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Review on Monroe 904994 Strut Mate Strut Mounting by Frank Harwood

Revainrating 5 out of 5

no complaints best in aftermarket

Below is a quote from a review I did for mounting racks. This element is an auxiliary element (upper part) of car columns. They look identical to stock. I could reuse mine but I replaced them with these new ones because I ordered them anyway. --- Left and right side braces: Monroe 71588 Sensa-Trac brace Monroe 71589 Sensa-Trac brace I got tired of clanking and bouncing around on the back of my 2000 Mazda Protege - so I ordered braces on both sides (my more experienced friend recommended replace these things in pairs, either both front at once or both rear at once). I couldn't find a cheaper option locally, so I sent parts from Revain. Here are a few tips from my first prop job, done over a couple of weekends, at a very leisurely pace fueled by beers (a backup car was available during the weekdays). Replacing these also required a compressor for the springs (mine borrowed from a mechanic friend of mine). It is not difficult to use any of these tools. Chilton (or Haynes) mentioned using rubber grease on all rubber parts during assembly. I couldn't find it at my local parts store. The only type of lube that mentioned being rubber safe was the brake parts lube I used for this job. I recommend using rubber gloves or else everything will get messy. There are a few rack accessories to consider, and it's not entirely obvious that you might need them if you haven't already. How many of these you should replace probably depends on how long you put off servicing. I usually ride it until the wheels fall off, so I replaced the following: Spring dampers: (They were more expensive than I thought they should be, but their price was consistently high everywhere, so I ordered them from Amazon. When I had less money and had more time, I'd probably try using a rubber hose or something similar to do the same job. In my case, they definitely needed replacing: Monroe 905961 Strut-Mate Top Rack Mount Kit Gizmo: (Maybe I could reuse) They come in Left Hand and Right Hand: Monroe 904994 Strut-Mate Stand Assembly Kit Monroe 904995 Strut-Mate Stand Assembly Kit I thought it was a Horus Another idea for keeping the elements out, they fit and seem to be working: Monroe 63618 Strut-Mate Strut Boot Kit, just cut off the old ones and replace them with new ones, analogues when replacing the rack, positive reviews about MOOG prompt me, to select them. They are much stronger than the standard links and come with grease fittings which the standard links didn't have, these are winners! Here is the item I used: Moog K80869 Rear Stabilizer Bar. If you want, you can do the work yourself. However, unless you're salvaging some parts of the system, it might be better to replace the entire assembly with something like this. SKU: Gabriel G56940 ReadyMount Full Rack Assembly At least I can say I was there and have now, but I would probably go for the full mount method next time if it were available!

Pros
  • Engineered for superior fit and performance
Cons
  • Almost never