So, I finally got some time today to work on my suspension and I started with right upper control arm. Everything went fine but one of the bolts would not clear the spring so I had to remove it.
Except, I followed lexls tutorial blindly, and now I am stuck in this situation:
Any advice how to proceed without press? I can't even pull the strut out, forget about putting it back in... it is resting against the lower part of suspension and it is so strong that I cannot pull it out of there. I guess I could take out everything? But where to start from?
Edit: I removed all three bolts at the top of the strut and the one in the center; I was guessing there as I could not remove it with the center one in place.

 

OK, got out of the pickle... Note to self and others: NEVER remove the middle bolt on the top of the strut, you know the three that go around the strut tower that you access from inside the engine compartment, under the hood. There is another one in the middle, with a rubber cap on top of it so you cannot even see it, but I was like a curious cat and removed that one too, without too much thinking.
If you do remove that nut, the shock will be pulled out of that hole by the spring, and then you need lots of good luck from there.
I managed to push it back in using my jack and eyeballing it through the hole. Having TONS of luck helps too. Once I tightened it back in place, the strut just about expands enough to be moved out of the way when working on the UCA. So I could easily screw it back in place.
Whew. Everything would have been easier if I just did not touch that middle nut.

 

You were lucky not to have been seriously injured by a flying spring!
When I changed my UCA I had the same problem with removing the bolts with the spring in the way but discovered by placing a jack under the bottom ball joint I could jack up the hub and move the spring into a position where the bolt could be withdrawn between the coils
Did you fit OEM Lexus replacements or after market UCAs, I was lucky to get hold of a genuine Lexus one for $180.00.

 

I put in dorman from Rockauto.com and it looks even a hair beefier than OEM.
How did you get OEM for $180? Amayama.com?

 

Oh, and btw, i find that the tutorial on lexls is a bit misleading. He does not say to remove the middle bolt, but on one of the pictures it shows front struts and spring fully out which is not really needed when working on UCA (just the three bolts is enough as all you need to do is to let the spring relax a bit to be able to squeeze the bolts from UCA out of their holes), and then it just says "installation is reverse of removal". First of all, you cannot remove the struts if you don't undo the middle nut, but even more importantly - you can only install the struts and springs back in If you can magically compress the spring with your mind power, otherwise good luck or get a spring compressor, which he does not mention at all.

 

in lexls's defense, you should indeed remove the whole strut/spring assembly to get to the UCA mounting bolts. sure you can remove the UCAs by just sagging but removing the entire strut/spring makes the job much easier.

you should never remove the center nut of the strut assembly at anytime while installed in the car, as you already found out. a spring compressor isn't mentioned since it was never required for the job.

 

Thanks timmy0tool, just figured that out too...