I just recently replaced my front struts and since the springs were in good condition still, I reused them. One side re-installed just fine but when I went to reinstall the other side I must have misaligned the "top hat" of the spring assembly and when I went to bolt in the top 3 bolts none of them were aligned. I was able to rotate the spring when it was sitting in the truck but it needed about 70-80 degrees of rotation for the 3 holes to line up. Everything else went back together fine. When I was test driving it I immediately hear a spring clunk noise. I assumed everything was just settling. Drove probably 50-60 miles with no other odd noises. I went over a rough railroad crossing today and I heard a spring noise again. Could this noise be settling of the spring perch and spring assembly? Was rotating the "top hat" 70-80 degrees a bad idea? I'm not well versed in the proper terminology so when I say "top hat" of the spring assembly, I'm talking about the part below.

 

Yes, you are correct, that is the tophat. Don't know what truck you have, but the 2013 on back had a crossbolt for the lower shock mount. 2014 and up, had two vertical bolts. I'm having trouble understanding how you couldn't get the tophat aligned. Were the struts reassembled correctly?

 

Sorry I should have clarified. 2017 F150 with the V8.When I removed the spring assembly it looked like the picture below (screenshot from a YT video). When I reinstalled on the new strut and tightened the top bolt on the shaft and decompressed it must not have been aligned properly which caused the 3 studs on top to not align when placing it back on the truck.

 

Is there a rubber isolators between the top of the spring and the bottom side of the top hat? Maybe with you twisting the top hat it's causing the issue if there is a rubber isolator in there. No se.

 

By rotating so the tophat would fit worked? What about the bottom mounts, how did they line up?

 

I didn't end up taking the top hat off of the spring when replacing. It all came off as one piece as shown above so I put it back together as one piece.

I rotated the top hat when the whole strut assembly was back in the truck. That means there was compression on it and it didn't turn easily but did eventually work. The bottom spring perch appeared to be seated properly and the spring appeared to be seated on the perch. I'll need to reinspect.

 

Update: After a couple weeks I've heard no more noises from the springs and everything appears to be functioning fine. Now that I've given everything time to settle I'll be getting my alignment done.