i just got a whole strut assembly in from ebay to replace the one that broke over some washboards a couple weeks ago, but there is a problem.

first it was the passenger side and i needed a drivers side but we removed the knuckle and got it all bolted up. now the real problem is, there is a spacer between the strut and the body, and the bolts that came with the strut arent long enough to put that spacer in with the rest of the strut and this causes the tire to rub over bumps. we contacted the guy who sold it to us and found out that it is from a '69 and my car is a '74......do you think this could be the problem and if not what would it be?! and any ideas on getting it fixed?!

Thanks in advance for any help,
Kevin

I'm not sure what you mean... are the studs on the strut bearing the shorter style for cars without the aluminum strut spacer? So when you mount it up there arent enough threads to attach the three nuts that hold the strut bearing to the strut tower.

if this is the case you can remove the strut bearing off of your broken strut tube and put it on the replacement, but only if it is serviceable.

'74-76 cars have that extra spacer, to help raise the height of the car to meet the US Fed bumper height requirements (along with the 'big bumpers'.) The three upper strut studs are longer on 74-76 cars to accommodate this inserted spacer thickness.

Many with late model cars remove it to get a simple/easy lowering of the car.

Sounds like with your existing tires/wheels set-up, you just can't remove the spacers to 'match' the earlier strut, which will lower the car by that 3/8-1/2 inch, and disregard the fact the strut studs are longer on the one side.

Don't know if you can unpress/re-press in longer studs into the earlier strut (?)- if so that would work for you.

HTH,
Tom

Don't know if you can unpress/re-press in longer studs into the earlier strut (?)- if so that would work for you.

HTH,
Tom


Yes you can, just press them out ( tapered fine spline ) and press the longer ones back in ( or just pull them in place when you tighten them up ).

ok thanks for all the help!!! one question though, if it only lowers the car by 3/8-1/2" then im not sure its my problem, because im only running the stock steelies on the car and no big wheel/tire combo. do you still think that this is the problem or could it maybe be something else?