Hey everyone, I'm trying to put a new pair of struts on my 91 sambar van and my mechanic says they won't go in the hole even with the pinch bolt out. I measured the OEMs and they are 48 mil, the new ones are 51 mil, so there is a difference. I bought them from Todd at Right Drive Parts and he swears they will fit, but my mechanic is nervous about prying it open any more than he already tried? Can anyone tell me who is right here. I feel like he should just pry it open and jam that sucker in, but I wanted to make sure before I give the green light to really crank on it. Anyone have experience here?
ive done dozens of struts with the same design as these IE Mazdas etc and you pretty much have to leave the pinch bolt out. with the pinch bolt out you can open the hole a bit with a large flathead screwdriver or pry bar then get the strut in. hell sometimes ive had to soak the inside of the hole with grease and hammer the strut down, when i stripped my 91 getting the struts out of the spindle took a good few hammers. its a tight fit 3mm is so small i would say just pry open the hole a bit and go for it, i would think you REALLY have to be reefing it open to crack or damage the spindle where the pinch bolt goes
I had to wedge a flathead screwdriver between the pinch to get the old strut out. I also made sure to use a good amount of anti-seize on the new strut itself as the original strut had some corrosion between itself and the knuckle.
