944S (87) Rear Shock Install Question

[autoxr]

What is involved with swapping rear shocks on an '87 944S? Any special tools? Obviously lift and carefully secure the rear end with jack-stands, then loosen top, then bottom bolts. Is that it? What am I missing? Will the exhaust be in the way?

Thanks in advance for feedback

[hpservertech]

Bolt on top, bolt on bottom. 10 minutes later all done.

Having an impact wrench will help tremendously! this really is not that difficult of a job. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the clutch of engine swap) I would put this at a .7

[martin944]

Yep, pretty straight forward. you might run into problems breaking the bolts loose. just give it a good liquid wrench soak for a bit and you should be good to go.

[Techno Duck]

Very easy, no need for a lift..can be done on jackstands. Support the rear across the torsion tube using the jackstands. You will need a 22mm socket for the lower shock bolt and a 19mm for the top. You will probably have trouble breaking the bottom loose.. a good size breaker bar really helps. For the top, you will need to use an open end wrench on the inside to hold the nut while you loosen the bolt.

It will make things alot easier if you remove the preload on the suspension parts by lightly jacking up the trailing arm enough to square everything off... IE, eliminate some of the tension on the parts.

[autoxr]

Thanks I thought so. One more question:
What are the upper/lower bolt torque settings? How many ft-lbs. to tighten?

[martin944]

guden tight! sorry couldn't resist..

[Techno Duck]

Originally Posted by autoxr

Thanks I thought so. One more question:
What are the upper/lower bolt torque settings? How many ft-lbs. to tighten?

Edit - fixed

Lower Mount : 91 ft-lbs
Top Mount : 45 ft-lbs

[#391]

Originally Posted by Techno Duck

Top Mount : 91 ft-lbs
Lower Mount : 45 ft-lbs

Other way around; 45 top, 91 lower.

[Techno Duck]

Whoops, Jim is correct. I have those reversed.

[terrym]

I just did this last weekend and found it as easy as stated above. Only hitch was that the upper eyes of the POS AC-Delco shocks I removed were narrower than the proper Koni replacements and the upper mounts had been squeezed together slightly. I spread the mounts with a small crowbar and the Konis slid right in place.

[TNT25169]

Originally Posted by martin944

guden tight! sorry couldn't resist..

Very technical german torque specs....my favorite.....

[djnolan]

Prior to jacking up the trailing arms, use the jack uder the breaker bar to break the guden tight lower bolts loose. Saves on wd40!

[gtroth]

Should be easy. My lower bolts defeated me, however. No luck with impact gun or breaker bar (car on stands). Gave up and brought it to my mechanic who also had some difficulty, but at least succeeded.

[terrym]

I used a short pipe on a 1/2" breaker bar on the lower and had no problem. My upper bolts were big trouble until I used a four-way lug wrench and both hands.

[djnolan]

Mine was up on ramps instead of jack stands. When applying force to the lower bolts, the weight of the car kept the trailing arms from moving and they broke free witht he froce of the jack. I barely tried by hand and went to the jack for assistance, and they were guten tight!

[onZedge]

If I'm not mistaken, you have to pre-load the rear swing arms before final torque. Easy if you use two floor jacks.