I noticed my air suspension pump kicking on frequently lately and and the passenger side rear of the truck sitting lower after the truck sits for a while. I took some soapy water and found the leak inside the metal can that surrounds the air bag, where the air bag meets the surrounding metal. Is there a big O-ring there, or do I need a whole new air shock?

If I need an air shock, is there anywhere in particular that has good prices/quality for these?

 

So after further investigation and research I concluded that the airbag was leaking. I ordered a new one and I am in the process of replacing the old one. The old one was a PITA to get out, but I think it is because I misread the AllData instructions. In the instructions quoted below, I put in bold the instruction that was unclear. I thought that the instruction to remove the lower arm was just telling me to remove the bottom bolt from the "lower arm" of the shock absorber. However, after getting the 3 top nuts off of the air shock, I could not wiggle the shock out of its home. In an attempt to gain more clearance, I ended up disassembling a few things that actually did not help much (upper control arm, upper trailing arm), plus the brake caliper assembly, which did help a little, but not enough. Finally I got frustrated and disassembled the air shock while it was still trapped under the car. This allowed me to remove the air shock, but it got me worrying about if I was going to have similar issues putting the new one back in.

So I re-evaluated my steps and I am starting to think that maybe the instructions in bold meant that I should remove the Lower Control Arm. This makes a lot of sense, because the lower control arm is where the lower half of the shock attaches to the arm, and if that was out of the way I would have plenty of room to remove/install the shock into the top bracket.

Can anyone confirm if I should have removed the lower control arm?

 

Nobody? I am just asking for someone to check a source other than AllData, to see if their instructions say to remove the Lower Control Arm.

 

No worries, I removed the lower control arm and have much better access to mount the air spring - so anyone looking in the future, you don't need to remove your upper control arm, upper trail arm, or even your brake caliper. Just remove the lower control arm and you will have a much easier time.

 

Got it back together and everything went fine. It was a little tough to torque the control arm bolt and the bottom shock bolt once the car was on the ground, but i got it close. I will see if the dealer will torque those bolts when I get an oil change.