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Check out that thread.

Already a big difference and I can see why that step is crucial. 3/8 is apparently what fits in mine (possibly these were replaced in the past?) for anyone reading this in the future if you’re having difficulties. It’s also a good thing I picked up a second longer bolt as the shorter one only catches on one side, at least after being partially taken apart. One question I have is whether there’s an ideal height to compress them to in order to bang the lower fasteners. Hopefully will have them out before anyone sees this. I guess this piece of junk wasn’t seized, just stuck in place by the now compressed springs.

Yep just a plain 4 door 96 Regal with no rear sway bar. Here is a picture of the bolt that I used to compress that rubber damper thing. I used a Chevy rocker arm ball instead of washers. The 10 x 1.5 mm fits so tight you can save yourself a lot of trouble and use the 3/8 x 16 threads per inch bolt.

I take it that your Regal has the FE1 suspension & does not have installed a rear stabilizer bar? As far as I remember those auxiliary dampeners were a poor mans anti-roll bar. They were there to add some anti roll capabilities to the rear suspension. When cornering the load on the outboard side of the car will cause the car to lean down & the opposite side would raise up, the dampener load increases when the rear inboard (body connection end) lateral link pivots upwards, and the reverse happens when the inboard lateral link end pivots downwards. They had nothing to do with maintaining the motionless ride height at all. In your photo I do not see the stabilizer bar, nor the end link that is mounted to the front side of the rear knuckle.

The correct bolt should be a 10 x 1.5 mm (about) 6 inch long all thread bolt. Years ago when I did my rear struts I could only fins a 3/8 x 16 sae 6 inch bolt and it worked just fine. The bolt does not thread all the way through, see first picture. That arm does NOT have a hole in it under the bracket.

The bolts included with the Monroe Quick-Struts I replaced on my 1992 Cutlass Supreme coupe were useless for their intended purpose. One was too short (yes, the struts did not include identical bolts) and the other one seemed long enough but it just wouldn't thread into the bracket. I ended up purchasing a Kent-Moore auxiliary spring compressor on eBay and it was worth every penny. Those auxiliary springs are a bitch. You'll see what I'm talking about once you get the bracket and spring off, because they have to come off to replace the strut anyway. I'm hoping my Grand Prix and Lumina Z34 both have rear sway bars because that's a whole different (and easier) ball game. I haven't looked yet (maybe I don't want to know right now). Good luck!

My strut mounts were pretty shot so I didn't even bother disassembling the strut from the mount when I removed them. The only thing I can really tell you to help is that the nut on the top side is a 24mm, at least the ones that came with my KYBs are.

Can you re-use the old bolt?

I replaced all 4 struts in my '96 Grand Prix coupe last year. I don't remember needing any specific tools for removing the rear struts, however for the front ones I had to buy a specific toolkit off ebay.

Found another guaranteed culprit on this no start situation. Injector #1 measured out at 1.6 ohms where all the others measure at 12.7. I hooked up the injector to my injector tester and hit the multi fire test button and it’s completely dead. All the others fire just fine but not going to chance it so I’ve ordered 6 new injectors. Will be interesting to see how it runs after I replace both bad parts. Ill have to remove the Fuel rail but the FPR is a really tight fit so will make that a breeze now that the rail is coming off. more beer for me! And I’ll have a chance to paint some more parts that came off while I wait. Ill be able to add a fuel injector swap procedure to this thread now…

This is just how I do it. All in all it’s a 3 beer job?