So today I got my shipment of two new (used) shocks from Dsnyder586 from his son's (now totaled) cat. Well, when I got home from work, I felt ambitious and decided to replace my front shocks, well... Several hours later I got the drivers side done.

This was not an overly complex job as was expected, part of what took so long is because I had the car on the ground which made it difficult to get to the bolt that holds the shock to the control arm.

After that it was a pretty straight forward job, remove the bolt at the bottom of the shock, remove the bolt that holds it into the shock mount in the engine bay, lift the car up and pull out the old one, and put in the new one just like how it came out.


For anyone curious to know, the bolt + nut that holds the shock to the control arm are two different sizes, the bolt is a 13mm and the nut is a 15mm. Two different sized wrenches are needed for this task. The lock nut that holds the shock to the frame (from the mounting plate) is a 17mm. To remove this it is recommended that you use an impact gun and a deep well socket. However it can be done by using a standard 17mm wrench and a small channel lock to hold the top of the shock from spinning while you re-attach the nut. You can also use a 17mm wrench to hold the nut and spin the shock itself using a 1/4 in box end wrench.
As a note, if you need to remove the mount plate for replacement on the drivers side you will have to remove the power steering pump out of the way. This can be achieved by using a 7mm socket to remove the bolt that keeps the clamp tight. The bolts that hold the mount plate to the body are 10mm, and you will need an extension to get to the ones on the right and left side of the plate. Do not loose the washers.

These bolts have nuts that are welded to the frame in the wheel well. No need to worry. For this job you will not necessarily have to remove the tire, although it may be helpful.

I will be doing the other side tomorrow in a shop, I will have photos as well as more detail on doing this job.

 

I am sorry you had issues removing the bolt. Typically i put the car on a jack stand, remove the wheel, jack the lower arm up with a floor jack and zero issues removing or installing the shock or gaining access to the bolts. You do need to have the arm jacked up the correct amount or you may have issues with angles. the job took me about 20 min both sides on my jag. A flex head ratcheting 17 does help speed things up a little.

 

Doing the other side, it took me maybe 45 minutes or so, that included a lot of waiting time, actual time that I put into the job was maybe 25-30 minutes. Using the included jack (no longer have my floor jack) I was really worried, as when I had put it into the slot for it, I heard crunching (it is rusting out). However that has never happened before not with the floor jack OR using one of my rotary lifts here at the shop.

 

+1 20 minutes (hardest part is raising the car to remove the tire). Used jack stands, then had the jack available to lift the shock into its upper mount.

The real adventure comes with swapping the rears. I gave up and handed it off to the local independent -- who still needed an eight foot breaker bar to bust some of the bolts loose.

 

If you don't mind me asking, about how much did you pay in labor for the rears to be done?

The more I read about it the more and more difficult it looks... Not something for the at home DIYer to do.

I may have my shop do it, depending on cost.

 

$200 in labor: I provided the new shocks and upper mounts.

 

I would drop the rear subframe and use the opportunity to check/replace any worn bushings etc. With the subframe out, its easy to work on the whole thing. Air tools and a floor jack are a must tho.

 

If it didn't require dropping the subframe, I would consider doing this job myself, but given that it does require exactly that, I am not sure that I want to play around with that. Honestly, I don't want to screw around when it comes to suspension stuff. Haha, my shop wants $165 in labor if I supply the parts. (1.5 hrs per side per book time).


Frankly I would like to do away with the rear suspension set up, and swap it out for coil over struts vs having the strut in the middle of the coil the way it is. but something like that would be easy, and why would we want something to be easy on a jag?