changing front Suspension

[renegade]

I have new shock to fit. have read what is said on here, my ? is do i have to remove the top wishbone to get shock out as have read that you can get it out with taking wishbone off but how can i do this and does anybody have pictures of how to do it

[TrickTT]

You dont have to fully remove the wishbone, just undo the long bolt that holds it onto the car and pull the top wishbone and hub forwards far enough to get the shock out.

[georigg]

Renegade,

 

Not necessary to remove wishbone.

 

Two alternatives.........

 

1. Jack both sides of front up off the ground, this allows the roll bar to "push" down on the suspension side your changing......if you only jack up the side your changing the compressed spring/roll bar on the other side forces your side upwards, making it difficult to lever the bottom arm downwards.

 

If doing it this way, then use a long lever(length of pipe etc) on top of the disc with end of pipe under the subframe and press down......this assumes you have removed the bottom bolt and the top three nuts and fitted spring compressors to reduce the length of the spring to a "manageable" length.

 

Method 2 Same as above really except instead of using a long lever to press down on the disc, fully compress the spring before removing the shock/spring assembly.......this gives you enough room to get this out.......its a bit of a juggle doing it this way as the centre rod of the shock tends to extend upwards if you take too long, so you may need someone else to press down on the rod from the top as you remove the shock/spring at the bottom, but does tend to give enough room not to need to lever down the suspension to get the assembly out.

 

This works for me and saves disturbing the suspension arms.

 

PS......Please ensure you use axle stands to hold the front at height......not recommended using two jacks!

 

PPS Your not just changing one shock are you??????????????? really better to change both on same axle!

[renegade]

i'll be changing both fronts as had a go yesterday but the roll bar made every thing go up .

[edge]

You dont have to fully remove the wishbone, just undo the long bolt that holds it onto the car and pull the top wishbone and hub forwards far enough to get the shock out.

 

I found this to be very easy and may tracking stayed spot on after too.

Just becareful with the brake lines and abs cable when pulling towards you. I done my on my own and never done any suspension work before but another pair of hands would of been useful.

[dcarrter21]

all i had to do was undo the anti roll bar,kept the disc etc held down and then the shock came out.

[renegade]

is that the nut i should take out for roll bar.as have bottom bolt out and 3 top ones .my spring clamps could do with being a bit shorter too

[bonus_2000]

Yeah that looks like the nut you need to undo to remove the antiroll bar link. You may need to clamp the back with molgrips or something, because otherwise the whole thing will turn (they have an allen key in the front to use with a ring spanner to undo, but this will probably round off). I have just dont mine this way, and have ended up putting 2 new antiroll bar links on now, because I ended up mullering it getting it off.