3. Install the spring compressors. One on either side of the spring and tighten. Tighten them alternately to avoid spring tilt.
4. When springs are compressed remove the large nut at the top of the shock assembly. DO NOT REMOVE THE NUT AT THE TOP OF THE SHOCK ASSEMBLY WITHOUT THE SPRING COMPRESSORS INSTALLED.

5. Take apart the shock assembly and be sure to layout the parts on the floor. Keep them in order so it will be easy to reassemble.

6. Cut the bump stop. I trimmed about 1 ½ inches off.

7. When swapping out the spring be sure that the lettering on the spring is not upside down. Install the spring on the shock assembly so that you can read the lettering. The lettering represents the top so you don't install them upside down.

8. Depending on what springs you bought, you may (probably will) need to compress the new springs.

9. Put the shock assembly back together and install the center nut. Make sure that you have the upper spring seat in the correct direction before decompressing the springs. The notch will point out.

10. After the center nut is torqued, then carefully release the compressors.

11. Reinstall the shock assembly and torque the top and bottom bolts to spec. Top strut tower bolts are 30-40 ft-lbs. The front lower bolts are to be torqued to 110 ft-lbs.

12. Repeat the same procedure for the rear install. There are two 12mm rear strut bolts per side. They get torqued to 12-14 ft-lbs or hand tightened. The lower rear shock bolt is a 17mm. The nut is fixed to the suspension. The torque spec. for the rear bolt is 80 ft-lbs.

Here are some pics for parts reference.

First, the upper spring seat is also called a "top hat" or "upper strut perch." In the second illustration (SFA664A), there should also be the words, "OUT," stamped on it which, like the cutout, should face towards the fender (I'm not sure that "Outer side" describes where it should point).

Secondly, the spring sleeves are not shown. These vinyl tubes slide over the top and bottom ends of the spring to prevent metal-on-metal contact.

What are the rears like to do?

Your car is a 3rd gen. But these are sort-of the same type of directions.

To be safe...just look here...=> http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/1994

Look under FA for front suspension and RA for rear suspension.

I would recommend inspection of bellows at regular intervals (oil change) in order to catch and replace defective ones. It will save expensive, premature replacement of shock. Bellow keeps fine dust from adhering to the shock piston rod, which acts like fine sand paper as it passes and wears the inside rubber rings. I know. Shocking!

~ Adam

I feel as though you may have gotten wrong info, or had different expectations. You have lowered your center of gravity, changed your spring rate, and put on performance struts. The original equipment is made to give you that comfort that you are used to. The fact that you have changed all of that out is why you no longer have that comfort. The parts that you put on are made to make the car handle more aggressively. No sense of comfort was even worried about when those parts were manufactured.

Now, to clarify, did you buy Tokico HP (blues) or the Illuminas (white)? If you bought the blues and hate the ride, sell them and get stock or go with the Illuminas. On the other hand, if you have Illuminas and they are very stiff, look at the adjustment setting on the top of the struts and bring them down to 1, as that is the smoothest ride possible. See if that makes a difference for you.

Liquid Powder Coats - GET YOUR STUFF POWDER COATED!

VIP Forum Cental Region Forum 20060325(PICS) 20060325(OT)

I am installing the rear strut on my Maxima Not sure where the top hat should rest on the top of the spring? Is there a reference point for the top hat on the rear strut??

Thanks

Modified by krsdal at 10:02 AM 9/30/2009