Shock/Strut Removal/Installation
 

Surprising, I searched and found no topics on this. I am having trouble getting the strut and spring out. Shit is rusted everywhere under there and it is tough getting any bolts loose. What exactly do I need to do to get this shit out? I am getting very frustrated!

Pneumatic tools, seriously. If you don't have any or none to borrow, then take your car to a shop that can at least break them loose or soak them down with penetrating oil and try your hand tools with a breaker bar, if needed use some heat (propane torch). Good luck!

pb blaster go get some. be carful with the abs electrical sensors also

I used the 'big ol pipe' purchased at home depot as a breaker bar to get those puppies lose. well rather my friend did, im not strong enough. are your abs sensor connectors rusted too? mine were, we had to chisel one side off with a flathead screwd driver and lots of liquidwrench.
the only other hold up i could see for you would be those doughnut pieces that hold the silver shaft of the shock. they are shaped like a "D". if you have tocikos they wont fit.

Well, I got the damn things off, didn't take one bolt loose. Just wiggled the shit out of them and it finally came off. Now I can't the damn new ones back in. BTW they are Tokicos. Damn why did they make it so hard.

What do I need to take off in order to make this easier for the next one?

^ I spent a good while when I installed my tokicos. I ended up loosening the lower control arm bolts in the front and dropping the arms enough to get them in. it was really only the fronts that were a bitch...the rears were cake. and then I took it to a friends shop for alignment. :)

hope that helps.

^^^^^Thanks, that did help. The fronts suck. I can't seem to get them in, the strut with spring is too damn tall, springs are compressed. It is really wierd.

there is a washer (not sure if thats the best way to describe it) in the the lower a arm thats needs to pushed back. People usually tighten a nut and bolt to push it back in. Once this slides back in it is very easy to insert the new shock.
If you look where the shock sits in the lower a arm you will see exactly would i am talking about.

Thanks guys, I got it. Took forever but I got it. Now the question is, is the upper part of the rod supposed to be taller than the old one? It sticks out about a half inch more now than it did. Looks really wierd but seems correct since the new shocks are longer.

Did you put back the stock rubber mount (the one with the D-cut center that you are suppose to drill out to fit the Tokico's)?

Yeah, sure did. I got the other one on in no time, easy as shit after I figured out the first one. They are both higher than the stock ones, but they are also longer shocks than the stock ones. Just test drove the car, drives a hell of a lot better!

so what method did u use???

Pull and hit shit :bigthumb: Really I just unbloted the lower arm from the back, the 2 bolts. Then I moved it back, put the rubber shit back in, then put the srping ont he shock, put it in sideways then straightened it up, it is a tight fit but it works.

Then you should be good to go.


For others doing this job later:
This is one of the few sections of the FSM is that pretty much straight forward. It shows you exactly what you need to remove/unbolt exactly to get the job done. ;)