Hi all --

I've been trying for the past 3 hours to swap out the front struts on my 07 Dakota, and I got the top and bottom bolts out no problem, but for the life of me, I can't get the bottom of the damn strut past the little lip on the lower control arm (see attachment). The strut is loose, I've pried up on it, pried outboard, and pushed down on the arm as far as it'll go, but that thing just ain't moving. I even tried putting a compressor on the coil spring to see if I could get a little bit more space, but no go.

Any ideas or tips for this one??



(the first pic is from the front of the truck, the second pic is from the back)

 

You may need to compress the spring a bit. You'll most likely find that the lower control arm bushings are seized and the arm doesn't drop as much as it would with everything loose.

 

Pop the lower arm off the spindle so it swings down.

 

Have you dropped the spindle off the upper a-arm? Removed the sway bar end link? You may also have to remove the axle shaft from the hub. That's what I had to do. That allows the lower a-arm to droop enough to get the strut over it.

 

It's a pita good luck It took me many many hours just to get the bolts out. Once it's out tho it's cake

 

when we did mine we pretty much disconnected everything, then used a big *** screwdriver to wedge it in the top and pop it out from the top not the bottom

 

i removed the entire steering nuckle from the control arms and te sway bars when i did my struts, a little creeping oil and impact gun and everything came off easy and dropped the struts off immediately even with the 2.5in leveling block ontop of the mounting pad. couldnt get it off with the nuckle still attached

 

jkeaton: We ended up doing exactly that. As soon as we had the spindle disconnected from the upper arm, the strut came out very quickly after that.

Thanks for the good tips everyone, I appreciate it!