Even though I just bought my truck, I felt that upgrading the shocks ASAP was something I had to do. The stock shocks leave much to be desired in the area of damping.

I opted to go with a set of Bilsteins, as I am familiar with this brand and they put out a very high quality product. Ordered them, got them and now comes the "fun".

After reading several threads on this board, I got to thinking that swapping out my shocks would take me 1 hour, 2 hours TOPS. I am technically proficient, I'm no stranger to hand tools and elbow grease...but boy did I underestimate the "shock swap".

I decided to start with the front drivers' side shock. According to this board, it should have taken me no longer than 15-20 minutes with the wheel on, and the truck on the ground (not jacked up)...um, I must be really stupid, because 45 minutes later I was still unscrewing the top bolt.

The top bolt does not just come right off, and unless you have deep sockets or a nice variety of wrenches (I have neither), you are going to love removing this bolt. The top of the shaft is "keyed" for a very small wrench, and you need to hold this otherwise the shaft will turn as you attempt to remove the bolt. My solution? I used a wrench for the bolt and some pliers to hold the top of the shaft. It took a good 10 minutes to unscrew the bolt that way, since my range of motion was limited to about 80 degrees.

The bottom bolt came out with ease, much to my surprise. Once the top bolt was out, the shock was easy to remove.

Installing the Bilstein was a bit of a feat. First of all, unless YOU are diesel, forget about sticking it in without jacking up your truck. For my first attempt, I compressed it with my brute strength, and got it in, but I could not hold it long enough to insert the bottom bolt. After I jacked the front wheel off the ground, I was able to stick the shock in without compressing it at all. It was A LOT easier, and I felt stupid for not doing that in the first place...because if we check our clock, it has been 1 hour and 20 minutes since I started.

Tightening the bolts on the Bilstein was almost as tricky as removing the original. The Bilstein shock uses a 19mm bolt on top, as opposed to the stock bolt which is 16mm. This sucks, because my biggest metric wrench is...of course...18 mm. Who makes a set and stops at 18? Why not a nice, even number, like 20? Sheesh.

So I got ultra creative and I decided it was time for some DUAL PLIER ACTION. This worked, and I was extra careful not to strip or round the bolts. They say to torque it to 15 ft/lbs...hahaha, right. My torque wrench has this problem; it is really long, and there is very limited space for getting it in there, even if the wheel was not in the way. Once again, I'm probably just too retarded to realize that there is some quick and easy way of torquing the top bolt, but that method has eluded me.

Total time spent: 2 hour and 10 minutes. Number of shocks installed: 1. Tomorrow, I'm going to tackle the other 3. In the rain.

My hope to any who bother to read this, and are considering swapping out shocks by themselves, it is not as quick and easy as you might think. >:)

Edited by: Truckster

I have not done this yet to my dmax, but have replaced many shocks in my time, 2hours should be plenty. First thing jack truck up and support at all four corners with stands, then remove wheels (good time to do a tire rotate also). Bolts are easier to get to and you don't have to compress the pressurized shocks. This should be a no brainer, of course having the right size wrenches and an air impact with deep sockets is a must!

Truckster,


Great post. Isn't that how everything goes? http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


Reminds me of a few things I've done. But of course as redneck45 points out, you should be able to do this in no time flat, you just need about four or five of your best mechanic friends to come over with all their stuff and do it for you in less than two hours.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


Dennis

Man, you must have been cursing by that point!

FWIW... I did all 4 of mine in a little over an hours time. I guess my biggest saving grace was that I have a pretty extensive tool collection, which meant I had everything needed to do the swap at my finger tips.

Me Too...I happened to do it at the same time I swap my winter tires over to my summer tires. I checked the brakes at the same time too. You have an incredible amount of room in the front when the tires are off. In the back, it does not really matter. BTW, I used those new ratcheting box head wrenches and man did it help. Especially for the upper mounts on the front shocks. All in all took me about 45 minutes. Good Luck..

BTW, for future reference, 19mm = 3/4". There are a few others that are about the same size SAE/metric, but I don't remember off hand. Maybe someone else can list them?

I noticed one of my rear shocks bleeding pretty bad last week. I guess I'm next. I think I'll go with the rancho 9000x w/the adjustables.

5/8 seems pretty close to 16mm :)


Yeah, I am one of those people who does not have the luxury of owning an extensive automotive toolset. I have a $39.95 Sears ratchet kit, pliers, a screw driver, a hammer and some nails...so I have to work with what I got.


I know there are other people like me, who have to improvise since they lack the right tool for the job, and for those people, 45 minutes total becomes 45 minutes per shock.

I noticed one of my rear shocks bleeding pretty bad last week. I guess I'm next. I think I'll go with the rancho 9000x w/the adjustables.





Get this, the shock I removed (so far) did not have any damping whatsover. I could slided it in and out, and the shaft would just sit there, as if all the gas leaked out. This is from a truck with only 500 miles on it.

truckster, loved your story! I'm gearing up mentally to tackle shocks myself and was glad to see the procedure described by someone in a similar predicament (e.g. tools). I've never done shocks myself, but now know a little better what to expect (I was going to skip jacking up the truck but won't now!)


Thanks!

Pair of vise grips or pliers to hold top of front shock bolt will work. I happened to buy some metric racheting wrenches a while ago for carquest and it makes nuts like this go easy.


Easier to install shock with tire OFF. I know this flies in the face of common sense, but I used a small jack stand under the A-arm and lowered the jack, this pushed the top of the shock into the mount.


Rears....DO NOT remove the band until you install one bolt first (prefer top first) cut band, as shock lowers, install bottom bolt. If it flies by the mount too fast, you can use a screwdriver as a lever on the lower mount (or just plain old brute force) to push shock up.


All in all, 1 hr 10 minute job, start to finish.


Tom http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Pig.gif

Glad I was able to help you out with some experience for the rest of us. :) You're in luck, as I have a few more tips that may save you time. Consider this "Part 2" of my little story:


I just got done installing the remaining front shock, and the two rears. This time around, I used an adjustable wrench to hold the shock shaft instead of pliers. Worked great, much easier. Got the shock off and new one on in about 30 minutes. I was using the tire jack included with the truck, which is under the rear seat in my EXT cab. It's a very nice jack.


The rears were pretty straightforward. For the pass. side, you need to slide under the truck between the front and rear tires. Unscrew both bolts but leave them in place; then pull the bottom out first, followed by the top. Reverse that to put a new one in.


My Bilsteins had straps to keep them compressed, but they were too short to reach the lower mount being compressed like that. So what I did was secure the top bolt, then I cut the strap and let it expand toward the bottom mount. I then had to quickly insert the bolt to "catch" it and keep it from over expanding.


The bolts were a little tough to push thru, so I got that jack and lightly jacked the bottom of the shock up enough so I could line the holes up perfectly. I then tapped the bolt thru the hole with the wrench, and tightened it up. I didn't torque them (I tried, couldn't fit the wrench comfortably), so I just made them "reasonably" tight, but not too tight.


All in all, much better the second time around. If you run into any problems, let me know and I might be able to help you out. I'm good at figuring out how to use the WRONG tools to get the job done. :D

Truckster


I changed mine recently and it took 2 hrs max and this included a 5 tire rotation. Much easier on the fronts with the tires off. Also had the two sons and my wife sitting on the tail gate to hold down the truck while bolting up the rears. Just the right weight. The ride is better than new.


Engineer Bill

I installed my bilsteins when rotating my tires as well(10,000 miles). All wheels off, small jackstands under the lower control arms to limit droop. 1.5 - 2 hours. Truckster, I noticed you just recently joined so I thought I would suggest you check out these threads:


http://dieselplace.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1779&PN=1


http://dieselplace.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2016&PN=1


You may have already seen them. I would also suggest getting some more tools. I have been there - not having the right tools and having to improvise with what I have. Everything is much easier with the proper tools and a torque wrench is necessary in a lot of situations. If money is a problem, maybe a neighbor or friend can help you out with a tool loan when you need it.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Shocked.gif I know, many people hate to loan tools as I do myself. But, there is always that one person who trusts you enough to allow it for a short time. Just make sure you don't break that trust.

I think I've read the first post 3 times now. It cracks me up every time! Thanks for the post Truckster, it's good to know we're human.





Burner-------------> http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif

It helps to have the right tools. A technique that I find helpful is to mount one end of the shock with the compression band still in place, then squeezing the blue boot really hard, cut the band and control the expansion of the shock by the amount of pressure on the boot. You can exert enough pressure to stop the shock long enough to get the bolts in place.

TC