panhead

absolutely correct, the conical washer was under the spring perch, not on top. Thanks for the help

Awesome, I'm literally tearing it apart in minutes, so I should know soon. I have a stupid question, do I need an alignment after yanking the strut?

Interesting... I will have to tear into it tomorrow and take a look. Can the cone be inspected while installed? Is the cone washer between the upper coil perch and the shaft nut? Thanks a ton....

My vote is the 6. Unless you are die hard about MPG's, I would rather have the option to pull a small load. My 4 cylinder leaves me a little wanting when its loaded with my friends, ski gear, and pulling a mountain. Passing uphill with these conditions have to be planned hours in advance.... Plus in some cases a larger motor actually gives you better MPG's. For example, I had a 6 cylinder Impala that under steady high way driving would get about 2 MPG's less then my old man's 8 cylinder of the same model and year. The 8 just works less to maintain highway speed, and makes the HP necessary to keep that speed easier. Of course, having the extra cylinders does mean you can put more fuel into the engine if you stay deep in the pedal. Its a delicate balance that is orchestrated by your driving habits.

First, I apologize if this has been covered, but my searches yielded no results... I have a 2001 Outback and replaced the struts last year. The original coils were loaded onto new front struts. Instantly I started hearing popping from the front end while turning all the way to lock in either direction. The car often pulls (sometimes horribly) in the direction of the last turn. I believe the sound is coming from the front suspension coils. I jacked the front end up and had a friend turn the wheel from lock to lock, while touching the coils, the popping noise coincided with vibration in the coils. I feel like they are not turning freely and may be binding in tight turning. The end of the coil terminates in the perch at the correct spot, and the top is not accessible visually or by feel while installed. It appears to be installed correctly. I am curious if any one has any ideas on how I can fix this, my intuition points me to: 1) possibly these struts were installed incorrectly, or swapped sides? 2) strut mounts have failed, or were torqued incorrectly? 3) the struts installed were for the wrong vehicle, perches not aligning? (Non OEM part?) Any help would be appreciative, thanks in advance.