[chartmaker]

Put one on the Taurus today, will do the other tomorrow.
16 year old car with OE and 108K miles. My test: I use my knee on the front bumper and bounce it up and down, removing my knee at the bottom and note how many bounces. My Sables with KYB units, none. Returns to ride height and stops. This car gets 4 bounces above ride height before resting. Driver's side hisses indicating the gas is gone.
Put new readystrut on the pas side today. Bounce test now one.
Just sharing stuff.
-chart-

 

[boulderdentist]

Hey chart,

This is on my summer to do list. Mine are OE with 144,000 miles, the factory sway bar end links are original and are making a racket. Did you lower the subframe to do this? Did you use KYB? You have a wonderful library of photos.

Scott

 

[chartmaker]

Hey chart,

This is on my summer to do list. Mine are OE with 144,000 miles, the factory sway bar end links are original and are making a racket. Did you lower the subframe to do this? Did you use KYB? You have a wonderful library of photos.

Scott

I got these from RA with discount less than $50 per. They look absolutely identical to what came off the car OE. Packed nicely in sturdy boxes. Closeout so they will likely soon be gone.


I dropped my sub maybe 1.5" and had no issues at all. I have 2 light duty floor jacks so put one under the sub to support it. Electric impact made short work of the sub bolts. After working on all my previous Bulls with rust, this very low rust car makes it much easier. My poor old IR electric impact, pre WWII version is getting a bit too old to work well. Good enough for this 79 year old coot.


My sway arm links are in good shape. I used the ones in the pic on both Sables and my Lin Cont. The hex to hold the shaft makes install and later removal is necessary much easier. MUCH easier.


Best of luck

 

[TollKeeper]

I guess I am confused here.. Why do you have to drop the sub-frame to do struts?

 

[sheila]

Easier to r&r strut/knuckle connection.

 

[TollKeeper]

I guess its something I would have to see to believe, cause that just doesnt make sense in my mind.. But I have been a GM Mechanic for 30 years, so this whole Ford thing is like weird to me.

 

[rsteve56]

I'm a GM mechanic for 42 years: Taurus is my hobby???

 

[TollKeeper]

So, after watching video, you come to the conclusion that Ford is an idiotic company.

Lets force them to loosen and/or remove the bolts for the engine cradle. Whats that you say? They live in the Rust Belt, and the bolt is just spinning in the frame rail mounts? Looks like we get to charge them more money!

Ford did the same thing with the Original Taurus Tranny, the one that would fail every 30k miles. It guaranteed that a dealer would have service work, or sell cars. It made more sense to NOT fix a design flaw, and everytime a customer would come in for a tranny replacement, you could either sell them a tranny, but if the dealer was smart, would prep for a salesman to be handy to try to talk them into a trade for a new car. Then the dealer could get the tranny replaced under a special condition warranty, and sell the car for a huge profit. It was a win win (not making this up, this was part of a techs training. Buddy works for a Ford Dealer, and he and I are always going at it).

Not saying GM or Mopar or any of the foreign brands didnt do this, but Ford was blatant and in your face about it.

 

[chartmaker]

Easier to r&r strut/knuckle connection.

I have done several. There are two choices. Big pry bar and helper to sit on it, or remove 2 sub frame bolts. When I buy a used Bull, I run it up on ramps and remove each bolt one at a time with my impact. Grease the bolts, run them back, torque to 76#. Also makes the pain of Alt on DOHC much less. I have 3 '03s on the roads. All have had the front struts done now.


Pic of sub bolt from past '01 along with a replacement from the JY. Ground pickup. I prefer to know what is hiding in this rust belt car.


-chart-

 

[chartmaker]

Put one on the Taurus today, will do the other tomorrow.
16 year old car with OE and 108K miles. My test: I use my knee on the front bumper and bounce it up and down, removing my knee at the bottom and note how many bounces. My Sables with KYB units, none. Returns to ride height and stops. This car gets 4 bounces above ride height before resting. Driver's side hisses indicating the gas is gone.
Put new readystrut on the pas side today. Bounce test now one.
Just sharing stuff.
-chart-

All my experience with spring breaks, they broke at the bottom where they rust. Pic. '03 Sable wagon, sudden bang and droop. Note: rust places where the plastic coating come loose and rust sets in where water is captured under the coating. Very risky to drive with rusted springs. I was 2 miles from a shop so I drove it over and dropped it off. It is winter, no place to work for now, so I pay.
-chart-