Hello all. Before I go through the hassle of trying to return this thing and/or making a fool out of myself…
I purchased four new KYB shock/strut assemblies for my 2004 Alero. All is going well installing them until I get to the last one, front, and the mounting plate is backwards. It has three fasteners on top: 2 bolts attached to the top plate, one threaded opening for a bolt inserted once in place. This one is spun 180 degrees.
Now that I look at pictures of this strut online, they’re all pictured in this “backwards” assembly. It can’t be the wrong part, as the first one installed without issue.
Am I clueless and should I be able to spin this mounting plate?
KYB SR4001
some picture would help a lot
make sure you do not have different assemblies going to the left/right side - this is typically the case for the front ones, while the rears are often the same
The fronts are universal.
Below is a link to the strut with multiple images pictures in the manner of the strut assembly that I have. On the one I already installed, the top mounting plate is spun 180; the two bolts are on the backside of the strut.
Auto Zone Images
The strut mount can be rotated, loosely install the strut in the strut tower and turn the strut body to the proper position. Make sure the spring doesn’t rub on the strut tower, some upper spring plates are off-center and that must be indexed correctly.
Oh boy, I’m going to head back out to the garage and give it a try. Thanks.
Think about it this way: When it’s installed the top part of the ass’y is firmly bolted to the body of the car. And the bottom part is bolted to the wheel-hub ass’y. When you turn the steering wheel the strut must freely rotate w/respect to the top part. Otherwise it couldn’t do its job correctly.
Hah, just spun it. Took a decent amount of force. Guess I was just nervous about messing with it at first. Thanks!
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