How do you change the front struts on a 1990 Chrysler LeBaron?

Answer 1

The short answer is YOU don't. The smartest thing to do is get the shop manual, read that section, talk yourself out of it, then drop the car off at your local garage and pay a professional. If you're still in a do-it-yourself mood, read on. Jack the car up and support the front end with jackstands. Remove the wheel. Unbolt the brake line bracket from the strut. Remove both of the big nuts/bolts holding the strut to the spindle. Open the hood and remove the 3 bolts from the strut tower. The strut assembly should have fallen out onto the ground. Here's where the fun begins. Use your strut compressor to unload the spring. Remove the big nut on the top and pull off the upper bearing and spring seats. Remove the spring and carefully (carefully! it CAN kill you) set it aside. Reassemble everything in order and reinstall your spring. Use the air ratchet to preload the top nut. Tighten to spec. Release the spring compressor. Put the strut assembly back up the the tower, lining up the 3 boltholes up top. Replace the 3 nuts, tighten to spec. Pull your spindle back up with a c-clamp and install the 2 large nuts/bolts. Tighten to spec. Replace the brake line bracket bolt. Tighten to spec. Carefully drive to the nearest alignment shop because your alignment will be way off. you can take srut assembly out as mentioned above then have auto parts store change struts for you and put back whole strut assembly back in.they charge about$20 for changing each strut and is well worth the job .