Front shocks going in

[C-ya]

Finally getting around to doing the front dampers on the truck. Figured I'd do it this morning, but some other things came up (haircut, swimming at the in-laws, wings for dinner - yeah, just shot the whole day!) so I thought I'd get the tools and hit it in the morning. Stopped at Auto Zone at 7:45 (they close at 8) and grabbed the spring compressor (27036), and two of the 3 suspension forks they have (27020 and 27021) as I didn't know which one I'd need. Ended up being 27021.

Get home and figure I'd get a jump on things in the morning by jacking the truck up and getting the front tires off and jack stands under it. Ha! I couldn't stop there. I decided to start taking stuff loose following the very thorough article here - Strut and Shock Install - Truck Test Digest. Ended up with both assemblies on the ground and got one spring changed over before I ran out of "civilized" daylight. It was about 9:15 when I packed the tools right inside the garage door and closed it up for the night.

The only issues so far were getting the lower strut mounts past the sway bar end links (not difficult - just yank) and getting the lower strut mount off of the old shock. I had to use a chisel to spread the mount a bit to get it off the old shock and onto the new one.

Here are a couple of pics so far.

Right front/left front. As you can see, one has a black body and black boot, and one has a black body and blue boot. They are even marked on the lower strut mounts LF and RF. The truck was in an accident before I bought it, and had left and right front damage, so I know it was apart at one time.



The right front is swapped over and ready to reinstall.



More to follow when it's all wrapped up. I anticipate no major hangups, but you know how that goes!

 

[gmcman]

Sweet.

Can you post a pic of the spring compressor you used? I don't like these springs, haven't seen a decent rental tool I feel comfortable using. Just be careful....they are nasty springs.

 

[Tofer76]

Wilmar Strut Coil Spring Compressor W80555 | eBay

this is the one I use I got it at oreillys I think was 25 buck
it takes a lil more time to set up and on but it looks safer to me
you bolt the spring to the tool with the u bolts and it doesn't slip
I have seen too many others break at the fingers and let the spring fly!!

 

[C-ya]

This is what I'm using - OEM/Strut spring compressor (27036) | Strut Spring Compressor | AutoZone.com They fit the spring perfectly from what I can tell. The only thing that doesn't fit is the little "locking pin" that holds the hook onto the spring. The spring is a little too large in diameter for the pin to slide in past the spring. Doesn't seem to matter once you get some turns on the nut to shorten the tool and grip the spring coils, though.

I'll post a pic later of it in use. Still a little early for "civilized" beating, banging and air gunning on a Sunday morning.

 

[C-ya]

OK, here's a pic of 27036 on the spring. It did a good job. This was pre-compression - just enough to keep it on.



Remember I said I didn't anticipate any hangups, but you never know? Well, I hit a good one. The threads on the left side rod (at the top) were so rusted that I had to go to a friend's and cut the nut and rod with a torch. After that, everything went back together very nicely. Even managed to change the front diff fluid while I was in there. Now for the rear. :wootwoot:

 

[C-ya]

Got the rear diff fluid changed. Talk about fun! I tried the fill port first. No dice. The next time this gets done, a fill plug is going in the cover. Since I wanted to get it done, I decided to go ahead and pop the rear cover off anyway and just fill through the vent hose. The gasket I got didn't fit - FelPro 55028-1. Says it is for a 2005 V8 8.625" rear end. Not so much. Good thing I had some RTV. No leaks so far. I left the upper bolts loose on the cover and jammed a small screwdriver in so it could vent and the filling went decently quick.

Also, I turned the spare tire over. While researching the gasket issue, I noticed someone mention the spare tire should be mounted valve stem up so a piece of debris wouldn't hit it, knock it out and deflate the tire.

All in all, a productive weekend as far as maintenace goes. The ride is vastly improved with the new fronts shocks in to go along with the new rears. I would not have imagined they would have made that much difference, but wow!

Now to track down an annoying rattle/clank on the right side.

 

[Tofer76]

you couldn't get your fill plug out?? a buddy had the same problem on his truck so we found one or 2 in a salvage yard and carefully drilled the center of his out(it was totally rounded inside) then used a large extractor to twist it out
oh we heated it up first too
it worked then we used antiseize on the replacement and with reg maint it wasn't a problem again

 

[meerschm]

The spare tire is supposed to go valve up to let the secondary latch catch the tire/wheel in case of failure. don't want to hit a bump and have it leave a moving vehicle.

that could ruin someone's whole day.

http://www.vadengmpp.com/owners-manual/chevrolet/2004-Chevrolet-TrailBlazer.pdf

see page 5-72:

"Your vehicle has an underbody mounted tire hoist
assembly equipped with a secondary latch system. It’s
designed to stop the spare or flat road tire from
suddenly falling off your vehicle if the cable holding the
spare tire is damaged. For the secondary latch to
work, the tire must be stored with the valve stem
pointing up"