Ok, what is missing here? McPherson Struts? (Page 1/2)
82-T/A [At Work] APR 05, 05:01 PM
I'm going crazy... we took this apart and didn't look, and I don't have my other Fiero here with which to compare. This is the top of the McPherson struts, that go under the strut tower in the rear of the Fiero. Can you guys tell me what's supposed to go over this hole? Before the jokes... I know the top of the shock goes through there and then you put a nut on it. BUT... is there anything that's supposed to go in between the nut and this rubber isolator (melded into the plate)? I mean, is there a dished washer or something? I can't remember what my daughter took off here. I can't seem to find any pictures on the internet that are closeups of this.




I have the replacement "plates"... they're definitely different... not large circles but actually more molded to the spring "caps" that sit underneath them. Maybe that's better, I don't know. But I'm concerned that essentially, the only thing holding the "upper" part of the rear suspension to the car is essentially just one nut that goes over a rubber isolator. I realize there's three nuts that hold the top of the spring isolator to the frame... but let's say this rubber isolator failed and the nut pulled that little metal sleeve through... the springs could basically unseat. Is this normal, or am I missing something that's supposed to go over the entire isolator?


Thanks!!!

Thanks!
Patrick APR 05, 06:17 PM

It's a cupped washer.
82-T/A [At Work] APR 05, 06:31 PM

quote
Originally posted by Patrick:

It's a cupped washer.




Awesome, thank you Patrick, I appreciate it! They've got to be somewhere, so I'll start looking in the garage.
82-T/A [At Work] APR 05, 08:50 PM
Ok, so, it was in the last place I looked. My daughter apparently bagged them, as she did with all the other screws, I just didn't realize it and didn't think to look. But what I found interesting is that there are two pairs of these cupped washers. One set is larger than the other. I have the set you show in your picture, but then there's also another set that's a little bit smaller. Are they supposed to sit inside each other or something?





Thanks!
Patrick APR 05, 09:12 PM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

...but then there's also another set that's a little bit smaller. Are they supposed to sit inside each other or something?



If you take them out of the bag so I can see 'em, maybe I'll be able to tell you.

Stingray92 APR 05, 10:32 PM
There's a lower and upper dished washer to sandwich the strut mount.
Patrick APR 05, 11:11 PM

quote
Originally posted by Stingray92:

There's a lower and upper dished washer to sandwich the strut mount.



That makes sense. It's been about ten years since I've had any Fiero struts apart. My photographic memory is failing me.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 04-06-2024).]

theogre APR 05, 11:50 PM
The Washers do more then "look nice."

They Stop the strut rod from punching thru the "hat."
The rubber there won't last long w/o the washers.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

82-T/A [At Work] APR 06, 10:55 AM
Ok, I took them out of the bag... based on the wear, rust and marks from the nuts, I can make the assumption that the smaller one goes on the top, and the bigger one goes on the bottom (I would have thought initially it would have been the opposite). Would you guys mind confirming this is the case?




I tossed them in the rock tumbler I bought. I'm trying to help my daughter out. She has had back to back weekends of events. She's in a travel orchestra and they're on a trip, and then it's another thing or another thing, or a sporting event. She refuses to put anything back on the car unless she sands it down, cleans it, and paints it... because she wants it to be perfect. But I'm concerned she's not going to be able to actually finish the car with her crazy schedule. She didn't want me to help, but I told her that at the very least I could do, was clean stuff up. So I've been soaking a lot of the hardware in degreaser, cleaning it, and painting them, or putting them in the rock tumbler. She's been chasing all the threats for the machine screws and such, so that everything goes back together. I told her about that other girl who was trying to restore her Fiero and never finished... that it took her like 6 years and ended up selling the car. So she's really concerned that will happen to her, so she's letting me do the less important stuff.

She's way more responsible than I am. Back in the day, I would have just screwed everything down best I could have figured. She insists that because the manual says it needs to be torqued down to a certain specification, that we HAVE to use a torque wrench for everything. She made me go buy a bunch of torque wrenches, including a little one that does inch-pounds (didn't even know that was a thing). It's crazy. She was doing a circuits project, and I told her LEDs can be soldered any way on the board because they're basically lightbulbs. Obviously, I turned out to be wrong, and so now she insists on using instructions rather than listening to dad's off the cuff advice. Haha...
Stingray92 APR 06, 11:33 AM
I'd replace the strut mounts and be done with it. The washers yeah you could clean up but I wouldn't reuse the lock nut. RA has some $20.