RE: Struts..
Well. . . I can only share with you my experiences as I replaced the rear struts on my 96 Intrepid. Best deal on struts at Carquest - $120 for both rear made by Gabriel for Carquest. First off, you must have a set of spring compressors, NAPA had 'em for $30 or so. Without 'em, you'll never get the new strut on. You'll only be able to grab 3/4 the spring, but it was enough for me. To remove the top of the strut, you'll have to release the top portion of the back seat and remove the decklid - attached by a clip that you access through the trunk. After removing the tar patches and rubber caps, its easier to remove the top strut plate - 3 nuts, 10mm I think. Unless the strut plate is in pretty rough shape, you can reuse it with the new strut. In order to remove the bottom, you've got to take apart the sway bar linkage - I found it easier to just take off the nut (found next to the strut body on the further side) and remember to reuse the rubber bushing after carefully removing it from the old strut. To get the clearance to pull out the strut from the wheel hub, you've got to remove the trailing arm so it'll drop down far enough. Don't forget to remove the brake caliper from the rotor (2 bolts) before dropping the wheel hub unless you want to replace the brake line and have to bleed it too. Because Dodge designed the hub to leave both ends of the cap screw that pinches the strut in the hub exposed, I turned of the head of the cap screw and had to drill it out. Because there was enough clearance, I just installed a new bolt and nylon insert nut instead of tapping the whole for a larger cap screw. There's a notch on the wheel hub to place a center punch to spread the hub to allow the strut to be removed - I found a large pipe wrench helpful here. The top plate is attached to the strut with a single locking nut that I had to grind off after I split the sides of the 8mm hex hole in the top of the strut rod. With an 8mm hex wrench and a 7/8 inch open-ended wrench I was able to turn off the other nut. Because of the limited clearance between the deck lid and rear winshield, I assembled the spring and strut plate before installing the whole thing. I secured the strut plate (not too snug yet) and then lined up everything on the bottom of the strut. There's a tab on the strut body that matches up with a notch in the wheel hub. I put a jack under the wheel hub for support, then released the spring compressors gradually to seat the strut in place. At this point, its just a matter of tightening everything down and making sure you don't have any extra parts. I did it in three evenings in the couple hours between work and dusk when I ran out of light. I don't have a garage, Buffalo's cold in winter, and the cheapest shop I could find wanted $350 or so without a four-wheel alignment that I need sometime. The struts were original with 120k and were only replaced since the spring had broken the bottom plate mounted on the struts and was rubbin' against my tires. I must say that the ride has improved much and I'll tackle the front struts when I have some more cash. Good luck, hope this helps with your tough decision.
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