so u compressed the spring while it was still on the car.....interesting.

 

i didnt do disassemble the strut while it was on eht car...... >.>

what i did was unbolt the lower strut mount and mostly loosen the top 3. then i took a jack and jacked up the knuckle just to loosen the lower mount from the shock body. then i unbolted the top 3 all the way and PUSHED the axle/knucle/UCA/LCA assembly DOWN as far as i could, and pushed the bottom of the strut BACK (ie-towards the center of the car) and pulled the top of the strut assembly down. then i pulled the whole thing out nice an neat

its kinda hard to visualize til ur down there, and this ONLY works on the rear, for the front i HAD to unbolt the upper ball joint. i got hte idea from LexKost who was giving me some tips on the install

 

I just finished this task this weekend (BTW, FWIW, the GR-2s are decidedly firmer than OEM KYBs, it no longer has the soft "Lexus" ride...it handles much better though).

My approach was the same as PureDrifter's. The only disassembly necessary are the strut bolts - no axle removing, or sway bar removal (it easily moves enough to allow the lower bolt to slide out). No caliper removal - but be careful not to stress the brake line by pushing the axle down too much when the strut is out.

Steps
-Undo strut mount lower nut, & remove bolt.
-Loosen large strut bolt on in center of top.
-Remove all three of the top retention bolts.
-Push bottom of strut out of bracket toward center of car - allowing strut to drop down next to axle - then pull top out of wheel well opening.
- Compress the spring off the car, just enough to remove tension on top cap.
- Remove large bolt on top of strut.

I did not mark the alignment of studs on the top cap well before disassembling so I needed to re-compress the spring several times when reassembling to align the three top studs (put tape, or other indelible mark on spring at top, bottom, and on cap (piece with the three studs) to avoid this pain.

Also, when the axle/brake/lower control arm is disconnected from the strut, and hanging down some, on one side of the car I notices that the lower strut bracket "rotated" backward a little. It was enough that getting the new strut into and aligned, in this very tight bracket was nearly impossible. Raising the lower control arm, corrected this misalignment.

On the front, I did have to undo the ball joint and use 2-arm gear puller to separate it from upper control arm (all quick and easy). Otherwise, the front is the same procedure.

I don't know why Lexus adds all the "Disassemble entire rear drive train" steps in the owners manual for the rear. Maybe to discourage DIY (or to justify more "book" hours for the repair ?!
).

Bob

 

I had to order some of these awhile back and I got mine from struts-r-us.com