Author Topic: HOW TO: Change your FRONT top mounts  (Read 63432 times)

Offline WeekendMechanic

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Re: HOW TO: Change your FRONT top mounts
« Reply #40 on: 08 March 2013, 10:38 »
You need a thin walled deep socket or a ring spanner. Have to assembled the shock correctly.

What top mounts do you have cos if they are orange poly ones from eBay they are sh!t.

A ring spanner will definitely not fit and neither will a walled deep socket work An average deep socket  has to be modified in order to have proper access(carving a square shape at the end to fit a spanner in order for the alen to go through),this is something to think about before attempting to change the mounts, unless you have a air hammer which will work with a deep socket.
« Last Edit: 08 March 2013, 10:52 by WeekendMechanic »

Offline thai-wronghorse

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Re: HOW TO: Change your FRONT top mounts
« Reply #41 on: 08 March 2013, 13:48 »
Before i made a tool for the job i used a spark plug socket with the rubber insert removed.  It has a hex top to get a ring spannet on an allows a hex drive to be inserted down the centre.

Offline WeekendMechanic

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Re: HOW TO: Change your FRONT top mounts
« Reply #42 on: 08 March 2013, 17:11 »
Before i made a tool for the job i used a spark plug socket with the rubber insert removed.  It has a hex top to get a ring spannet on an allows a hex drive to be inserted down the centre.

That`s a good idea......

Offline tshirt2k

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Re: HOW TO: Change your FRONT top mounts
« Reply #43 on: 09 March 2013, 00:29 »
You need a thin walled deep socket or a ring spanner. Have to assembled the shock correctly.

What top mounts do you have cos if they are orange poly ones from eBay they are sh!t.

A ring spanner will definitely not fit and neither will a walled deep socket work An average deep socket  has to be modified in order to have proper access(carving a square shape at the end to fit a spanner in order for the alen to go through),this is something to think about before attempting to change the mounts, unless you have a air hammer which will work with a deep socket.

It will work. You just have to know how to use them. A vice helps too. But that's if you haven't got an impact wrench. Sometimes you can improvise without resorting to modifying sockets.

Correct regarding ring spanner. I was thinking top nut.


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Offline Pukk

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Re: HOW TO: Change your FRONT top mounts
« Reply #44 on: 11 April 2023, 18:44 »
I've just replaced the struts on my Golf 3.5 cab. The 3.5 has mk4 struts set up, so subtly different form the mk3.

As well as the strut, I also changed the top mount (rubber), bearing and cap bolt (see the diagram below). All the parts are made by Bilstean. Incidentally the diagram shows the set of parts and the order that they go together, but the shapes are not very accurate, particularly for the top mount.

When I bolted the new struts into the mount that they hang from, they were jammed. The upper part doesn't revolve the lower leg of the strut turns, but it is stiff.. But surely it shouldn't be stiff?? The lower part of the strut is only turning because it can rotate around the upper part. If it is designed to work like that, why did VeeDub bother with the bearing?

Swapping back to the old rubber top mount does free the strut to rotate, but because the top mount has collapsed it also allows 5mm of vertical movement.

I've noticed that some images & exploded diagrams show a washer between the cap bolt and the bearing. I'm guessing that this would create a gap between the spring cap and the rubber top mount. There isn't such a bearing on Autodoc, but I can see that Bilstean make a spring cap. So I've bought a couple of those, in the hopes that their shape works with the other Bilstean parts.

Any how - has anyone else been down this rabbit hole already?


« Last Edit: 11 April 2023, 18:56 by Pukk »