Here's how I did it.
I went out and was working in the driveway when the dirt guys showed up.
About five minutes later, it started pouring rain.
Then it stopped and they got finished.
I have read so many incomplete different ways to do the struts, I sat on a bucket and just looked at it.
This is how I finally did it.
I dropped the sway bar at the brackets.
Marked the cam alignments on the LCA bolts
Loosened them.
The I removed the four nuts at the top of the strut
Removed the bolt at the bottom of the strut
I had a jack under the lower control arm
I also removed the ABS sensor wires from their brackets so they wouldn't stretch
Paid attention to how tight the brake lines were as well as the angles on the cv boots
Lowered the lower control arm and the struts came right out.
The springs I already had and the ones from my truck are all painted different. Blue,green,red,pink and combinations so I just used the ones off my truck.
Swapped out the springs and put everything back together.
I still have to tighten the lower control arm bolts and remount the sway bar brackets but other than that, I could do the whole job again in less than 30 minutes a side with a 1/2" impact.
I spent more time getting the damned skid plate clips to release than anything else.
I also have to put the diff drop in and the rear shocks but I was stressing about the struts and it was cake.
I went out and was working in the driveway when the dirt guys showed up.
About five minutes later, it started pouring rain.
Then it stopped and they got finished.
I have read so many incomplete different ways to do the struts, I sat on a bucket and just looked at it.
This is how I finally did it.
I dropped the sway bar at the brackets.
Marked the cam alignments on the LCA bolts
Loosened them.
The I removed the four nuts at the top of the strut
Removed the bolt at the bottom of the strut
I had a jack under the lower control arm
I also removed the ABS sensor wires from their brackets so they wouldn't stretch
Paid attention to how tight the brake lines were as well as the angles on the cv boots
Lowered the lower control arm and the struts came right out.
The springs I already had and the ones from my truck are all painted different. Blue,green,red,pink and combinations so I just used the ones off my truck.
Swapped out the springs and put everything back together.
I still have to tighten the lower control arm bolts and remount the sway bar brackets but other than that, I could do the whole job again in less than 30 minutes a side with a 1/2" impact.
I spent more time getting the damned skid plate clips to release than anything else.
I also have to put the diff drop in and the rear shocks but I was stressing about the struts and it was cake.
