i got some eibach shocks,...how hard are they gonna be to put on? whats the steps? i was readin in my hanes manual said i had to undo steering knuckle etc etc etc etc etc etc ....

 

bump

 

pretty easy really what you do is just get the front of the car up.. pull the top 3 bolt's/nut's off the top of the shock tower in the front and the 2 bottom bolts on the a arm's.. this might be easier w/ the swaybar removed as well.. pull the shock/spring assy. out and follow suit on the other side.. easiest thing is to take them w/ your new stuff to a shop and let them compress the springs, drop the old one's out and pop the new one's up.. its a fairly straight forward process really... The rear's are even easier.. R&R.. any more ?'s shoot me a email plattners@enterprise.navy.mil

 

if you unbolt the spindle form the lower a-arm you dont need to compress the spring to get it out......
put a jack under the lower arm unbolt the spindle, slowly lower the jack till everything is free and unbolt shock remove and reverse

 

You had to compress yours? mine slid on out w/o the swaybar on.. Results may vary...

 

You don't need to compress the spring at all to get the spring/shock assembly out of the suspension. You can either pop the stud on the lower ball joint (requires a pickle fork - can damage ball joint seal) or tap the side of the upper ball joint and it will usually just pop out without using the fork. And, even though I outline both those approaches in my online spring/shock install procedure, several people have told me that they were able to remove the spring/shock assembly without breaking loose either ball joint stud, or removing the sway bar link. Enough muscle and you can force the lower a-arm down enough that the spring/shock assembly falls out.

 

find an install guide and do it yourself. it is fairly easy. just rent a spring compressor from an auto parts store. only thing i messed up on was not lining the springs and perches up correctly relative to how they sit on the strut. other than that, just set aside an entire day (obviously its your first time, problems may arise) and have at it.

on a scale of 1(easiest) - 10( hardest), 1 being replacing airfilter, 10 being rebuilding engine, i would say swapping shocks is a 3.

 

All the above is good advice. I would add, if you are going to use a spring compressor yourself to disassemble the shock and the spring, bear in mind that the nut at the top of the shock is likely to be heavily corroded and may take a chisle, air hammer or cutting wheel to get the damn thing off.

 

Yeah, if the nut is terribly rusted, the hardest part of the job will be getting it off.

 

nope no spring compressor here, i think you only need one if you dont pop the ball joint, like Rich said