Dakota Main strut seal replacement

[gkainz]

Anyone have experience replacing the main strut seal on an '83 Dakota? Maintenance manual shows pulling the inner strut out of the outer strut cylinder, then pulling the retaining ring, spacer ring, wiper ring and then the seal. Ok, fine - done pretty easily except the retaining ring fought us all the way out. I'm sure our snap ring pliers were a big part of the problem, since they didn't allow a lot of pulling force on the ring.

Re-assembly steps in the maintenance manual were (in short),
- lube and insert new quad seal in the outer cylinder - easily done.
- install retaining ring, spacer ring, wiper ring on the inner strut shaft
- insert the inner shaft into the outer shaft with caution to not damage the quad seal - easily done
- slide the wiper ring up the inner shaft into the outer cylinder
- slide the spacer ring up the shaft and into the grove on the outer cylinder - done with a bit more difficulty
- slide the retainer ring up the shaft and into the grover on the outer cylinder - just cannot make this happen ... there doesn't appear to be adequate clearance for the retaining ring to fully compress around the inner shaft to clear and insert into the outer cylinder. Again, perhaps our snap ring pliers are the problem.

Thinking about disassembly where the the inner shaft is removed with seals and rings left in place, we assembled the rings in place in the outer cylinder and carefully inserted the inner shaft into place.

This is not in keeping with the steps called out in the maintenance manual, but worked. Any comments, cautions, tricks or tips?

Thanks!
Greg

 

[bluerooster]

#1) Decompress the strut first! (let all the air out) #2) have a pan big enough to catch the 5606. And be prepared to get 5606 on you.

 

[gkainz]

#1) Decompress the strut first! (let all the air out) #2) have a pan big enough to catch the 5606. And be prepared to get 5606 on you.

did all that (including "big enough pan" and wearing 5606 anyway ... next time the strut goes into a 5 gallon bucket before removing)

Notice above that the question is about reassembly.

We were unable to get the retainer ring back in place in the slot in the outer cylinder following the maintenance manual.

We successfully re-assembled and serviced the strut only by reinstalling the quad ring, wiper ring, spacer ring and retainer ring all in the outer cylinder first, then inserting the strut into the outer cylinder, counter to the maintenance manual.

 

[bluerooster]

Sometimes common sense takes precedent over the mx manual.

 

[gkainz]

Sometimes common sense takes precedent over the mx manual.

Yeah, I get that, and I grew up on a farm and construction company where self-sufficient mentality was strongly instilled. The nagging thought I have it that the procedures where written by experienced people, and have been around a long time, so they "should work" and "what am I missing?", as I know I'm not the first guy to actually try to follow them.