It was a 3 Bilstein day. I thought cursing the nitwits who designed and approved the upper rear shock attachment would be the worst if it. A little cursing for the front passenger side for having to lift the body to wiggle out the shock. I thought I’d be done before dark but how do you get to the top nut of the front driver side shock??? I think I can get to it with a 3/8” drive deep socket reduced by a half inch of depth. I’ll have to cut two since the retiring Monroes take a 14mm socket while the Bilsteins take a 17mm socket. If I can even get the nut started on the Bilstein. I’m not a big person but there’s just no room.

I don’t remember things being this bad in the ‘93 E150.

Sixto
07 E350 5.4 183K miles

 

Apparently there is a plug in the drivers side floor pan right over the upper shock mount... accessed from inside the van.
How To Remove Front Driver Side Shock From Ford E350 - Bing video

 

Why yes there is! In our van the plug is a grommet for a cable that disappears into the dash above the park brake release. I’ll give it a shot tomorrow. Thanks!

Sixto
07 E350 5.4 183K miles

 

Here's a video I found helpful when working on that shock at the left front of an E-Series---worth a look maybe:
Its as cumbersome as most other methods but slightly "easier" than Sawzall's etc.

 

The trick to replacing front shocks is to use a cutoff wheel to cut the top of the shock bolt off
You cut the threads off the shock top mount right above the nut
The heat from the cutoff wheel melts the locktite too
On the line you need to be able to replace front shocks faster than .7 hours (42 minutes)
I can replace two in 20
Use all the tricks always

 

The access hole was somewhat useful but because of slow going, I looked for other methods. I ended up doing most of the work from the wheel well. My left hand is just skinny enough to get a 14mm wrench on the nut like this -



Note the 6” vice grips holding the ring under the ridiculously slim holding nut on this Monroe.

I got about 90* of swing which made for quicker work than through the access post with the shift cable in the way -



The angle is such that I couldn’t get a Gearwrench flexible head combo ratchet on the nut from the start so I used an open wrench for a few turns. As the nut gets higher, the ratchet slips past the nut. At that point I removed the lower shock attachment to get the nut back on the big washer and went back to the open wrench. I suppose I could have cut the stem at that point but I hate using a saw.

Like that wasn’t torture enough, there’s an overlap of the body attachment subframe that kept catching my fingernail while swinging the combo wrench.

JWA, thanks for the video link. I thought about that but this passenger van has AC lines in that area so it would have been tight or impossible.

A last note on the access hole. It works for a 14mm wrench but a the Bilstein nut takes a 19mm nut. The 19mm ratcheting box wrench gets all of one click through the width of the access hole.

Cr@p! I washed up without putting the shift cable grommet back in place

Anyone want a set of Monroe Magnums?

Sixto
07 E350 5.4 183K miles