Having just done the same on a 98 civic, here are some insights:
1. Rusty bolts - depending where you live, if there's alot of salt on the
roads in winter, lots of these bolts will be seized and very difficult to
remove. Highly recommend you have an air impact driver with a good supply of
air. Tegger has also indicated success with a higher quality electric impact
gun, but I haven't actually found one that compares to the 650ft-lb air gun I
use. and LOTS of penetrating oil.
The impact makes it easier with the spring compressors too.
2. Shock mount collar placement - The hardest part of reassembling the strut
is to ensure that the mounting collar is in the right position. Since the
spring compressor you will use is probably similar to the one I used, I found
that when decompressing, the arms on the tool tended to shift. This caused
the collar to move, thus putting it into the wrong position when the spring
was fully decompressed. All thats required here is a good eye and lots of
patience. Or the right tools... perhaps a jig of some sort would have helped
me in this regard. Make sure you mark the position on the old shocks. The
shop manual is invaluable for this too.
3. Hardware - make sure you move over all of the old hardware from the old
shocks. Bump stops, washers, sleeves, etc... these are not provided with new
shocks (unless maybe OEM), and I didn't do the bump stops the first time
around. Guess what, I got to take it apart AGAIN... Now I'm good at it
though. The reason I forgot the bump stops is that I thought they were fused
to the old shocks. It took some work, but I got the washer off that holds
them on.
4. Torque - remember to torque any bolts that are in rubber mounts when the
tires are on the ground.
5. Scope Creep - be prepared for the scope of this project to get well out
of hand. I had to shell out for a bunch more crap than just shocks. Since I
already had everything apart, I ended up springing for:
1. passenger lower ball joint - $60
2. passenger upper control arm - $100
3. passenger tie rod end - $45
4. rear upper arms - $110
5. front brake calipers - $130
6. Monroe Sensitrac shock absorbers - $450
7. driver front wheel bearing - $90 (installed)
8. 2 new front tires Falken Ziex 512- $250
9. 4 wheel alignment - $80
10. Bolts I busted - $30 (2 from the dealer... what a rip!)
Total: $1345.00 OUCH
All of these parts were purchased from my FLAPS. I would have done OEM, but
the cost would have been at least 30-40% higher. We'll see if I regret going
non-OEM.
Please note that I am located in Canada. Autoparts and tires are definitely
more expensive up here, so make sure you shop around, if you're in the US you
will definitely get your parts cheaper.
Also, make sure you inspect the bushing in the rear lower trailing arm.
Tegger and Jim Beam have more information on this.
As I aluded to earlier, in addition to your spring compressors, I would
recommend you have the following tools handy:
Air Compressor
Impact gun
Hardened sockets to use on impact gun
angle grinder
Good shop manual (try hondahookup.com if you don't have a factory manual.
Hayne's isn't good enough to rely on solely)
Good pry bar
Job took me about 5-6 hours. (cumulatively, stop and start)
Good luck!
Terry in Winnipeg
Mark G. wrote:
>Good morning.
>
>How is shock replacement as a do-it-yourself project on a 1991 Accord? I
>assume I will need a spring compressor. Any other special tools? Is this a
>reasonable project to tackle myself, or is it likely to be a world of hurt?
>
>Thanks
>-Mark
--
Message posted via CarKB.com
http://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...-cars/200709/1