Finally got around to changing the front shocks in my Liberty and came up with a trick that I thought others might want to use:
The hardest part for me was maneuvering the "strut" off the axle and out after it is loose. There is just enough room to do that on the passenger side with some forcing (and cursing
), but the drivers side axle is shorter and the LCA won't flex down as much. I scratched my head for a while wondering how to get it out when it dawned on me, use the VW strut spreader tool.https://www.idparts.com/metalnerd-strut ... p-400.html
VW golfs and jettas have a strut which is held in at the bottom with a similar split collar and clamping bolt. This tool has an oval end, you fit it into the slot the narrow way and turn 90 deg and it spreads the collar. Well I have one from my old VWs, so I tried it on the fork at the bottom of the Lib's shock assembly. Worked perfectly. A tap or two and the fork slid off the old shock, and it was easy to maneuver the fork and shock out separately. Used it again to reassemble on the new shock, worked perfectly there too.
Wish I had thought of this when I was doing the passenger side, would have saved some time.
Thought folks might want to know about this trick. Even if you don't have one of these lying around it might be well worth it for the time it saves on this job.
