Easy way to remove shocks
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From: Outside of Memphis, TN
Easy way to remove shocks
Popped the shocks and springs off one of my vans today. The shocks are what restrain suspension travel and hold the springs in place. The man/woman who designed the shock towers on our vans were frikkin EVIL.
1) Lift the van by its frame. Make sure both front tires are off the ground when lifted by the frame. The sway bar will hold the suspension in place if you don't lift both sides at the same time. If you are using a jack, use jackstands for safety.
2) Tires off!
3) Position a jack under the jacking peg, and apply lifting force until you have compressed the suspension by half an inch or so. It wont take much if your springs are shot.
4) Use a sawz-all with a metal blade, and cut the upper shock absorber shaft through the rubber bushing.
5) Don't touch anything for about a minute. The Sawz-All will have heated the metal up a fair bit.
6) Remove the bottom shock absorber bolt.
7) Release the pressure put on the spring by the jack on the peg.
8) Unbolt the top retainer for the springs. It just rotates out of the way once unbolted.
9) Dont bother unbolting the lower part of the spring. Thats a big-*** bolt and holds other parts of the front end together. Just rotate the spring while angling it outwards. It will eventually come out.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Things I learned:
- My project van here lead a frikkin charmed life. The suspension arms are still shiny black when you wipe the dust off! No rust. I guess they werent lying when they said garage kept.
- The factory shock absorbers (i verified part number) are quite good actually. At 150,000 miles, they had very good damping force but no pressure.
- An 92-95 E150 with the heavy duty suspension package requires heavier springs. The suspension beams sit at a different angle. The spring is Moog/Equivalent CC876 and is listed for low GVWR E250s. This spring will go into standard suspension E150s from 92-95, if you don't mind having an alignment and possible beam bending done.
-Get an alignment once you replace the springs anyway. I went from -2.0 to .8 camber.
1) Lift the van by its frame. Make sure both front tires are off the ground when lifted by the frame. The sway bar will hold the suspension in place if you don't lift both sides at the same time. If you are using a jack, use jackstands for safety.
2) Tires off!
3) Position a jack under the jacking peg, and apply lifting force until you have compressed the suspension by half an inch or so. It wont take much if your springs are shot.
4) Use a sawz-all with a metal blade, and cut the upper shock absorber shaft through the rubber bushing.
5) Don't touch anything for about a minute. The Sawz-All will have heated the metal up a fair bit.
6) Remove the bottom shock absorber bolt.
7) Release the pressure put on the spring by the jack on the peg.
8) Unbolt the top retainer for the springs. It just rotates out of the way once unbolted.
9) Dont bother unbolting the lower part of the spring. Thats a big-*** bolt and holds other parts of the front end together. Just rotate the spring while angling it outwards. It will eventually come out.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Things I learned:
- My project van here lead a frikkin charmed life. The suspension arms are still shiny black when you wipe the dust off! No rust. I guess they werent lying when they said garage kept.
- The factory shock absorbers (i verified part number) are quite good actually. At 150,000 miles, they had very good damping force but no pressure.
- An 92-95 E150 with the heavy duty suspension package requires heavier springs. The suspension beams sit at a different angle. The spring is Moog/Equivalent CC876 and is listed for low GVWR E250s. This spring will go into standard suspension E150s from 92-95, if you don't mind having an alignment and possible beam bending done.
-Get an alignment once you replace the springs anyway. I went from -2.0 to .8 camber.
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