Installing Shocks

[lemsip]

Please pardon my total ignorance, but what is involved in installing shocks ?

Do they just bolt on ? Should I use a torque wrench, or just do them up tight. I assume I need to jack up the truck to save trying to compress the shocks too much.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[ToeJam]

I have no idea how to do this either, so advice would be appreciated

[Schludwiller]

It's pretty straight forward.

Jack up one side of your front tires.

Remove the tire.

Remove the nut on the top of the shock.

Remove the nut on the bottom of the shock.

Pull the bolt out of the bottom of the shock.

Compress the shock by hand upwards until it clears the bottom mount.(should be easy if they are nissan ones).

Once clear of the bottom mount you should be able to pull the shock out of the top mount.

Keep the bolts and nuts for the reinstall.

Here's the harder part.

Compressing the new shock. The Rancho shocks come with a wire that holds them compressed. You can use a coat hanger to do the same, but it's tougher because of the design of the Bilstein. I ended up doing it by hand.

I had success bringing the shock through the space of the a-arm behind the disc brake. Once I got the top shaft of the shock into the the mount I then compressed the shock enough to pull it into place with the bottom mount.

Put the bushings and metal discs for the top mount(I forget what they're called) in the right order and facing direction(it will be on the instructions, or just look at the order they're put on before you remove the original shocks).

Once in place, run the bottom bolt through and tighten the nut.

The top shaft (of Bilsteins) must be held in place with an Allen wrench inserted in the top of the shaft. Use a closed or open wrench to tighten the bolt down. The Bilstein instructions say not to compress the rubber bushings. (I would be curious to hear what others have done. I mentioned this to SLR and they hadn't heard of that).

The rear shocks are easy. You don't need to jack up the truck at all. It might be easier to reach the driver side shock if you remove the spare (mine is already gone).

Remove the top and bottom nuts on the shocks.

Pull the shocks off the mounts.

Put the new shock on the mounts. You'll have to compress them some. Put the metal gasket (rings) back on.

Put the nuts back on and tighten.

You might need some auto grease to lube the bushings to get them on. The Bilsteins are a tight fit.

That's pretty much it. If I forgot something, please add to the instructions. Once you do it, you'll wonder why you ever paid someone to do it for you.

[lemsip]

thanks for the thorough explanation.

[rhombus]

Originally posted by Schludwiller
The Bilstein instructions say not to compress the rubber bushings. (I would be curious to hear what others have done. I mentioned this to SLR and they hadn't heard of that).

They guy that let me use his lift and helped with the install said the same thing when I mentioned that point from the instructions.

I did not find in hard to mount the front shock at all.
Maybe being on a lift makes the difference (we also did not remove the tire (being under the truck makes it much easier, but is not always practical).

[Schludwiller]

Yes, it's a matter of leverage. A lift would make it all much easier, but I'm not getting mine installed in my garage until this winter.

[rhombus]

drool....

I would love to even have a garage
I live in an apartment now

I'm hoping to buy some land by September and build a small simple log home with a huge garage

[Mike H]

I used these instructions yesterday and the only thing I would add is a note about removing the rear sway bar. I was going to do it anyway since I was installing new shocks, but I recommend doing it before you start.

If you dont, I have no idea how you would get old shock out and new one on.

[Schludwiller]

Originally posted by Mike H
I used these instructions yesterday and the only thing I would add is a note about removing the rear sway bar. I was going to do it anyway since I was installing new shocks, but I recommend doing it before you start.

If you dont, I have no idea how you would get old shock out and new one on.

Hmmmm. I didn't have to remove my sway bar when I put on my rancho shocks last year. But it's been so long I don't remember what I did, or if there was any problem. We took off the sway bar before doing the Bilsteins.

BTW welcome to the board Mike.

[Mike H]

Originally posted by Schludwiller
BTW welcome to the board Mike.

Thanks.

I guess every vehicle is different, but my sway bar was so close that I couldn't even remove the stock shock (which had the notorious dent in it from hitting the bar). I guess it doesn't matter since I was going to do it anyway, but at least I would advise people to start with the rear passenger side shock so they don't at have to stop and remove the bar when they are on a roll putting on the shocks.

BTW thanks for the instructions, there are lots of us who are learning the basics on our X's and step by step guidance on even the beginner stuff is great. I will have to tell you how I damaged an engine doing one of my first oil changes when I was a youngster. It happened because of something a newbie might not look for