strut mounts

[VanishingImage]

I got my car aligned this morning and after the place got it aligned the head alignment guy took it for a drive to see how it was and came back and brought in the spec sheet and said the alignment is perfect now but the front end is acting weird,he said when hed make a left or right turn the wheel wanted to pull hard in which ever direction he had turned(while going straight it would pull not while turning) and he said he didn't know until he could look at it and we mentioned that we had put the struts on ourselves and he mentioned if we saw any bearings in the strutn mount and we said no and he said thats prolly why its pulling,the bearings help keep it from pulling and make it a smooth transition rather then the mount just turning....My question is are there supposed to be bearings inside the mount? When we had it apaart there were no bearings and there were two metal rings that one rested inside the other and they went together just fine no problems.The car rides fine and when i lift my hands off the steering wheel it dones't pull what so ever or any of what the guy said.

[jayhawk]

My question is are there supposed to be bearings inside the mount? When we had it apaart there were no bearings and there were two metal rings that one rested inside the other and they went together just fine no problems.The car rides fine and when i lift my hands off the steering wheel it dones't pull what so ever or any of what the guy said.


You KNOW I was going to resond to this! :lol:

What you saw is the strut mount, no bearings really unless you take it literally. The the two rings do bear down on each other. Keep in mind changing the mounts or at least inspecting for wear is quite vital on a FWD car, because that is where the suspension load is, on the struts mount, not the lower ball joint, like cars used to be. If the strut mounts fail, it will be....interesting to drive.

[VanishingImage]

Yea and I was about to just PM you about this but i thought id make you search for me first:lol:........So in that whole assembly there are no actual ball bearings in the metal rings? The way the guy was making it sound there was something that sat inbetween the two metal rings.

[93gagt3300]

news flash gents, THERE ARE BALL BEARINGS IN THE STRUT MOUNT. they are encased either in plastic or metal and if the casing breaks, the bearings fall out , along making a small greasy mess. you could possibly need strut mounts. the reason i know this for a fact, i unfortunately didn't compress my spring far enough and when i unloosened the top nut for the mount, POW!!!!, BALL BEARINGS EVERYWHERE. needless to say, i'm hitting the junkyard tomorrow for a pair of strut mounts

[VanishingImage]

I just didn't think there were because how easy the mount comes apart as easy as it did,youd think the mount would be some how sealed up into one unit but theres two parts,well 5 if you count everything.....The top,the two metal rings,the bottom part,then the boot that covers the metal shaft of the strut.....I guess i'll be looking for some new mounts then if there are bearings as you say there are....Not saying your wrong at all,don't take it that way.

[93gagt3300]

naahhh, don't worry about it. you don't have to get all new mounts. you can get the bearing separately at the auto parts store. the reason i'm hitting the yard, i bought my ga gt for 900 bucks, mint, i do mean mint interior. which a big thing to me, unfortunately, after finding out the timing chain exploded in the frt cover, then slinging another 3300 v6 into the engine bay, i started working on the suspension, the struts up frt seemed new, but someone mickey moused the mounts back together, needless to say, my eibach springs had to wait till i acquire new mounts, to play it safe, than sorry.

[sound_xtreme]

yeap, there are bearings in there. sometimes you can just clean them up with some wd-40 or something.