Replace Rear Struts

[davidp94]

How do I replace my rear struts? I own a 1990 300zx 2+2 NA. Do i absolutely need a hoist or can i do without? Are there any diagrams that would be useful? Any help is much appreciated. Hate bouncing around on the roads!

[t.mcginley.jr]

You don't need a hoist or lift, but you do need:

Floor jack and jack stands
Socket set (obviously)
Coil spring compressor

Basic instructions:

1. Jack the rear of the car up and put it on jack stands

2. Take both back wheels off

3. The bottom of the struts are held on by a big 17mm (or 19mm?) bolt and nut which you will remove now

4. Remove all the plastic panels in the hatch/trunk. Underneath the biggest two pieces (the ones with the speaker covers) are rubber caps that are covering the top of the strut mount. It looks like this:



Remove that and you'll see the two 12mm nuts. Remove these two nuts.

5. You will need to pry down on the wheel hub so that the strut/spring assembly comes free and you can pull it out. I found it easiest to have a help basically just stand on the wheel hub while you work the strut out. The rear is a little tricky because of all the suspension pieces attaches to the subframe but with some wiggling the strut will come out.

6. Once both assemblies are out, take a picture or make a mark of how the top mount is positioned relative to the strut. Basically you have the big bolt that has to go through the bottom of the strut and the two studs on the top mounting bracket need to go through the holes in the frame. These need to be positioned correctly or you won't be able to get the strut back in and bolted up. It will probably take you a few times to get it right.

7. Use the spring compressor to compress the coil spring. Once the pressure is off of the strut, remove the top 14mm and slide the top mount and all rubber/hardware off. Put this all on your new strut and decompress the spring. Like I said it's important to align everything to how it was when you took it off. If it doesn't line up right, you have to compress the spring again and turn the top mounting piece accordingly and try again. When you try to reinstall the struts, you will probably need someone to stand on the wheel hub again.

NOTE: You should probably replace the rubber pieces too since they go bad over time. There's a few of them and also a rubber gasket between the top mount and frame (I made my own).

8. Once the strut assemblies are back in place, torque the top 2 nuts to 14 ft-lbs and the big bottom bolt to 70 ft-lbs.

9. Reintsall everything else you took off: wheels, trunk plastics, etc.


You should check out the diagrams in this:

http://www.300zx-twinturbo.com/cgi-bin/ ... t&total=35

[t.mcginley.jr]

Also, I did this on a 2+0, but it should be the same procedure for a 2+2. The part numbers for the struts are probably different though

[davidp94]

thanks a lot. I'm putting monroe part #71247.