Taking out springs/shocks in AE101 Super Strut

[aesc]

Hi,

Me and my mate are taking out my front Super Strut shocks and springs tonight, is there any tricks which ill need to know or things i should be aware of before attempting to do it?

Whats the best way to go about it?

Cheers

[aesc]

So no1 has done this?

[Bling]

probably just need to ask a bit more in advanced Blair

[aesc]

haha yeah probably! oh well its too late to go back now. cant be too hard can it!!

na should be sweet my mates done them before

[rollaholic]

just like any car i guess - take wheel off, unbolt shock from top, unbolt from bottom, pull shock out... make sure any lines/cables attached to shock are disconnected, and roberts your mothers brother.

if you're planning on changing springs, get some of those claw devices to keep the spring compressed, or you can say bye bye to SOMEthing for sure

[aesc]

just like any car i guess - take wheel off, unbolt shock from top, unbolt from bottom, pull shock out... make sure any lines/cables attached to shock are disconnected, and roberts your mothers brother.

yip youd think that wouldnt you! Na couldnt crack the ball joint, or atleast couldnt get the bottom arm of the strut off the ball joint knuckle thingy. sl*t.

How do you do this???

if you're planning on changing springs, get some of those claw devices to keep the spring compressed, or you can say bye bye to SOMEthing for sure

Umm was planning to take the springs out to compressed. Wanna expand a bit more on the 'saying bye bye to something'

[rollaholic]

isint the ball joint attached to the wheel bearing housing? you shouldnt need to remove this to get the shock out. if you really want to, the way to get them out is to take a big hammer, and give it a couple of REAL king hits. dont be scared, the less times you have to hit it the better - so the harder you can hit it the better, without denting the car or something . the place to hit is the piece the ball joint arm is poking through, often the best idea is to put the wheels full lock one way or the other, it usually exposes the joint a little better for its medicine. they are tapered - this is why its such a bitch. it should pop out, worst comes to worst get your hands on a ball joint remover - basically a big drift with a two pronged end. its highly likely you'll ruin the joint with this though, so yeah.

as for the byebye comment, if you undo the top of the shock without the springs compressed (as in compressed so far that they arent touching the top anymore) they'll spring off and smash something, be it a window, your kid brother, your head... you get the idea. to be honest i wouldnt recommend messing with your springs unless you know what you're doin, the potential for serious injury is decent.

[aesc]

Thanks rollaholic. yeah we gave up and im taking it in tomorrow for someone else to do. probably shouldve done that in the first place cos i sure as hell didnt completely know what i was doing

[boosted_gtz]

hey man,

the front shocks in my GTZ superstrut were worn so I tried taking them off once, but after about 20mins trying to figure out what to do, I gave up......but after a week or so, I tried taking them off again and I managed to got them off!!! It should be quite easy when you know which part to take off and not to take off. Especially with the ball joint, you have to knock them softly on the sides so they would come loose, after a few soft knocks, it should be sweet. I dont know what each part of the superstrut suspension is called but I can point out, personally, what part to take off and stuff, well, my way ofcourse . I dont know if thats the way they do it professionally but for me, once I know what to take off, it was quit easy. Hope I can help if I know the names of each part, but if you want, come around and ill show you and you can also see my cold air obx that I made cheers!

[aesc]

Too late to do myself, its in getting done at the moment. I thought for the sake of $60 ill get someone else to take them out and put them back in. Its not worth the hassle for that much!

I would come round and have a look at your airbox, but im in Christchurch