| Author |
Message |
    
L_Tilly
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 01:59 pm: | 
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My OME HDs + OME shocks are coming in Friday (thanx EE!!!) and I'm putting them in on Saturday. Naturally, I have a couple questions. This is my first time doing a job like this so be gentle...
Spring Compressor: I'm renting a pair and need to know Internal or External? Sorry if this should be very obvious.
Jack Stands: I have a strong pair but I cannot remember how long they are (I'm at work right now). Does anyone have a recomendation such as "they need to be at least X-inches high?"
Instructions: I have the doc by Kyle in this Tech section and the one on EE (for a D2). Any other good tips out there?
advTHANKSance!!!!
Lawrence [email protected]
96 Disco "Beowulf"
NH, USA |
derek (Vortrex)
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 02:10 pm: |
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I just did mine this past weekend. you can do it without jackstands if need be. I just used the stock bottle jack instead and then a floor jack under the axles. I used the basic spring compressor you can get at sears for $39.95. not a perfect fit, especially on the thicker rear springs, but it did work. save yourself a lot of time on the spring compression by getting the truck as high as it can with the axle dropped as low as possible for the side you're working on. since I was limited with the bottle jack on height, it took a lot of spring compression (which is a pain as you'll see). if you have a pipe wrench, use that to hold the shock body when taking the lower nuts off. the top nut on the front shocks can be tough, but hitting it with an impact gets it off without spinning the shaft. when you are fitting the rear springs, make sure they are twisted in such a way that you can get the lower retainer bar on. I somewhat messed this up on one side and had to bend the bar a bit to get it on. |
derek (Vortrex)
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 02:19 pm: |
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one more thing, when you are fitting the spring compressors onto your new spring for install, make sure you put the compressors on so that they are not in the way when installing the new spring. you cannnot fit the compressor directly opposite of each other, there is no room. you will need to have one at about 4 o'clock and one at about 8 o'clock. |
Robert Sublett (Rubisco98)
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 02:36 pm: |
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I borrowed a spring compressor (external is what you need) from Auto Zone's loan a tool program. You have to give them like a $40 deposit, but when you bring it back you get your money back. Very nice program. I would think many auto part stores do this, and thus you wouldn't have to spend $40 on a compressor that you may never use again. When doing my springs/shocks a couple of weeks ago, I did the front at the same time, but you could really do one side at a time. That makes it easier to have one side dropped down very far with the wheel off, and the other side up very far. Not sure it that makes sense but the spring/shock install was Very simple by following Kyles words. I would also be sure to spray everything down that you will be working on with Liquid Wrench or some other type of penetrating liquid to loosen the bolts a bit ahead of time. I think if I hadn't have done that the night before it may have been much worse. |
L_Tilly
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 02:49 pm: |
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Thanks for the tips, Derek. I greatly appreciate the 4/8 o'clock tip! I'm the kind of person that would have tried to put them exactly opposite each other. Were your compressors external (sat on the outside of the springs)?
As for other tools, I don't own an impact wrench so I'm going to have to do that front shock "the hard way". I already have everything else in the DWeb and EE directions so I hope I'm set. I'm going to spray down the bolts w/ PB Blaster Friday evening to make life a little easier come Saturday.
Lawrence [email protected]
96 Disco "Beowulf"
NH, USA |
derek (Vortrex)
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 02:55 pm: |
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lawrence, yes I did have the external compressors. amazingly I didn't spray anything down and had no stuck nuts or bolts. if you take your time everything will be fine. only frustrating part I had was with getting the springs in/out. hopefully you can lift your truck higher than I could, compressing springs is a slow operation. |
Todd Sanders (Sanderskog)
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 04:18 pm: |
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One tip.
The jack handle of a floor jack makes one hell of an extension for a breaker bar. I did this to tear out the stock suspension on my '68 2002 and those were some stuck nuts and bolts.
HTH
Todd |
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