If you can remove the drop link from the lever-arm, or failing that the
drop-link from the bottom plate to tackle the drop-link to lever-arm pin and
nut on the bench fair enough. But in my experience these rust solid and I
have found it easier to remove damper, drop-link and bottom plate as an
assembly to cut/grind the nuts off (without damaging the drop-link pins!) in
comfort on the bench. In this case you need to support the body on axle
stands immediately in front of the front hangers, then jack up under the
spring (near the middle but leaving room to access the U-bolt nuts) just
enough to take the weight off the rebound rubber strap. Although the car
should be secure enough against falling if supported on axle stands, you
will still want to avoid lying under the spring or axle in case the jack
supporting them should sink, or support that on another axle stand.
Be careful with new rebound straps, I have seen several reports from North
America that these are little more than rubber bands and snap the first time
they are asked to carry the weight of the axle. The correct items have a
reinforced core, but even if this is visible it is nigh-on impossible to
verify them before fitting and testing. Also a frequent problem when
replacing the straps is snapping the axle pin. This isn't the end of the
world, if there is a bit of stud left you can drill a hole through this and
fit a washer and split-pin to stop the strap sliding off the pin, or through
the middle of the strap and pin and use just a split-pin if even this
stub-end has gone.
It is normal to replace bump-stop, drop-link and rebound strap when lowering
rubber bumper rear springs to restore the static laden position of the
damper to the mid-point of its travel and hence the original amount of
suspension travel in each direction. If you just replace the springs you
won't hurt the dampers, but you will hit the bump-rubbers much 'sooner' than
normal. Replacing just the bump rubber to prevent that *will* likely cause
the damper to hit its end-stop, which is why it should be all (bump-stop,
drop-link and rebound strap) or nothing.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
> It looks to me like I might be able to remove/replace the shock
> without dealing with the spring, just unbolt the linkage, remove the
> old shock from the body, and reverse the process for the new?
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