did you try the dealer?

 

Yeah we are going to do that on Monday. We were trying to avoid that, because dealers like to charge outrageous prices. We were trying to find the diameter of the strut mount bearings so we could go to wal-mart and see if they have the same size in BB's that are shot out of BB guns. The drop is awesome and the clunking sound is not going to hurt anything, but it is very annoying. If I can't get the diameter size we will be getting them from the dealer on Tuesday.

 

[quote author=weezerfan84 link=topic=87992.msg1685445#msg1685445 date=1188773565]
Yeah we are going to do that on Monday. We were trying to avoid that, because dealers like to charge outrageous prices. We were trying to find the diameter of the strut mount bearings so we could go to wal-mart and see if they have the same size in BB's that are shot out of BB guns. The drop is awesome and the clunking sound is not going to hurt anything, but it is very annoying. If I can't get the diameter size we will be getting them from the dealer on Tuesday.
[/quote]

You are kidding? Right? BB's to replace heat treated, micro finished balls made to tolerances of +/-.00005 Inches? My gawd what are we teaching these kids today? Go to the dealer, spend the bucks up front, cause anything less than true bearing balls will destroy the rest of the bearing races. Then you are in BIG trouble and much $$$$$$!!

 

talk to josh at rontonkin.

he's a sponsor on here.

 

I used to work at an Ace Hardware, and we sold ball bearings in all kinds of sizes in the bins in the fastener section.

 

ball bearings were almost impossible to find for me. pretty much everyone i asked recommended me to an industrial company that specializes in them but that was like 30minutes away from where i lived. i ended up going to a bicycle shop and they gave them to me for free

 

We are ending up just going to the dealership to get new ball bearings. We just thought about bb's if we could find the right size at wal-mart. I'm not paying for them anyways. The guy that installed them lost them in his yard, and he said he would replace them. It won't cause any damage now, because not any ball bearings have two spaces in between them. I will be getting the strut mount fixed on Wednesday.

 

i'm missing one BB in my driverside.


whateva

 

A new spring isolator is only about $30 from Tonkin, just buy a new one.

 

Hehe, had the same thing happen to me, (same strut) and I was like "WTF?!?! What a POS!" Coming from doing springs on double-wishbone Honda's that are straight up and down springs and have a plain rubber isolator, I was wondering what all those little bearings were doing in there. I found all mine but one, but they got pretty dirty. I eventually replaced mine with an OE part, it was only $22 from http://www.mazdapontiacgmcparts.net/ . I have purchased multiple parts from them, including my oil filter conversion kit, a new CV axle, and the isolator of mention. They have the best OE prices I've found and have always been a pleasure to deal with.

Another thing I have not seen mentioned on this forum (maybe haven't looked hard enough?) is that you need to line up this mark on the isolator with a mark on the strut tower when you torque the springs onto the strut, as detailed in the shop manual. If you've done McPhearson struts before, I assume they are all like this, but my 3 was the first for me, so I messed it up and had to go back. It is probably the reason for my wheel bearing/CV going as well. All my Hondas were straight up and down so I was like "whatever" when I put it together, plus I was in a hurry. Let that be my lesson. Oh well, other than the headache, I was only out roughly as much as I would have spent having it professionally done.

 

The strut couldn't have caused the cv/axle bearing to go out.

 

My buddy is calling the dealership tomorrow to go and see if he can just purchase bearings. If he can get them we will have the car fixed tomorrow. If not then I will be ordering the part online and it will get fixed sometime next week. I can't stand hearing that "clunk" sound, because I feel like my whole strut is going to fall out. I couldn't tell if the spring was on straight, but it looked like it was mounted exactly like the drivers side. It's hard to get anything aftermarket to work just like factory specs. That is why it is called factory specs. Hopefully we can get this thing done tomorrow.

 

I'll save you the trouble. You can't just purchase the bearings, you have to purchase the complete isolator.

 

So can anything bad happen if your are missing a few bearings, say 3. Will this do any permanent damage to the suspension? Cause i lost like 3 when decompressing the spring and lost 3 bearings. My suspension does not make any noise. I had a mechanic help on the install and he's said it shouldn't be a big deal, but anyone see any cause for concern?

BTW I have a Pro-Kit.

 

I wouldn't think so. I bought a new cup with ball bearings already installed so the noise would go away. It was pretty cheap at around $30. Mine made some clunks, but after I did that the noise went away. I don't even have skunk2 springs anymore. I sold them to a fellow forum member and now I have speed3 oem springs. Really no drop in the front, but the stiffer spring rate is nice.