easy hand tool replacement
How difficult is shocks and sway bar install?
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 523
Likes: 90
From: Los Angeles, CA
How difficult is shocks and sway bar install?
Bought the Johnny O'Connell Stage 1 setup and want to hear how difficult it would be to install. Is there anyway to really mess up the install?
My uncle has a tire shop that also does suspensions, is there anything special about replacing the shocks and sway bars on our cars? Or would they be able to handle it pretty easily without any problems?
My uncle has a tire shop that also does suspensions, is there anything special about replacing the shocks and sway bars on our cars? Or would they be able to handle it pretty easily without any problems?
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 32,910
Likes: 2,402
From: Anthony TX
CI 6,7,8,9,11 Vet
St. Jude Donor '08
If I had to rate it on a scale of 0-10 and 10 being extremely complicated and need special tools and skills, it would be a 3.
A three (3) only because you need to look up the bolt torque values and get and use a torque wrench to properly torque the fasteners.
Its not difficult at all. It will consume a good part of a Saturday afternoon time wise.
Compress the shocks and use a piece of coat hanger to keep them compressed. Once there in place, cut the wire and they will expand into place.
Bill
A three (3) only because you need to look up the bolt torque values and get and use a torque wrench to properly torque the fasteners.
Its not difficult at all. It will consume a good part of a Saturday afternoon time wise.
Compress the shocks and use a piece of coat hanger to keep them compressed. Once there in place, cut the wire and they will expand into place.
Bill
mike v
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 465
Likes: 92
From: Riner Va
If I had to rate it on a scale of 0-10 and 10 being extremely complicated and need special tools and skills, it would be a 3.
A three (3) only because you need to look up the bolt torque values and get and use a torque wrench to properly torque the fasteners.
Its not difficult at all. It will consume a good part of a Saturday afternoon time wise.
Compress the shocks and use a piece of coat hanger to keep them compressed. Once there in place, cut the wire and they will expand into place.
Bill
A three (3) only because you need to look up the bolt torque values and get and use a torque wrench to properly torque the fasteners.
Its not difficult at all. It will consume a good part of a Saturday afternoon time wise.
Compress the shocks and use a piece of coat hanger to keep them compressed. Once there in place, cut the wire and they will expand into place.
Bill
Sway bars-un-bolt and put in new ones.piece of cake.. You'r going to love the new handling. Bill helped me, made it a snap. Thanks Bill
Also cleaned and painted everything.
OLD (L) End links were junk. NEW (R)
Last edited by mike venth; Dec 31, 2016 at 01:52 PM.
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 167
Likes: 58
From: Willis TX
mike v
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 465
Likes: 92
From: Riner Va
http://www.cultragfactoryparts.com/
I put one end on the floor and pushed down hard..Took a couple tries.
But the coat hanger method worked the best for me.
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Instructor
Joined: Feb 2012
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From: N. Florida
I think you'll find replacing bars and shocks to be an easy job. I just did a round of maintenance on my C5 with a buddy, and we did the following in eight hours on my lift.
Replaced all four shocks
Replaced driver side differential seal
Adjusted parking brake shoes
Replaced rear sway bar end links
Replaced brake fluid
Installed a Corsa cat back exhaust
With the shocks the hardest part was getting the old ones off the car. Used the zip tie trick to compress the new ones, and it was uneventful and easy installing them. The only thing that was surprising was the parking brake shoe adjustment. I had a brake drum resetting gauge which made the job less trial and error, but it took more time than I would have imagined to get them perfect.
Outside of that, C5's are very straightforward to work on. As others have mentioned just pay attention to the torque specs and have at it. I think you will find bars and shocks are very easy to replace.
Replaced all four shocks
Replaced driver side differential seal
Adjusted parking brake shoes
Replaced rear sway bar end links
Replaced brake fluid
Installed a Corsa cat back exhaust
With the shocks the hardest part was getting the old ones off the car. Used the zip tie trick to compress the new ones, and it was uneventful and easy installing them. The only thing that was surprising was the parking brake shoe adjustment. I had a brake drum resetting gauge which made the job less trial and error, but it took more time than I would have imagined to get them perfect.
Outside of that, C5's are very straightforward to work on. As others have mentioned just pay attention to the torque specs and have at it. I think you will find bars and shocks are very easy to replace.
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Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,728
Likes: 142
From: Iowa
Like the others said, very easy. I didn't even bother with the zip tie method when installing 3 of them. I did the first one with the zip ties and thought the new DRM Bilstein shocks compressed easy enough by hand. So, the next 3 I simply put one end in place and shoved it hard enough by hand to slowly compress it. Once they were compressed, I quickly moved the other end into position until it seated. It was cake and very fast.
Either way, you should be able to do it.
Either way, you should be able to do it.
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; Jan 3, 2017 at 03:16 PM.
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From: Ohio
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