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I’ve had much luck changing springs out on the car. I have coil overs now so makes the job much easier as they can come out the top without taking anything apart down below. There is a way to unload the factory spring on the car but may need to remove the entire assembly to get enough clearance to access and remove the spring and change the bearing. -with the car on the ground remove the strut cover plate - 3 bolts. You may want to mark the position of the nuts to avoid an alignment -remove the strut shaft upper nut. That’ll be the hardest part as its likely corroded on there and you may not get it off at all. Soak in PB blaster overnight... the shock rod Takes a torx key to keep the shock rod from spinning, use a socket that you can get a wrench on or vice grips to remove the nut while holding the shock stationary with the hex. I Welded a big wrench onto a socket and made my own tool for this. The hex has to go inside the ratchet hole for this to work. - when the upper nut is off put the strut cover back on with nuts finger tight. The shock may push the bushing out so You'll have to push it back down. - raise the car up on 2 jack stands so front wheels are off the ground. Take the wheel off. - Support the knuckle with a jack and reload the spring a bit, disconnect the sway bar from the control arm so the control arm will lower freely later on. - separate but don’t remove the ball joint. Put castle nut back on finger tight. Will be a bugger to do later if needed if assembly is not bolted to strut tower. -disconnect the tie rod. -disconnect and cap the brake line - remove the strut cover nuts again and and remove the cover -slowly lower the jack. - that’ll release the tension on the spring and the assembly will come away from the strut tower when the spring is unloaded. - you might get just enough clearance to tip/pull the top of the assembly out of the wheel well and remove the spring without fully taking it off. Step on the control arm a bit to get it to lower, if not you’ll have to remove it the rest of the way. you’ll be glad you loosened the ball joint now. - if you have enough clearance to clear the fender you’ll have to pop the cv axle out of the transmission at that point to get the assembly to pull away enough to tip it out of the fender or remove the assembly all together. I’d suggest to separate the axle nut from the hub instead and leave the cv behind but you’d have to loosen the nut before you start anything else. It’s fine threaded and a bitch to get off. There was a video on you tube showing this process. I think it was a regal if it’s still on there I couldn’t find it. This isn’t it but will give an idea of the first part at least YouTube search: GM W body strut cartridge change, Buick Regal if you do it the other way by removing all in one piece just take it to a shop and save yourself the danger. Spring compressors are horrid if they let go prematurely. I almost shit myself when doing it off the car once and it let go, never again... Guys get killed that way. Even using ratchet straps to hold it all together for added security is dicey. There’s lots of videos of this going wrong on you tube Watch a few of those as well... Russians are funny dudes.. to each his own of course. It’s a 6 beer, two busted knuckle job for sure.

This picture may help.

No, what Chris is saying is to remove the entire strut as an intact assembly, once removed from the car then one disassembles it in the same manner as any other *conventional* strut, then you can replace the worn parts as necessary.