R30 Rear Shock Replacement - How To!

[dodgsun]

Just have to do this and thought i'd post it as i do it to show anyone else what they need to do (as i also have the workshop manual).

(Also posted on R31skyline forums)

First - take rear parcel shelf out!! which means taking seats out..not hard really and you could find money!!! (i found $20 in coins)

This is so you can get at the bolts for the top of the tower!

Second - chock front wheels and jack car up. (dont do a dodgy!) USE Chassis stands!!!!!

Third - You can do this either way, but i undid the bottom bolt first and levered it off the subframe, then the whole wheel will fall down onto ground (depending how stuffed your rubbers are!)

Fourth - Undo top bolts (3) and do rear bolt last as it will fall away (and go bang on the ground!)

would help if you have someone else to grab it, if so you may want to do this in reverse and finish with bottom bolt!

I will be cleaning these up so it looks like it has been worked on (for rego or roadside inspections!!)

These are the new shocks. (only pair i could find!!!) $184!!!! also got new rubbers for front swaybar, as they were easier to get!

will continue when done!

[dodgsun]

Ok...now for the rest..

clamp on spring compressors and tighten till the top insulator moves enough that the coil has no real pressure pushing against it.

*spring compressors not in the right place yet!*

*Before you pull apart look at the way the bottom saddle sits in relation to the bottom shock mount.

As i soon found out, when i tried to re-fit i found the i couldn't move the shock mount around to line up with swing arm mount with out moving the coil away from the notch in the saddle. which means i had to pull it all apart and re-position the bottom saddle in line with the top insulator bolts to line up in the car!!!!

now undo top retaining bolt (14mm) and pull off, once you've done this the coil can slip over the bump rubber and dust cover. next use a rubber mallet and whack the bottom spring saddle off the shock. Viola!!!

While these are apart clean coil and bottom saddle and repaint with your choice of colour (all i had was flat black enamel)

You should get some new rubbers with the shock kit, once you pull it apart you will see the 2 rubbers on top and under the insulator. see the difference in thickness. after 20yrs they tend to flatten out quite a bit!!

now put it all back together remembering to check where the top bolts and the bottom shock mount are so you dont have to move the coil around on its saddle!

check with the old unit to see its all in the right way and repeat on 2nd unit.

you can see here that the shock on the left has no compression at all compared to the right one, hence wheel hopping at certain speeds (mine was 90-100kph). plus dont they look purdy!!!

Now,you'll need a spare set of hands here as you cant put the unit back in AND put the top nuts on!!!

once back in and all tightened up you can clean other areas around here like the diff cover and CV joints (all help to make it clean for future inspections of any leaks)

clean and sweet, just the way rego likes it! (its not that silver under there, the flash just makes it all shiny as!)

i may add more as i need to do the swaybar rubbers yet. we'll see

[skybt1]

great job. very easy to follow and good pics.

[R30T.IHATCHL24E]

nice work!

[T04GTR]

gotta love the datsun-ness of it all