Strut top suspicion........

[interloper]

Today, I think I may have cocked something up! Can I pick your collective brains?

I was changing the front shocks on my Mazda MX3 (same as a 323 apparently). The bottom of the strut assembly has a nice obvious notch for the end of the coil spring to sit in. The top mount how ever is a funny shape and doesn't have any marking to show which way around it went (spring sits an an angle to the shock). I tried to line the top and bottom up as best I could when re fitting. I thought I had done but on road test the steering is now pulling to one side! So I'm going to have to pull it all apart again.

Is there a sensible way to tell correctly how the top should sit in relation to the bottom?

[Jimmyarm]

The easiest way is to take the other side out and mirror it.

[interloper]

I must admit, after not getting much/any initial response to the post I sat down and thought about it and yep came to exactly that conclusion! Take em off, sit them alongside each other and make sure they are mirrored!

Just haven't got around to it yet.....

[9xxNick]

Check the camber for both wheels - if they are set differently this will cause the car to pull to one side and this may have been disturbed when you were doing the work depending on the suspension design.