Mr CHI

iTrader: (3)

I jacked the car up, took the wheels off, took off the two 50 hex bolts, and the other two bolts.

Then I took off the two bolts holding the shock at the bottom.

The shock moves left to right at the bottom where I removed the two bolts, but it does not move at all at the top where I removed the 2 hex/2 normal bolts

What Am I Doing Wrong?

bene

iTrader: (16)

Big rubber mallet. Give it a good wack with a rubber mallet on the top.

bigj2717

iTrader: (15)

Did you take the top shock nuts off from inside the car? If you did then yeah a rubber mallet should knock it out

Mr CHI

iTrader: (3)

Inside the car? I don't understand what you mean by that, could you specify please?

I followed the walk-through on LS1 HowTo.com
http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=6

They say by the 6th step, that the assembly should be loose under the car. Mine was still stiff as if I didn't even loosen the bolts.

Altogether, I should have taken off 4 bolts on the top, and the 2 bolts on the bottom right?

bigj2717

iTrader: (15)

Oh you're talking about the front struts. You need to remove the upper ball joint and if you disconnect the sway bar end links it makes it easier to move everything around.

1BADTALS1

iTrader: (4)

did you remove the castle nut from the upper ball joint? and then disconect the swaybar endlink so the lower a arm can swing down a bit further. it should come right out. hit it with a rubber mallet.

Mr CHI

iTrader: (3)

How Do I Do That?

bigj2717

iTrader: (15)

Look at the second pic on that write up its the first thing it tells you to do

Mr CHI

iTrader: (3)

Right I Did That.

It came free and I put some foam padding under the rotor to hold it up to un-stress the brake line.

The spring/shock assembly didn't even budge from the top after I removed the bolts and the Ball Joint.

Any other idea what it could be?

Perhaps I just have to man up and give it a thwack with a rubber mallet?

bigj2717

iTrader: (15)

Yep sometimes they just get rusted in there you wont hurt it just give it a good wack and it should pop out. Removing the sway bar end links help too it the one bolt coming down from the sway bar on each side.

Mr CHI

iTrader: (3)

Alright, I'll post up with the Post-thwack results in a bit.

ICRAZY6

iTrader: (68)

You might need to loosen up your sway arm end link. That will limit the travel of the lower control arm.

Mr CHI

iTrader: (3)

I ended up pushing down on the LCA a tad bit and it freed up enough to shimmy the assembly out of there. That thing is heavier than I thought it would be.

The shock assembly is at the machine shop now and their trying to get the rusted shock nut off. I wasn't even going to put myself through that headache.

ICRAZY6

iTrader: (68)

When I pulled mine off it wasn't to bad. I sprayed it with PB Blaster and brought it to work the next day and used an impact. Came off without an issue. I do sudjest using plenting of anti-seize during the reassembly process.