This maybe a stupid question, but can somebody walk me through a rear shock install? I'm planning on doing mine this weekend. I've never really looked at them before, so it might be self explainatory once I get started. Can the wieght of the car be on the shocks when swapping them out? I mean can I use a lift that you just drive on? Or does it have to be the ones with the swinging arms? Know what I mean? I tried to search, but didn't really find what I was looking for....... and I checked out installuniversity.com but still didn't really find what I was looking for. thanks a lot!

 

I did mine with jacks, and jack stands...


off the top of my head, unhook the rear sway bar, unhook the shocks, at the top(inside the car behind the rear seat), jack the car up letting the rear end and wheels sit on the ground, and take the pressure off the rear shocks, then disconnect teh bottom part of the shocks.

Swap them and reverse them.


Chiltons or haynes manual probabe give a better description if I missed anything, may want ot pick one up.

 

Thanks! I changed them yesterday. I wasn't hard at all. And yes, once I got under there, it was pretty self explanatory. My car seems to ride MUCH smoother.

I'm at 47K miles now, so I figured they were due for a change, but get this..... when I took the old ones out I see that they were not the stock shocks. (I bought the car used) So I guess the previous owner changed them as well...... but they had lost all their pressure and I was bottoming out when I hit potholes! I thought shocks should be good for nearly 50K miles?? Guess that extra 200 pounds of stereo gear in the back has really taken it's toll !!!!

 

Just curious but what shocks did you choose to go with? (I just woke up so I might not have read the post thoroughly).

200 lbs of stereo stuff? Thank gawd you don't live in my neighborhood...

 

I just went to my local auto parts store and picked up a pair of Monroe Sensatrac's. They were $25 each. No tax. (Gotta love military auto parts stores!) I wasn't looking for any improvment. I was just having some suspension problems, and they are now fixed. Can't complain for 50 bucks!