So one of the items that supposedly did not pass the state safety inspection were the front shocks. The place that did the inspection wanted around $220.00 to install new shocks up front, but you know what? That's a bunch of bullshit considering they are under the impression that it takes one hour to install them both.
So, I did it myself.
Step one: get the front of the vehicle off of the ground so that the front tires do not touch the ground.
See this thing? Remove it.
Once you have the wheel off you will be looking at the brakes and suspension components that live there behind the wheel.
See that thing in the center? That's the shock absorber.
The factory manual I picked up insists that you can use locking pliers or the flats of a wrench (hint; it's a 1/4 inch wrench) to hold the top of the shock in place while you loosen the nut, but it was not working for me and nobody has time for that shit anyway, so I used a cut off wheel to cut the nut and the upper rod off. Just go at a 45 degree angle and use a hammer to break the piece off. Fair warning: See that hose toward the top? That's your brake line, so if you are not careful you can cut that too, and that will suck.
Cut off wheel to the rescue! Note the not cut brake line...
So at the bottom of the shock there is a 18 millimeter bolt that securers the lower part of the shock to the lower control arm. Use a 18 millimeter socket and impact gun or ratchet to remove it. Then pull the shock out of the upper control arm and out of the vehicle. It is important to violently toss the old shock into the garbage can at this stage.
New shock...
This is a Monroe Gas-A-Matic shock and the supplied hardware kit that comes with it in a convenient little bag which I tore open and tossed to the side, which incidentally is also important to this being a success. You probably want to make sure you have all this stuff before you cut off your old shock, though...driving without shocks is going to be really difficult. There should be a shock, two rubber isolators, two metal end caps, and one 9/16" nut in my case.
The purpose of the shock absorbers is, besides absorbing shock, to control the up and down motion of the suspension on your car. In effect, they act as a sort of motion limiter and they dampen the movement of your suspension as you drive down the road. If you tried to drive without them, you would be bouncing up and down so badly that your tires would most likely come off the pavement and this is never a good thing, unless you are the Duke Boys or have one of those stupid cars with the hydraulic shit that makes your car hop and jump.
Have all your parts? Good! Let's get them installed!
Look at this picture very carefully, important plot point here.
You need to slide one of the end caps and one of the rubber bushings over the top of the shock as shown in that order. Then, only after this is completed, you need to compress the shock (you can actually do this by hand, believe it or not...not so much with a strut) and place the shock into the area between the control arms where it came out of. The top of the shock will start going up very quickly so while it is doing that, get the 18 millimeter bolt and place it into the bottom of the shock and then thread it into the mounting point where you unbolted it from.
The bolt goes into the bottom of the shock and into the mounting hole, like this.
You might have noticed that there is a hole for the top of the shock to go into. As it raises up make sure that it is centered in this hole. The bushing will help to center it and you should be able to move it a little if it is not quite there. Place a rubber bushing and metal end cap-in that order- over the shock rod. Now is the time to install the nut. In my case, since this was a new shock and not the old one I could use a 1/4 inch wrench on the flat sides of the top of the rod and a 9/16 inch wrench to tighten down the nut.
For my application, your torque settings are as follows:
Top nut: 19 ft/lbs.
Bottom bolt: 80 ft/lbs.
For your application: LOOK IT UP!
Repeat for the other side.
When you are done, it is extremely important to yell "FUCK FIRESTONE!" because if you did this right, you spent maybe a half hour total of your time and only $55 to $60 of your money, which is way cheaper than $220.
And now you have new shocks installed...
...fuck firestone.
DISCLAIMER: Don't come bitching to me if you yell "FUCK FIRESTONE!" and get in trouble, especially if you are doing this in your parent's garage or at work where in my case the mean mechanic that paid tons of money for his shit will not let you borrow his tools because he doesn't know you and thinks you look like a crackhead.
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