Rep Power: 0

The bottom bracket on my 87 civic's struts is a single bolt mount. To get the strut out, I have to remove the bolt, and pry the mount apart. Then, when I put the new mount in, I can't get the bolt holes to line up, and putting the bolt in only pushes the two parts farther apart. I'm worried that I am going to break the mount which would be catastrophic since it is pre-1988 and parts are difficult to come by.
Any advice????
My 86 needs better front struts, and my 87 has good ones, so I am buying new struts for my 87(daily driver) and putting the "good" ones on the 86.

 
Rep Power: 518

Pull the strut all the way out of the knuckle and make sure the bolt still threads in correctly.

If the body of the strut has a locating tab that has to fit into the slot in the knuckle, it sounds like you don't have it perfectly centered in the bolt hole.

HTH

 
Rep Power: 0

Thank you. I took the struts off and put them on my 86 hatch. I put new KYB GR-2's on the 87, When I got everything apart, I saw a groove in the struts for the knuckle bolt, and the brake hose attachment had a tab that dropped down between the two sides of the knuckle. Without that tab dropping down between the two parts of the knuckle, the groove would not line up with the bolt. It wouldn't go together right. Glad that got figured out. Thanks for your help. :-)