Date:         Mon, 18 Apr 94 13:39:51 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: '83 rear shocks replacement

On Mon, 18 Apr 94 13:36:46 CDT James Lu x3702 said:
>    Can you share your experience on the replacement of rear shocks of
>    an '83? Steps of doing it? Trade-off of brands? What else?
>    Thanks in advance.

:) me again!

rear shocks are all the same on the vanagons, and, except for actually FINDING
them, it's fairly easy.  dirty, but easy.

be SURE you are on some level concrete working area and have good strong
jackstands. DON'T do this with just a jack under the car ... cause you're
gonna have to reach up 'into' the wheelwell a bit.

ok. standard old stuff about removing hubcap/wheel-cover, loosening all
lug nuts, jack car up until wheel is off ground, place jackstands, ease car
down onto jackstands, jack car Back up, raise jackstands so wheel Stays off
ground, ease car back down onto jackstands.

remove lugnuts and wheel. remove bottom bolt and nut on shock absorber.
remove top bolt on shock absorber.  remove shock absorber (actually, by now
it should have fallen off and hit your leg or ankle).

get new shock absorber. pull it to its extended maximum length ... this will
take some time ... it's a hard pull, but it can be done. best done OFF the
car.  you can also do this: put the jack under the rear suspension/brake
drum and ease it up until the shock absorber fits. i don't recommend this
because it can maybe make the car a little unstable on the jackstands.

fit the top bolt in through the shock. fit the shock into the little bracket
at the bottom, and pass the bottom bolt through. thread the nut on the back
side. tighten it all up, and torque the bolts/nut.

put the wheel back on. put the lug nuts back on, semi-tight. jack up the car,
remove the jackstands, lower the car onto the wheels, tighten the lug nuts
to 123 ft lbs, and put the hubcap/wheel cover back on.

go to the other side and repeat procedure.


now ... a couple of thoughts:
* you WILL get dirty. so wear old clothes.
* please use the jackstands. seriously.
* i found that extending the shock absorber was easier if i put the bolts
  into the shock absorber and pulled on one end with my hands and pushed on
  the other end with my feet. looks pretty idiotic, i'm sure, (like some of
  those exercise machines on tv!) but it works.
* i think the bolts are all 19mm ... which just happens to be the same size
  as the lug nuts. but i could be wrong.
* everything will look rusty ... the brake drum, the back of the wheel ...
  but it's only surface rust (hopefully) and this is 'normal'.
* while you've got the wheel off, you can say 'hello' to your clutch slave
  cylinder (in the middle of the car) ... cause you can now see it pretty
  good. just thought you'd like to know.
* for those of you with air conditioning (at least, 1986 and later), that
  funny looking cylinder with the hoses running out of it, right there behind
  the left rear wheel ... that's your 'sight glass'. the 'cats eye' where
  you are supposed to look for the bubbles in the freon that tell you your
  a/c isn't cooling right. :)

that's all i can think of right now. it's not really hard, but you WILL get
dirty, and it is potentially dangerous (well, the car COULD fall on you ...
maybe).

the front shocks are not NEARLY as simple. :(

joel