Has anyone here changed their front and rear springs by themselves at home? I've got my car on 4 axles atands for the winter(and the rims in the basement) and figured I'll do the struts, shocks, and springs myself. What I wanted to know was who here has done it and how difficult or easy they found it. Is a partner recommended or myself is enough.

88redxtsy

 

yes you can do it yourself, its not easy...but not really hard.. get a friend, and go at it! the fronts are easy to change, its the rear that it a bit harder cause you have to tear the interior apart to access the shock tower mounts.

 

I did my front struts last summer. Soak all the bolts with penatrating oil and let that work its way into the rust for a tleast a week before tackling the job. I did not change the springs but could of easily have done so.

 

Here's a pic.

 

It's not so much the struts and shocks that intimidate me, its more the springs. I'm scared that when I drop the control arm I won't be able to put it back up because of the spring load. As for the rear I have to drop the rear I have to drop the differential don't I. I'll take a closer look this Thursday.

If I sound way off, its because I've never done this.

Thanks for the replies.

 

You need a good floor jack to do this. I supported the lower A arm and gently lowered it in order to get the strut off. I imagine if I lowered it further the spring would of come out.The floor jack was used to compress the setup again in order to bolt in the struts.

 

The rears are easy just unload the suspension and use a crowbar against the base of the spring, lift tug it sideways and out it will come. There is a rubber piece between the top of the spring and the car to watch out for.

The fronts are NOT a piece of cake I had a shop do it who could put the car on a hoist and a jack on the suspension to work it in and out. Good luck on those ones buddy.

Here is a pic of my Jamex you asked for. I drilled a few holes through the strut tower and used stainless bolts to keep it there.

thx,
RP.

 

Rear suspension is really easy you just have to know what you're doing. It actually helps if one of the sway bar links is broken too.

To start with, you have to fold your seats forward and lift up the carpet into the rear hatch. On each side of the top of the rear hatch you'll find two foam covers that go over the top of the shocks. Pull off those and you'll have access to the nuts on the top. You'll have to use a combination of two wrenches or a deep drive socket to take off the nuts depending on how long your bolts are. Once those are loose which is the easy part it gets a little tougher. Support the rear end of the car with your axle stands (on the frame) and put a jack underneath the axle. Very carefully lower the axle - if you drop it too far you'll pull out the brake lines. Once the axle is low enough your springs practically fall out, this is made especially easy if the sway bar link is broken. Do yourself a favor and invest the $9 in a kit from Canadian Tire and pull one side at a time to ease the springs out. After that its fairly easy to take out the nuts on the bottom of the shocks. When you put them back, make sure you've got the rubber cups that go on top of the springs in place, and the springs seated properly. Also check that you've got the rubber bushings both above and below where the bolt of the shock enters the vehicle. After that, all you have to do is pump up the jack until the shocks line up properly, add the rubber bushings on the top and tighten up the nuts. Finish up with your sway bar links (if you do it that way) and you're done.

I think I've outlined everything pretty clearly, I have pics if you need 'em or if you want just give me a shout and I'll give you a hand.

 

Remember to index the front springs between the drain holes when you put them back in.

There's a lot of detailed posts on the suspension board about this and some include pictures.


Edit: look for posts by ebmiller. If you do the struts change the upper mounts while you're at it.
Also, it seems that the new GM isolators are thicker and could end up raising your car if you install them. Something you might check into before changing them although if they're shot you'll have to change them anyway.