I am trying to get the rear struts out of my 73. I'm stuck trying to get the transverse link apart. I have the end pivot bolts off. There is a stop bolt in the middle. On my car and my parts car this a stud with a 12mm nut on it. The nut came off fine on both, leaving a stud. Does this stud have to come out to get the link rod out? If so, how do I get it out? Should this be a bolt iinstead of a stud? How hard should it be to get the rod out? The stud seems stock just because it is the same on both cars. Thanks.

Oh you poor guy. You are in for some fun!

Search the site for "spindle pin" and you will have hours of reading on the topic and find many solutions. You are not alone.

The good news is when you are done, you will be part of a special group of those of us that have been throught it and survived. All the best.

The stud you mention is a small tapered shaft with a flat on it. The flat matches a similar flat on the spindle and is intended to keep the spindle from rotating. It usually takes a liberal application of rust blaster allowed to soak in at least overnight to get the stud/shaft to release. A little heat may help, as might a very light tap with a small hammer to un-sieze the shaft. Hope this helps.

Jim

Here is a pic of the "stud" i.e. tapered shaft so you have a feel for what you are dealing with. The nut draws it tight against the spindle - if you tap on it, be sure to have the nut in place to not foul the threads.

Jim

Small tap? Bah! Put the nut on the end of it, make sure the nut is fully engaged, but NOT down tight, leave room for it to move, then HIT IT, square, with a 2 lb sledge. It will pop right out. You can also use a 5/16 pin punch to hit it (from the threaded end). There is just nothing subtle about dealing with these nasty notorius parts.

Thanks for the tips. I just want to put in a replacement cartridge. Can I leave that pin in for now and compress the spring and rotate it below the fender well, replace the cart and rotate it back into position?

Hitting it with a hammer sounds like fun too. Is it likely to sheer off? I have it soaked it with pb blaster. I have get it back together before this weekend

You can deperess the unit by hand and pull the top of the strut clear of the fender.

I have done this a number of times with no issues, and I taped some cardboard to the fender to avoid damaging the paint.

Hope this helps.

You could also remove the two bolts that hold the inner part of the transverse link to the body and remove the strut and spring with the transverse link as a unit. May or may not require removing the brake lines, depending on how careful you think that you can be. You might have to remove the brake lines anyway to get enough distance to drop the strut down.

Considering that you didn't know about the spindle pins before, the odds of you getting the pins out without damaging them are not in your favor. They rarely come out easily, usually they're destroyed in the process. If you really need the car before the weekend, don't even start on the spindle pins.

I did end up going this route. The strut rotated out with little effort. I did it on my parts car first. The good news is the 260z parts car has kyb carts and a factory sway bar on it. The old strut came out of my car with oil all over it. I cleaned out the assembly where the cart goes and put it all back together. I'm going to try and do the other side tommorrow and then the front end. I can really feel the difference between the side with the "new" gas cart vs the other side with an old hydraulic cart. I'm going to put the sway bar in when I get some urethane bushings. Between the sway bar and the gas strut carts I know my car will handle much better. Thanks for the help everyone.

Looks like how the pros do it (leave spindle alone until you do the bushings).

Even with a gas strut, I put oil into the assembly to keep rust out of the strut tube. They will rust inside...

On a side note, only one of your jacks match your Z's paint color...

Edited May 31, 201212 yr by GreenZZZ
add joke

Where are your jack stands???

Chuck

+1 on the jackstands. NEVER rely on a jack. They tip over and they are notorious for bleeding height. You don't want to get crushed by your Z. Otherwise, nice job. Be sure to add oil to the tubes. It is needed to cool the cartridge. Dampers generate a lot of heat and air makes a lousy conductor. Oil will carry the heat away from the cartridge to the outer tube where the air can cool it.