Yes, I managed to install my new upper shock mount 1/4 inch out of true. In a nutshell, if you draw an imaginary line through the lower shock bolt left to right, and another imaginary line through the shock bolt that attaches the shock to the upper shock mounts and through one of the 3 mounting bolts that protrude into the under hood area, these two lines must be roughly perpendicular for the bolt holes to line up.

Well I was getting tired and forgot that you can't eyeball the position of the bolts in the upper shock mounts if the spring is compressed unevenly.

When I finally released the spring compressor I got the bad news. The bolt is about 1/4 inch out of alignment. So now I can either attach the lower shock bolt or the 3 upper mounting bolts - not both🤔.

I might as well ask you guys. Is there any way to rotate that upper shock mount without going through the entire spring compression cycle to release the plate?

I highly doubt it but maybe I'll get lucky. My darn compressor won't build pressure above 80lbs which makes this a real PIA. BTW looks like I just proved you can't build your own compressor manifold gasket with the stuff you use for carburetor gaskets - lasts fine for 90 minutes.

Well thanks for any shortcuts/ideas. John

 

Well I decided to get into it. FYI, it takes 1 hour to release and recompress the spring with a wrench by hand. Frankly I expected much much worse. Decided to call it a night. Tomorrow I'll make 1 or 2 more turns to compress then undo the center nut to reposition the mount. (Let's see what can go wrong next ��)

It'll be interesting to see the ride quality change. I'll be sure to share it with you. (Of course I'm hoping it's huge ha ha)

 

May be too late for you now, but when I changed mine I was able to rotate the shock a few inches to make it line up. I thought I had that done already, but was somewhat off.

This was assembled of course.

 

Thanks Mike. I bit the bullet and recompressed it by hand. I think I'd have needed the jaws of life to move anything with any real compression on it!

Lessons learned:

1) You need an air compressor to compress the springs: Urban Legend (at least it was in my mind). I did it by hand in less than an hour. Frankly the air compressor doesn't move much faster - just relieves the effort.

2) You must (underline bold) line up the spring compressors 180 degrees opposite. Any variation will put enormous pressure on the upper shock mount.

3) Obvious but: The upper shock mount bolt must be perpendicular to the lower shock bolt.

John

 

Thanks.

We are talking about the front shock mounts, right?

You shouldn't have to compress the springs to remove or install the shocks & coil assembly. You would only compress them once off the car. That is why I was able to twist the shock far enough during the re-install to make it line up.

The only thing compressed during reinstall was the lower A-arm for aligning the lower shock mount.

If you are doing the rear shocks & springs, then compression of the springs is required (maybe not with motorcarman's method).

EDIT: Never mind. Just saw your other post re: finishing the front end job. Glad it worked out. I also did the Parts Geek mounts about 2 years ago and they are just starting to show signs of deterioration. Next set will be Welsh.

 

It makes life a lot easier to just pull the strut assemblies and take them to a local shop that has a strut compressor, most do, and pay the a few bucks to do the job.