- Aug 24, 2012
- 1,098
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!
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!