I am doing a spring/shock swap in my '92 civic. Everything went well, from removal to assembly until I have to put in the bolt that holds the fork to the lower control arm (front). I've been wrestling with it for a few hours and no luck. I've tried using a floor jack to line them up, I once got a screwdriver in the holes but couldn't line them up enough to put the bolt in. Any tips?

 

1) did you allign the upperstrut bolts correctly?
2)what i did was i used a hammer and a hydraulic jack to push the bolt in.
3) did you make sure the grove of the fork aligned with the strut.
4) have another friend of yours you push the arm.while you put the bolt back.

 

Took me a long time but I got it by loosening the upper control arm so the lower was easier to move. The other side was totally easy. Thanks for the advice...

 

try this. don't bolt the strut/spring assembly to car. make sure you align the slot in the fork with the tab on the strut. if you get that to line up right you should be able to thread in the bolt. then try and put it through the holes in the car.

the best way i believe to do the job is before you disassemble the strut from the spring, mark the top piece in relation to the tab on the strut. that way when you put everything together all you do is line up your mark to the tab on the strut and everything should line up just right when you go to install it on the car.

i remember my first time dropping a car. took me six hours. now i got drop jobs to within an hour.