i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

[cam98aro]

this has been a nightmare.. the backs went great,but the fronts were horrible

first off, the nut on top of the shock mount, both of mine were completely shot, i had to take a hammer and chisel both of the nuts off, the drivers side took me over 2 hours to get the nut off of the top so i could remove the spring, and the passenger side was completely fused together, they would not seperate, it took me over 4 hours of cutting and grinding to finally seperate everything so i could get the mount off, and guess what happens, since it was fused, the center piece of the mount stayed on the shock and ripped off of the rubber, so i had to spend another $75 for a new mount

both of the front end links broke off, but i bought two of them off of a forum member a while ago, and when i jacked the car up, i noticed that the back endlink was also broken.. why i didnt replace both at the same time, i will never know

[ssms5411]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

Thats pretty bad , when I first did mine after about 6-7 years on the fronts, my pass. side bolt was messed up and had to cut the bolt thought about cutting the shock in half. But this last time I got all new mounting hardware and pre-assembled the shocks and springs to go in before hand since I knew they would need replacing.

[cam98aro]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

Thats pretty bad , when I first did mine after about 6-7 years on the fronts, my pass. side bolt was messed up and had to cut the bolt thought about cutting the shock in half. But this last time I got all new mounting hardware and pre-assembled the shocks and springs to go in before hand since I knew they would need replacing.

yeah, it was a pain, and i cant finish until tomorrow now since NOBODY around here has the part

napa said they wouldnt get it till wednesday, chevy dealer told me it will take them longer than napa, and thankfully advance auto had it, and it will come tomorrow morning

[nimrod.sixty9]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

Damn, not looking forward to this...

[cam98aro]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

Damn, not looking forward to this...

if you dont run into any problems like that, its so easy to do.. my back shocks were pretty easy, but just the front ones and the nuts on top of the shocks

[nimrod.sixty9]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

if you dont run into any problems like that, its so easy to do.. my back shocks were pretty easy, but just the front ones and the nuts on top of the shocks

I dont even know what causing my issues yet but its a good guess. I seem to have a lot of body roll and when going over a bump or rails it turns into a slam in the rear. That and the ride just hit 170K so Im sure its time for it all anyway.... What do you think?

[cam98aro]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

I dont even know what causing my issues yet but its a good guess. I seem to have a lot of body roll and when going over a bump or rails it turns into a slam in the rear. That and the ride just hit 170K so Im sure its time for it all anyway.... What do you think?

hah, if its the stock decarbon shocks, yeah they are toast

from what i hear, they usually are at 50% wear by 20-30k miles

[HeadyFirebird'00]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

you will like the final outcome.

[Blizzard242]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

you will like the final outcome.

If he gets there.

What were you using to get the nuts off cam98?

[cam98aro]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

If he gets there.

What were you using to get the nuts off cam98?

bolt off's, grinder, chisel, hammer, air hammer lol

i got everything off, and i got everything back in the car, i re-used the drivers side shock mount, and i also still have the knocking noise when i hit bumps in the front, although it is lessened with the new shocks, so im still not sure what is causing it (or it could still be the old mount)

but today everything went smoothly other than it raining for 2 hours

i also replaced a tie rod, but my car still seems to go pretty straight, and doesnt pull to one side, so im hoping i dont have to get an alignment

[cam98aro]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

oh yeah, the ride is good also, everything seems so much stiffer, and it doesnt feel like im on a waterbed anymore

and i saw that the sway bar on the passenger side is cracked where the end link goes through.. its cracked in the middle of the sway bar from the very edge on the passenger side, all of the way past the hole where the endlink is, and it goes on for another inch

anyone have an idea on how much those things cost?

[pace2006]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

This would be a good chance to upgrade to a 1LE sway bar. It'll help with body roll in corners, and isn't too expensive as an upgrade.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/93-02...3A1|240%3A1318

All you need to go with it is some new endlinks (if your stock ones are worn) and some rubber or poly bushings from O'reilly's.

[cam98aro]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

yeah, i have no money right now, i had to buy a ton of extra stuff to do these shocks that didnt expect so that drained over $150 that i was planning on having left over

anyways, i just drove my car around for a while, and there is absolutely no body roll anymore, when i shift my car doesnt drop down as much, and also when i take off my car doesnt shake as much as it used to

believe it or not, my idle seems a ton smoother from inside of the car now, when sitting in it, you cant even tell it is running, before it would shake like crazy

it also seems that the bouncing that i had in 2nd gear around 2000rpm is gone also.. im amazed that shocks could do all of that stuff

the car sticks like glue going around bends now

i was hoping that the shocks would dampen the bumps a little more, but i think they were designed more towards performance rather than being a nice smooth luxury ride

[Blizzard242]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

Maybe an air impact would have been helpful to avoid the whole fiasco.

[cam98aro]

Re: i cant believe this.. changing my shocks

Maybe an air impact would have been helpful to avoid the whole fiasco.

are you talking about an air hammer to chisel the nut off?

if so, i had tried that already, but it would just bounce around on the shock, so i had to manually chisel it off