I have 1LE swaybars front and rear and 1LE springs in the rear of the Z. This weekend was time to install the front springs(little did I know what I was getting into). As it turns out, water puddled at the top of the shock towers and the shock nut was completely rusted. I went to a local garage for help and the guy there said that there was no way to get them apart without destroying the end of the shock which, based on what I saw, was an ok assessment. He told me to get new shocks and shock towers and that he would put them together for me. Actually I like this idea because spring compressors make me nervous. Cost of shocks, towers and misc. parts in AC Delco was just under a Grand-I wasn't expecting that bad. The good news, went back together ok-I note that the new shocks have stainless ends now and the shock tower ends are ruber coated so likely this has been a problem in the past for others. More good news, now the front is one half inch lower than the back of the car instead of over an inch which is much more to my liking amd the thing corners like it was on rails. At 80K mi. Bushings were ok and ball joints looked good enough to justify leaving in for the time being.


Cliff Notes: one day and $1K later my springs are in and I'm happy with the result.

 

$1K for that? Holy cow!

 

Yeah. Talk about sticker shock. The shocks were $277 x 2 and the new towers $167 x 2. If I'd had the time, I'd have tried to get some used towers, at least.