Here'* a simple question for the group. I'm planning on replacing the rear struts on my 94 Bonnie so I can improve the handling ("soft ride" suspension makes me sad :(
I'm going with JR3800'* recommendation on Monroe air struts. My question concerns the lower strut to knuckle bolts. In my previous experience changing Achieva front struts the bolts had serrated grooves and had to be pounded out of the knuckle. It was the only difficult part in the whole swap.
Do the lower bolts come right out or do they require some convincing with a large hammer?
Any other comments that would help are greatly appreciated!!
Rob

I may be wrong, but on my car you just undid two lower bolts and hte shock came right off. Didn't have to pound anything out at all.

I replaced my struts/shocks 3 years ago and as far as I remember I had no difficulty removing the lower bolts from the rear shock.

Yup nothing hard about doing them on our cars.

You just need a long breaker bar. Mine were a pain to loosen.

Thanks for the replies!
A long breaker bar I have. I think I'll pick up the struts this week and hope for a rain-free weekend.
It will be nice to not feel the back of the car bouncing after bumps....
Rob

I did all 4 of mine recently and I can tell you that they needed a LOT of convincing. Just using a breaker bar was not enough, I put a pipe on the end for leverage but this was no help because I could then lift the car off the jackstands.

If your area of New York uses as much salt in the winter as they do around here...be prepared. I ended up using lots of penetrating oil, a propane torch and a sledge hammer on an impact socket. It took me less time to do the entire rest of the job than it did to remove the bolts.

Cheers,

wow. I'm sure glad the G body uses all aluminum suspension peices.. I had no trouble at all getting the bolts off.

Foghorn, you just described what I went through to change the struts on my old Achieva. I still have the impact socket with slightly mushroomed head (from beating with a BFH) in my basement. Guess I'll get it ready in case the Bonnie needs it .
After getting the bolts out the rest of the job was done in 30 minutes per side...
The Bonnie came from NJ and looks very clean (no rust on the bolt heads or threads). Looks like it was garaged and well taken care of. So maybe I'll be lucky...
Struts are on their way from RockAuto. Is it just me or has Monroe become hard to find. Everyone seems to be selling Gabriel and I've had too many bad experiences with them...
I have this strange feeling that right after I change the rear struts I'll no longer be satisfied with the fronts....
Rob

Doesn't a 4-wheel alignment need to be done after the rear struts are changed too? I remember reading that somewhere...