i got an 86 trans am i was wondering if its hard to to change all these yourself. i got the KYB shocks/struts, and the Eibach sportline kit. i live in Canada so i dont think i have an AutoZone to borrow a spring compressor from, maybe Canadian Tire LOL.

anyway any detailed help would be greatly appreciated as id i could do this anytime now.

 

You dont need a spring compressor, yes you can do it yourself, get it up on some nice tall jack stands, put a floor jack under the ball joint, remove the brake line so you dont stretch it out, get a nice metal pole for some added safety, remove the top strut nut and then start lowering the jack, put the pole through the spring and hole in the a arm, this will keep it from going anywhere even though it probably wont, get the jack all the way down then slide it out, push the a arm down a little further and you should be able to un seat the spring then toss it aside.

The new ones are shorter and you should be able to slip or wiggle them into place without compressing them.

 

man this is the STUPIDEST question ever but when i look around and there is struts and shocks are they one thing if i was to have KYB?

 

HUH ?

 

well what are shocks and struts to start off with?

 

The shocks go in the rear, struts up front, our cars use a modified macpherson design up front, normal setups have the spring and strut as one unit, ours are seperated.

Your struts should look completely different from the shocks and you cant install one in the others place.

 

ok so thats why front and back look different... thanks for the serious reply... is there a right and left or doesnt matter?

so it shouldnt be hard then, just do what you said and shouldnt take me long at all, thank you.

 

Nope no R/L specific, just make sure you get some monster sized jack stands and get it up really high it will make things a lot easier and make sure you use a beam to contain the stock springs when removing them.

 

i will have to get a hold of some big jacks then. put the metal pole through the spring and the a arm? what is an a arm? is it easy to see?

 

The A arm is the main suspension piece going from your K member to the spindle, the spring sits right smack in the middle of it, the top of the spring sticks up into the K member.

Try and get a good giant screwdriver, flathead, which will help if you need to give the spring some persuasion in getting out of its pocket on the a arm, just make sure to keep the beam through the spring and hole in the A arm.

 

not 100% positive on this, but...
- strut will dampen oscillations and it is also integral part of the suspension (i.e. without it your wheel wouldn't exactly sit right). Like z28 said, it is part of the design of McPherson suspension.
- shock will also dampen (sp don't look right) oscillations, but it is not an integral part. So if you take out your rear shocks, your car will still sit exacty the same way it did when shocks where in there.

About the springs, there is one guy on here that just recently finished his suspension upgrade and one of the springs did shoot out thankfully missing him. You have to be carefull, when those things are compressed there is quite a bit of energy in them. One safety tip I've read was to put a chain through the spring, so that even if it snaps, it wouldn't get very far.

 

Thats what the suggested steel beam through the spring and A arm is for, the spring wont go anywhere.

 

yeah, you are right. that's what I get for sitting here at 1 am instead of going to sleep. I read that and throught you were describing mcpherson geometry with the strut.

I was just in this thread the other day and that's where they mentioned the springs. You might want to take a look there, the guy just did everythng you were asking how to do.

 

thanks for all the help

 

This also helps me out!
Thanks fellas