Shocks and Springs in 10 hrs?

o.k. Before I really give this a shot, I thought I'd poll the group. I have new springs and koni shocks for my 93 that I want to get installed. My time is limited so what I want to try and do is get it done this Sunday.

I'm doing the work in the garage. Mostly hand tools. Maybe I'll have some help in the morning.

Is it possible to replace all 4 shocks, install 4 new springs all in one day? Any tips?

Were you going to do ALL of the work yourself ?? Or remove the shock / spring assembly and take it to a shop for them to take the spring off and put it into the new shock so you can install that yourself ?

If so I can see that taking about 10 hours, depending on how long the shop takes ......

BUt yeah, It usually takes me maybe, 4 hours ? Id say the front end takes a little longer, depending on bolts, etc .. and the rear end is usually 30 minutes each side, takes longer to take the tires off and put it up in the air than to replace the springs / shocks for me.

Front end I do completely myself .. unbolt all of the nuts on the top while the car is on the ground ( 3 nuts holding the upper mount in, and 1 nut keeping the spring on ) .. then jack the car up and it will take most of the tension off the spring. Then, unbolt the sway bar endlinks, upper control arm, and lower shock mounting bolt .. should be able to pull it all out, its a tight squeeze when the stock spring is uncompressed. Swap over the upper mount and isolators .. then put it in, bolt up the lower control arm to shock bolt, and use the jack to put up the spring / shock into the upper mounting hole so you can put that nut on it and hold it in place. If you remove it as a whole assembly, it wont take as much time, some people are worried about the spring flying out, but I dont see where its going to go with that shock through it.

Rear springs are so easy .. loosen the top nut(s) for the shocks while the car is on the ground, then lift it up, unbolt the sway bar endlink nut, lower shock bolt, upper control arm to spindle nut / bolt .. then you'll need to put your foot and weight onto the lower control arm to get the spring out ( a prybar might help too ) .. just make sure the car is high enough to really push that lower control arm down, those bumpstops are pretty big on the early model Birds.

Shouldnt take too long, Ive done this several times.

- Dan

Without a doubt you can do it in a day unless you have a lot of rust on the bolts if that is the case make sure you have PB Blaster handy and soak all the bolts you will be removing the night before you begin your work.

The rears should be very easy and should take no more than 1 hour for both sides taking you time and having a beer in between each side.

The fronts are a little more involved just because you have to cut and fit the cartridge housings for the Koni's and you have to use a spring compressor. Take you time and also mark the location of the spring in the perch and the upper mount for the spring so you have a reference when installing the new parts, for this I use a "tire white letter marker".

When I did my last set on my current SC I think it took about 2 hours for all 4 corners and that was taking my time.

You can buy a spring compressor tool to do the fronts for very cheap. I bought a pretty cheap set for like $20 back in the day that did the job for me. With all the parts in hand, you can get all done easy. You'll need an alignment afterwards though, don't forget that.

Its compressing the spring that takes most of the time. You could point it towards a brick wall, step to the side and remove the nut quickly with a long wrench and just let er go!! That would save about 1/2 hour on each side. I'd say 10 hrs should be enough time for the standard job.. the time killers are things like rusted bolts that won't come out.

You absolutely do not need a spring compressor.

1) Jack the car up, remove front wheels and separate sway bar end link from spindle. Do both sides.

2) Re install wheel with a couple nuts and lower car.

3) Undo 18MM nut on top of both shocks and raise car back up.

4) Secure the vehicle with jack stands and use your jack under the lower control arm to take enough tension off the front suspension to remove the upper control arm to spindle bolt and separate upper control arm from spindle.

5) Lower jack to relax spring. Undo lower shock mount bolt and remove assembly. Do both sides, reverse proceedure to re-install.

At no time in this process is a loaded spring handled in any way. The rear is actually more difficult. Removing the stock springs is a PITA and will be made easier by removing the bump stop inside the spring first. Be sure to remove the sway bar end links and disconnect the upper control arm before attempting removal of the spring.

The whole job can be done in about 4 hours without breaking a sweat. Add 1.5 hrs for the Koni's.

Be careful on the rears when disconnecting the upper or lower control arms that you don't put too much strain on the CV joint of the half shaft by pivoting the knuckle too much.

XR7 Dave said:

You absolutely do not need a spring compressor.

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When I first did the springs (removed factory and installed Eibachs) on my 1st SC years ago I tried to do it the way you just explained and there was not enough clearance when the spring was relaxed to remove the assembly? So since then I have always used a spring compessor maybe with lowering springs there is enough room??

doug93sc said:

When I first did the springs (removed factory and installed Eibachs) on my 1st SC years ago I tried to do it the way you just explained and there was not enough clearance when the spring was relaxed to remove the assembly? So since then I have always used a spring compessor maybe with lowering springs there is enough room??

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If you do it as I said there is no problem with stock springs. I do it all the time. Maybe you didn't disconnect the sway bar.

XR7 Dave said:

If you do it as I said there is no problem with stock springs. I do it all the time. Maybe you didn't disconnect the sway bar.

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I think I did, heck that was 10 years ago I don't remember. That is awesome that it can be done your way. Your my hero

I swapped in my h&r's and koni's by myself using a spring compressor and it took about 5hrs to do all 4.So you should have no problem doing it in 10hrs.


Jay

yes I totally agree with dave, That is exactly how i did mine.

See i can agree with him

I need to do the same on my car, and replace the shocks. I bought the whole setup by Tokiko (lowering springs/ARC shocks)

There is no motor in the car right now, so the front end sits up in the air pretty high. Is this a problem for putting it back together? I don't want to throw off the alignment too far and give the alignment shop a hard time by taking it apart and back together without the front end sitting like it should be...

Kevin Leitem said:

yes I totally agree with dave, That is exactly how i did mine.

See i can agree with him

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Yeaaahhhh!!!!

Thanks guys and Dave for the spring compressor note. I didn't even think about getting one, so I had a sinking feeling until I got to your post.

Car has no rust, and while putting the motor in and stuff I knew I was doing the shocks and springs so I hit all the bolts with pb blaster, front and back every time I was under there. (had to put the fuel tank in and exhaust so getting into the rear bolts helped.)

sounds like there will be hope, I know I'll need the day outside on Sunday after having to spend 4 hours in a car with my mother-in-law on Saturday.

I actually need to do this soon..Thanks guys great info

Well,

That didn't go well. Rears are done, gotta roll a fender a bit more it seems. One tip, unbolt the brake line brackets to get more movement in the lower control arm.

Got hung up on the lower shock mount bolt. Mine are fused to the bushing and I'm left with having to cut them out. Not having spare bolts, nor a method to cut them out, I'll be arranging to drop it off at a shop to finish up the work. Today was my only day to get somewhere and I didn't make it.

I'll have them replace the upper and lower control arms while there. I already had the lowers, but i noticed the boot for the upper ball joints on both sides is completely shot, and while the joints are solid today, a few hundred miles on the road and they'll be going south fast.

Found this post regarding that bolt:

Kevin Varnes said:

I am not sure if this is old news or not, but I was glad to find that you can purchase the front lower shock bolts new at Advance Auto Parts. Anyone who has ever worked on a northern car knows that 9 out of 10 times that bolt will be frozen to the steel bushing and there isn't much you can do to get it out. They are $10 and the part number is AK68. On the partsamerica website it is listed under strut lower hardware kit. Hope this helps.

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And for those doing the Koni's, don't forget this good walk through of replacing the front cartridges.
http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90302&highlight=koni

I did mine in an afternoon. I took the fronts off and then loosened the upper mount bolt with my impact, then let it fly apart in my driveway. Not the safest way, but my spring compressors wouldn't fit on the SC shocks since they are so thick and tightly wound. As for the rears I put it up on jackstands, and then removed the shocks. Then I loosed the spindle and then put all my weight on the lower c-arm to get it down far enough to get the old springs out. It was a pain in the butt but I got them out. Then I put the shorter springs and KYB's in and it went back together much easier.

The fronts witht the shorter springs I could put body weight on the mount and start the nut, then impact it down tight. Very easy putting it back together. I also bought new front endlinks for the sway bar.

I had it done in an afternoon. Started around 3:00 pm and was driving it by like 10:00 pm.

I still need to do the upper control arms because the ball joints had play.

It helps if you have a torch and air tools because some of the stuff was stubborn. My car had original springs and shocks with 251k on them. It rode like crap. Now it rides so much nicer with the KYB's and lowered.