Rear shock replacement.

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oreogaborio
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Rear shock replacement.

Postby oreogaborio » Mon Mar 31, 2014 4:14 am

Anyone do this themselves? DIY project?

Pretty sure my rears are shot so I'm starting to research & price out my options.

After a few minutes it seems KYB Gas-a-Just monotube shocks might be a contender at 53 bucks a piece on Amazon. Looks like a mild upgrade over stock (which bodes well for my heavy towing)

Any other recommendations? I'd go the Bilstein route, but then we're up in the 75 dollar each range.


skinny2
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Postby skinny2 » Mon Mar 31, 2014 5:24 am

It's pretty straight forward, but the top bolt can be a real stubborn bitch. Mine was about two years old when I swapped them and I had to use a breaker bar on it, which isn't easy given the limited space. I went with Bilsteins. $44 extra doesn't seem like a big deal to me and mine are still in great shape at 110k. My experience with KYB gas-a-justs on a Tacoma was that they were ROUGH.

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oreogaborio
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Postby oreogaborio » Mon Mar 31, 2014 5:40 am

Hm. Found the Bilsteins for $131.60 shipped.

http://autoplicity.com/products/3492331 ... 97434.aspx

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oreogaborio
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Postby oreogaborio » Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:20 am

ordered

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doctahjones
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Postby doctahjones » Mon Mar 31, 2014 8:29 pm

skinny2 wrote:It's pretty straight forward, but the top bolt can be a real stubborn bitch. .

2nd'ed. take off tires, undo lower bolts, and then try to get to the top bolts.

air tools are HIGHLY recommended, so if you have a buddy you can visit or something do that.

for the passenger side top bolt make sure your muffler is cool as i accessed it from under the car and behind the muffler. you should be able to get some pretty good turns on that one, although you may need a breaker bar.

the driver side is a huge @#@% b!&*#. i accessed it through the wheel well (couldn't find anywhere else to access it) and could only get about 1-2 clicks on the ratchet and took probably 30-45 min just for that one.


don't forget the alignment after you swap them out

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oreogaborio
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Postby oreogaborio » Sun Apr 06, 2014 1:22 pm

Word, thanks. Got the Bilsteins the other day, just gotta put em in.

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DiBo
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Postby DiBo » Sun Apr 06, 2014 5:46 pm

I got Bilstein HD in the rear and love it. My rears were shot too hell and I would get a "death wobble" on the hwy. New bilsteins were the answer. And now that I got the airlift 1000 it's very controlled.

I saw that you said you tow a lot. I would consider the airlift 1000 as it levels the load and improves handeling and breaking. Look up the "what do you tow" thread and check them out

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oreogaborio
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Postby oreogaborio » Fri Apr 11, 2014 8:33 am

Already a step ahead of ya. I've had the Airlift 1000 kit for about a year & a half now. Love it.


Got the Bilsteins installed. Wouldn't have been too tough of a job if the lower shock mount wasn't frozen in there solid. It wasn't the nut or the threads that were frozen, it was the bolt inside the lower shock mount, which is just a sleeve. Half a day w/ a MAP gas torch and it still wouldn't slide out more than 1/2 an inch. Ended up cutting the bolt and replacing it with a new one.

Image

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This is as far out as I could get it. Relentless heating & prying, that bolt just wouldn't come out of the lower shock bushing.
Image

Soooo, I cut the bastid out.
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Victory is mine.

Image

As you can probably tell from this last pic, rear brakes are on the to-do list ;)
Last edited by oreogaborio on Sun Apr 20, 2014 7:01 am, edited 2 times in total.

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eieio
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Postby eieio » Fri Apr 11, 2014 9:19 am

For rear shock replacement, it helps to have several different length ratchet extensions, a selection of different depth sockets (both 6 & 12 point), and a selection of universal joints for the extensions.
I seem to remember how glad I was that I had a ball-joint type of universal impact socket.

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ShipFixer
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Postby ShipFixer » Fri Apr 11, 2014 7:01 pm

I use a 36" cheater bar/long socket wrenches and brace an opposing wrench against the LCA or body somewhere and don't have issues getting them off. Not sure how I'd get air tools in there in a faster way really. The top bolts don't turn off quickly because of the space restrictions on the ratchet, but I find the rear shocks way simpler than the fronts.

The most trouble I had with the rear suspension was in replacing the rear sway bar links. The backing nut is tricky to hold onto with an opposing wrench and they were rusted pretty solid. Had to use an angle grinder to get one out.

hjwd1
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Postby hjwd1 » Sat Mar 12, 2016 9:36 am

Hi, trying to cut that same bolt out now. How did you get the nut out? i have the lower bolt cut and the shock free, however the nut end is stuck in the steel flange mounted to the back of the mount plate. i can't get that off...

thanks for any help you can offer!

hjwd1
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Postby hjwd1 » Sat Mar 12, 2016 4:28 pm

So i went with simply cutting out the front weld of the bracket holding that nut in place. nut just fell out and the new bolt/nut went in w/ no issue.

UpTempo
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Postby UpTempo » Wed Mar 23, 2016 3:51 pm

I went with the more cost-friendly KYB's and gladly paid the shop $100 to install them for me. Especially with how rusted the hardware was. I

DanJetta
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Postby DanJetta » Mon Mar 28, 2016 8:52 pm

I just did rotors, parking brakes and my rear shocks this weekend. Driver side came off without issue; passenger side bolt was frozen inside the strut mount just like Oreogaborio described. The strut and mount had to be cut exactly how he described. While I was in there I also replaced a broken sway bar link.

I put in the Bilsteins and am amazed by the difference in ride quality. Definitely worth the trouble and expense.


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