How much of a pain is this? Never worked on a 4thgen front suspension before.

 

If you are just swapping the springs and shocks complete its pretty simple, but iff you have to change the spring and pull them off the shocks it's just more time consuming...

 

The only problem I ran into was the nut on the top of the shock was rusted tight. They are recessed into the rubber isolator so that you can get a torch on them without wasting the isolator (about $20+ part per side) and a nut buster wont fit in there either. I had to chisel off the nut and wasted the shaft on the shocks doing it. Great design by GM, designed to capture and hold water. If they only put $0.02 of anti-seize on the threads it wouldn't have been a problem. It took me over 4 hours to pull one side out dissassemble and install new shock and reassemble and reinstall. I was trying to save the stock Decarbon (putting on SA Konis) so I went slow at it. Just start with a sharp chisel and it could be done in 2 to 2.5 hours per side.

 

It's a pretty good pain. To make things go smoother, make sure you have the right tools to unbolt the upper shock mounts beside the master cylinder. You usually have to loosen the MS to move it aside a little. Other than that potential train derailment the only other thing would be taking apart the springs due the rusty top bolts.

If you want to go fast, get some upper springs mounts from a junkyard and completely assemble your new springs and shocks. Then pull the old ones out and the new in. Saves a lot of time.

 

Exactly what everyone else said. First time I did it, man what a pain. Now its like cake since I'm going on my sixth time. Jack it up, take the wheel off, take off the swaybar endlink, unbolt the bottom shock bolts, unbolt the castle nut that holds the spindle to the upper a-arm (BFH to loosen it helps alot here), unbolt upper mount bolts inside engine bay (move master cylinder on driver's side for access), and then put the new stuff in. Only thing time consuming is compressing the springs and thats not a big deal either. Now I can change rear springs and shocks in about 30 minutes, and I can change front springs and shocks in about 2 hours. The first few times it'll be an all day affair though.

 

Here's a handy pic I whipped up some time ago.

 

A small two-jaw puller works extremely well for dislodging the upper ball joint. I bought one when I did mine and it was a HUGE time saver. I didn't have any rust problems with my upper spring retainer, but what I ran into was not having the forethought to put a little WD-40 between the spring seat and the mount plate on the shock. Trying to get the tabs on the bottom of the shock to line up with the holes on the lower a-arm was a pain! I did it right on the passenger side and it only took about an hour and a half (with frequent rest breaks from the spring compressors).


-Mike