95-1LE-Z28

iTrader: (33)

I've owned my car for over two years now and so far, I've replaced the front strut mounts and shocks about 7 or 8 times. Each time the shocks pop out of the mount and grind against the springs.the previous owner lowered the car by 1" or 1.25".Has anybody dealt with this issue and can you guys give me suggestions as to how to resolve it. I definitely don't want to put stock springs back on the car and lift it up. I did some research and most people say the GM replacement mounts will work. It's $160 for one so I want to make sure they'll hold up. I'm not exactly sure what kind of lowering springs my car is sitting on but they're black in color. I'll check in the morning and update the thread with the exact brand.thanks in advance for ur help.

chino_man279

iTrader: (7)

I'm slightly confused as to what you are explaining. The shock is coming out of the upper mount? I don't understand how that is possible when the shaft goes through the upper mount and insulator.

As to wanting new mounts...I recently did all front end work on my vehicle with moog bushings, mounts, insulator, ball joint, etc. I bought my moog upper mounts from amazon. The local parts houses would not match their price.

95-1LE-Z28

iTrader: (33)

its dropping out of the insulator and mount. When it gets really bad, the top of the shock ends up getting stuck in the spring..Also i unfortunately wasn't able to identify the brand of springs i currently have. Hopefully someone on here will be able to identify the brand from the picture.

99Bluz28

iTrader: (35)

Sounds like you're missing a a crucial piece that mounts under the nut in the upper mount.

sixvi6-camaro

iTrader: (9)

First off.. its not the springs.. going to stock springs won't solve this. Something is clearly installed incorrectly. Are you bolting the shocks to the mount? The front shock/spring/upper mount are all held together as an assembly by the nut at the top of the shock. sounds like you don't have that nut on there or as 99Bluz28 you are missing one of the pieces. Its crazy that you've bought 7-8 sets of front shocks and mounts?? So after the first 2 times you could not figure out that possibly you are installing them wrong and kept buying new ones 7-8 times.. lol. you know for the cost of 7-8 shocks and mounts you could have taken the car to a real mechanic and had him install a set of Koni's right there. lol!

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

It CAN NOT pull out of the upper mount if you have the isolator in place (the wedge shaped piece in the pic 2 posts above). Given your issue, it sounds like you are missing the isolator. And without it, you'll be tearing out the mount constantly, as you have found.

Have you been replacing them yourself or taking it to someone? If you have been taking it to someone, I'd find another mechanic ASAP as he should know better.

95-1LE-Z28

iTrader: (33)

I'm not a mechanic and i've never tried to replace the shocks and mounts myself. The first few times i took the car to a firestone franchise shop that replaced it a couple of times under warranty. After the 3rd time they told me they couldn't warranty it anymore and that my best bet was to put stock springs on the car. I didn't think they were right because i'm sure i'm not the only F-Body owner with after market lowering springs. I figured they were doing something wrong so i changed mechanics. Two different mechanics have worked on it since and i seem to have the same problem.

Right now the shocks haven't completely fallen out yet but they've started making the "metal to metal" clunking noise again. I took it to the mechanic(who also already warrantied and replaced them about 3 times), and he says its the mounts again.

sscamaroburn02

iTrader: (14)

take apart your shocks/springs and give us a picture of what you are working with. I can almost guarantee your missing a crucial component. It is not rocket science lol.....

Paul Bell

iTrader: (9)

When did this start happening? AFTER the Firestone shop did the job the first time? What work did you originally go there for?

I'm with everybody else here, it sounds like you're missing the upper plate shown in 98bluz's post. If the plate was installed, there's no way the shock could pull out and poke the spring.

These plates rot out pretty badly because water sits on them with no way out-another great GM design.

A mechanic not familiar with these cars would need to chop/grind the old one out and may not realize it needs to be replaced with a new one.

If this is the case, the first shop that worked on the car caused all your problems.

libertyforall1776

iTrader: (2)

OP -- if you have any accident damage like impacts to the front wheels, that could be contributing to problems with shocks/alignment.


It can pull out, if the nut and insulator gets real rusted -- happened on my passenger side on my RS where it broke through the isolator and the metal sleeve from the shock mount broke away as well. Yes in my case the isolator WAS THERE, elongated hole and all where the nut went through.

This is what mine looked like (the circled part is the sleeve from the shock mount that ripped out!):