HELP front strut install question. Plz help this hopeless case (me, not the car)

For those of you with experience or the least bit of mechanical aptitude, this will seem stupid, but please bear with me. I made an attempt to install some Bilstein front struts on the 96 Cobra, and I'm not sure I put them in correctly at the top.

At first, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to re-use the bushing from the old strut that goes between the strut and the shock tower from underneath. I tried installing them without that, but it obviously wasn't right. So then I installed them with the bushing put on like this:


I'm still not sure that it's right, but I went with it and put them in. After I did both sides like that, it looked like one side of the car had more of the top bushing poking through than the other:



Please SVTPerformance, I am at your mercy. Did I do this correctly? Did I miss a step? Is it totaled? What am I missing, if anything. Explanations as if I am a five year old are acceptable, and if I'm honest, preferable. Thank you!

Looks like you tightened the second one a little more than the first. See how the rubber donut is squished more?

Pic of strut in hand ..is there a washer missing

robvas said:

Looks like you tightened the second one a little more than the first. See how the rubber donut is squished more?

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Yes, good call! The Haynes manual says to torque to 64ish ft lbs. I was able to do that with the second one. The first one, I had some issues with the hex opening on top of the strut stripping, so I wasn't able to hold it to get the nut as tight without the whole thing spinning. Not really sure what to do about that.

hotcobra03 said:

Pic of strut in hand ..is there a washer missing

Click to expand...

I checked both old struts, neither seemed to have any other hardware other than the old dust-boot, but the new Bilsteins came with them. I didn't see any extra washers on the old struts, or in the boxes with the new ones.

If you have an impact gun, just run the other side down a bit til it matches the other side. You won't even need to hold it from spinning.

98 svt said:

If you have an impact gun, just run the other side down a bit til it matches the other side. You won't even need to hold it from spinning.

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I'll give that a try. I was a little nervous to take an impact to it, because I wasn't sure if it would damage the strut.

If I'm able to get that one side tightened down, does it look like I missed anything else? I was a little surprised that there was no hardware with the strut other than the one lock nut on top.

Okay, this is really bothering me so I did some more research and I think I know that something is wrong based upon a closer look at the paperwork that came with the strut:

I then looked at this piece off the old strut and a lightbulb went off:

The bushing that I had pictured on top of the strut in the first post was supposed to be discarded (hence it being x'd out in the first pic of this post), and I can just remove the blue bilstein dustcover, and reuse this dustcover, as it already has the isolator and clamp attached to it. It is this isolator that appears as if it is supposed to be between the strut and the vehicle on the bottom of the strut tower. Am I crazy, or is this correct?

It is ruined...you need to get maximum motorsports caster-camber plates for safety sake.!! Tell the wife it is a safety issue.....just kidding.....sorta....

shurur said:

It is ruined...you need to get maximum motorsports caster-camber plates for safety sake.!! Tell the wife it is a safety issue.....just kidding.....sorta....

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Stop reading my mind!!!

Today definitely went well. Got the front struts installed correctly (3rd times the charm), and the backs went in with little hassle.

Glad you got it figured out. Bilsteins have internal bumps stops built into them. That is why you don't need to reuse your stock bump stops. I run the same struts on my car. You are going to LOVE them. Absolute night and day difference.