OK, I was able to get my spring compressors on there in such a way that I can get my impact on them. I have them compressed enough to take the load off of the top mount. Now to remove the RUSTED nut. I soaked in PB blaster over night, today I put my impact on it and its rusted to shaft, as i suspected. I have never cut off a nut before. How do you do it? Do I just make a vertical cut into the side of the nut, (If i go to far it wont matter because the old shock is toast) and then fit a chisel in there to pry the nut off?

 

whatever it takes to get it off without doin damage to needed parts and body,,,, both car and yours.

 

I made two cuts on the nut, then the impact pulled it off. I guess it let the nut expand over the rust? O well, I got it off. So after two days I have ONE assembly out. lol. My new ones should be here tomorrow. So once they get here I just gotta slide my spring over the new one, put the mount on, and new nut!

The old shock was almost impossible to push in. And it came out VERY VERY slowly. What kinda difference should I see with the new one?

 

big difference. shock quality dictates the ride on the 4th gen so you should feel like your drivin a different car

 

Wish Monroe or someone would sell the strut (shock) and spring together (quick strut) as one unit, so all you have to do is unbolt the old one and bolt in the new one. I dread this job.

 

Make it easy. Buy shocks, springs, mounts all at the same time. Have a shop assemble them with their wall mount compressor. Voila! Old out, new in, drink beer.

 

Around here it is becoming more and more difficult to find a shop that will work with customer supplied parts.

 

It sucks, but the reason Monroe won't make one for our cars is one, the newest F body is already 10 years old, but more importantly, we have shocks on the front instead of struts. That was the one of the main reasons they didn't do it, second reason being is 9 out of 10 people end up lowering their Camaro when they replace the shocks and springs. It wouldn't be cost beneficial to them to make a stock height set or even a stock height and some lower ones. That's more or less the answer I got when I asked a Monroe representative when he visited my work place.

 

I hear people say we have shocks up front, But my GM shop manual, a 3 volume set, says its a strut. The alldatadiy.com page says strut, Rockauto.com says strut. whats going on lol

 

Ok guys, Got the job finished earlier today. My top mounts were is great shape for the age and milage. The only issues were the rusted nuts on the top. But the spring compressor works fine with an impact wrench. If I did not have one i wouldnt have been able to do this job. Such a great tool. If anyone knows how to use tools, and general mechanics, anyone can replace these themselves. Anybody know how much money I saved doing them myelf opposed to driving to car to a shop? I payed $170 for both struts, and reused the old mounts.

The car drives so much better, steers better, rides better. I can pretty much go off roading now that the suspension is actually working. well... thats a bit much but wow, what a difference!