gkainz
Final Approach
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
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