I have a 2014 Lariat Crew Cab 4x4. Somehow, probably thanks to a pothole left by PENDOT, I broke a left front coil spring. I order replacement springs from Advance Auto, they confirm the springs I ordered were the correct parts, a left front and a right front Coil spring/Strut assembly. The left replacement went without a hitch, well without a normal or to be expected hitch.... Get to the right front, thinking this should take 1/2 the time as the left.... Remove the old part, attempt to install the new and DAMN...... it's not fitting! If I place it the way it looks like it should go (matching the slant of the top mounting and the bottom tabs, the three bolt hole pattern on the top is opposite the bolts on the strut assy.... I go to my phone and look up my part order.... confirm I put the left front part on the left front of my truck and the right front part is the what I"m attempting to install, but isn't fitting up..... Yup. According to Advance Auto everything is correct, according to my truck, its isn't going to work! It appears that my truck actually requires two left side strut assemblies, as if I had the same part that I installed on the left, it would fit. My local Advance Auto doesn't have any more parts in stock. I call O'Reilly Auto (mind you its 6pm on Saturday and my truck is on jackstands, sans right front coilsprint/strut) They indeed have two in stock, a right side and a left side. I get a buddy to drive me (and my right side assembly from off the truck) to the parts store. Sure enough, the part that is intended for the left front of my truck is indeed what I need for the right side.

Has anyone run into this nonscense before? Can someone explain this to me? WTH do they produce parts that are made one for the right side and another for the left... when my truck will only take two that are made for the left?
Thanks in advance for your input!

 

I'm getting that the pinbar for bottom mount had the studs pointing the wrong way? Both sides are interchangeable. To get the pinbar lined up, you can take a pair of big channelocks and just rotate the pinbar to the proper orientation. Done this a number of times installing spacers on kids trucks.

 

I guess my confusions come from the fact that there is a right side part and a left side part with different part numbers, but they're interchangable? When mounted the assembly doesn't stand perfectly straight, vertically. The assmbly is closer to the engine on top and farther from the engine on the bottom. To get the three bolts on the top of the assembly to match the hole pattern on the truck mount, the right side assembly had to be turn around and then the slant of the mounts were opposite of the truck mounts. I'm not sure how else to explain it. I just went out and looked at the part (that will be returned later today) and confirmed, the part is made to slant one way, it don't believe its intended to be interchangable.

 

I've flip/flopped them many times. Perhaps the PN is different because of the way the pinbar is slanted, like you described. In fact, when guys put spacers on the top of the strut for a level, you must rotate the whole strut assembly 180* to be able to bolt up the top correctly. You either swap sides with the strut, or rotate the pin bar so the orientation of the studs line up with the bolt holes in the lower control arm.
Maybe I'm causing confusion myself, but trust me, you can install those struts side to side, just by rotating the bottom mount, [pinbar]. That bushing the pinbar is mounted in, is made to rotate with the motion of the lower control arm moving up and down.

 

Ok, so what I'm hearing is that they are two different parts, and the angle of the bottom mount is the difference between them. Yet, the bottom mount sits in a rubber bushing, so it's not fixed and can actually be twisted so that the part mounts up on either side. Is that correct?

 

Yes, exactly. That bottom mount, pinbar, is pretty tight so it takes a bit of leverage to rotate, but not bad at all.


Side thought:
On some aftermarket assemblies, that lower mount only comes with holes in it where your studs are, and are much looser in the bushing, or a different style bushing is used. Bolts, instead of studs are provided with those setups. Just throwing that in there, has no bearing really with what uoi are doing.

 

yes, the monroe replacements come with bolts instead of studs, which made it a hell of a lot easier replaceing them.... The springs didn't needcompressed nearly as much.

 

Cool! Sometimes my replies aren't as clear as they should be.
No doubt handling and ride improved.

 

Thanks for the info.... Its good to know that I wasn't completely wrong and that I didn't screw anything up putting my truck back together.

You're in Barton City? Damn.... I'm from Posen, but I live in PA. I have a hunting camp between Hawks and Hillman.

 

Good olde Posen, I bet that town is less known than Barton City! I've lived here since 2010 full time, came up from Monroe at that time after 50 years down there. One of the best things I've done.
Bought 20+ acres of woods in 2001, built my house, retired once, back to heavyhaul trucking, and retired for good 4/14/2017.
Every day is Saturday now.