1989 Reatta Strut Mount Installation

[Honolulu City Lights]

Hi All,

Have an 89 Reatta that I ordered a pair of Gabriel Strut Mount Kit # 142298 from Amazon.com.

The strut bearing is small and will not fit directly under the strut mount.

I have a spare set of Mevotech strut bearings, MP901928, and the Mevotech bearing is bigger than the the Gabriel bearing.

Checked my 88, 89 and 90 Reatta Tech Service Manuals and no blow-up diagrams on how the strut bearing is installed in the strut.

My understanding is that the strut bearing goes directly under the strut mount with the plastic race facing upwards towards the strut mount and the rubberized part of the strut race faces down towards the coil spring insulator.

The coil spring insulator has a groove on one side which I believe is for the upper part of the coil spring to seat itself.

The Gabriel strut bearing has too small an inner diameter to fit in the center of the underside of strut mount although the Mevotech bearing fits.

The Gabriel strut bearing will fit the groove in the coil spring insulator where the upper part of the coil spring would seat in the insulator.

Does the Gabriel strut bearing install between the top of the coil spring and the groove in the coil spring insulator ?

If it does, which way does the plastic race install ?

Seems the steel coil spring would disintegrate the bearing outer races if installed this way.

Cannot believe that (2) new boxes of Gabriel strut mount kits have mismatched, wrong parts.

Thanks for the help.

Update:

Received an e-mail from Gabriel's Tech Support and was advised the coil spring insulator that comes in their kit mounts just below the strut mount, strut bearing fits in groove of coil spring cushion with the plastic race of the strut bearing facing up and the rubberized race portion of the strut bearing faces down towards the coil spring seat flange at the top of the coil spring.

Mystery solved.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Honolulu City Lights
Additional information (see edit history)

[Honolulu City Lights]

Just replaced my 90 Reatta with new front struts, strut mounts and strut bearing.

The original old strut mount had the plastic race facing down towards the upper coil spring bracket and the rubberized side of the bearing facing up towards the thick rubber strut mount with 3 bolts going thru the fenderwell strut tower.

[wufibug]

Am in the process of doing the same.  I note that the new mount has 4 holes that line up with 4 holes the thick rubber part of the mount.  Looks like they should take some kind of self tapping screw into the rubber.  The mount did not come with screws and the old setup had none.  Should I be shopping for screws or ignore it?