4wd Loyale rear shock replacement writeup

[errantalmond]

One of my rear dampers absorbed its last shock on a snowy forest road in the Cascade mountains in Washington, so I am replacing it. I've only got one spare stock strut for the rear, and I intend to swap in better suspension components soon, so I decided to just do one; in general you should probably do both. I'm sure this is a piece of cake (it is) to many folks here, but it was my first time doing it and I'm really happy with the way it all worked out, so I'll share what I learned for the next person.

Here's what I used for this job:

 

A new strut from RockAuto with new nuts, cup washer, bushings, and collar

 

Floor jack

2 jackstands

1/2" Breaker bar and a pipe

1/2" air gun

1/2" Torque wrench

1/2" socket wrench

3/8" socket wrench

1/2" to 3/8" adapter

A short extension

Penetrating fluid

Soapy water/degreaser and a wire brush and towels

Blue threadlocker

 

Spring compressor, the crappy kind you can rent at auto stores

Flathead screwdriver

Vice grips

 

Spray some penetrating fluid on the three strut mounting bolts by reaching behind the wheel or peeking up from under the car to find them several times a day or two before you do the rest.

First loosen the lug nuts on the wheels you'll need to take off. 

Jack up the car by the rear diff and placed jack stands under the frame rails where the notches are near the wheel well.

Does anyone know if it's better to set the jackstands up across the thin, notched lip or along the inside of it? Here's what I mean:

 

Remove the lug nuts the rest of the way and put the wheel under the car (it's about as wide as your head)

 

Use a 17mm socket to loosen the two upper and one lower strut mounting bolts (I used a breaker bar and a pipe). The bolts are all pretty easy to get to.

The upper bolts gave a lot of resistance coming out, so I just kept screwing them in and out and adding penetrating fluid until they came out easily all the way. 

The lower bolt came out smoothly. Don't worry about the 19mm nut on the other side of the lower strut mount, it is welded to the control arm.

The strut will pop right out.

 

Now find a place where potentially shooting metal projectiles in two opposite directions in particular isn't a problem (don't do this next part with the top or bottom of the strut pointing at you, your loved ones, or your car, rather keep your valuables to the side of the strut, and your fingers too, as much as possible)

Spray the two upper nuts with some penetrating fluid.

Install the spring compressors on the coil spring, making sure to set them 180 degrees from each other for even compression. You want the little grabbers to be as many coils apart as possible. 

Look closely at the different parts of the strut and their dimensions before you start compressing the spring, and plan ahead so you don't have to start over.

These stock Loyale coil springs have a pretty small coil diameter, so the crappy compressor clamps didn't fit right at the bottom of the coil spring; the shock prevents the clamps from sliding fully over the wire of the coil spring. You can get them on far enough to be secure, but as the pressure on the coil spring increases, there clamps will also exert an inward force on the walls of the shock absorber. This also raised the concern that the compressor clamps would squeeze the old shock enough that it would be difficult to remove while the spring is compressed. In order to avoid any potential complication, I would just slowly decompress the spring once the upper nuts are loosened, until the shock absorber can be wiggle free from the compressed spring and spring compressors. Then the coil spring can be placed around the new shock absorber (take care not to scratch the inner rod), the compressors reinstalled with a few layers of paper tower wrapped around the shock absorber where the compressor clamps will push against the wall of the shock absorber, and the whole thing assembled. 

The compressor clamps will also squeeze the rubber dust guard/helper protecting the shock absorber's inner rod. Don't worry about that, just make sure it doesn't end up getting in the way later on when you are putting everything back together.

Also, try not to leave the compressed spring sitting around unnecessarily, for obvious reasons. 

 

So now you're compressing the spring, tightening each compressor a few turns at a time for even compression (I did 20 turns past hand-tightened on each side twice, then fifteen turns three times, then ten turns each until the coil spring was completely separated from its upper seat. Once you are 100% sure the coil spring is no longer pushing up on the upper spring seat, you can take off the two nuts at the threaded top of the shock. Use a crescent wrench to hold the inner nut while you use a socket wrench to loosen the outer nut. Then you can use a screwdriver in one of the upper mount holes or a strong pair of pliers/vice grips to hold the flat point of the inner shock rod as you break loose the inner nut. Once they are off, carefully disassemble the rest of the parts above the coil spring (2 nuts, cup washer, upper bushing, collar, mounting bracket, lower bushing, plate/washer, upper spring seat, rubber spring seat, bumper/helper, shock absorber boot/dust guard.

 

If you have a better compressor for this project you might not have problems with clearance inside of the coil spring. If that’s the case, yay for you. If not, you won’t be able to remove the shock because the clamps of the compressor will be squeezing it. Loosen the clamps until you can take it out. 

Now install the helper (looks like a butt plug with a ribbed inner hole), sliding it all the way past the skirt on the inner strut rod so that it can slide freely up to the shock absorber’s seal. Mine was falling apart but I didn’t have a replacement, so I reinstalled the old one and repeated ‘get a new helper for your rear struts’ 500 times so I wouldn’t forget.

Assemble the new bushings with the spacer and the strut mount.

Put the dust guard on, then wrap a rag or something around the shock absorber between the seal and the lower coil spring seat to prevent damage from the compressor clamps.

Slide the coil over the strut, making sure to have the flat end of the coil facing down so that the notch in the upper seat can line up with the upper coil end. I used a pair of vice grips to hold the spring firmly in place against the lower coil spring seat. 
 

Compress the coil spring again, making sure it stays straight and that nothing comes into contact with the shock absorber rod. 
 

once the spring is compressed enough that its upper end is just below the top of the dust guard, install the rubber and the metal upper seats, the flat washer/plate, the assembled strut mount, bushings, and spacer, and the cup washer. 
check to see if there is enough thread poking out to install the two nuts. If not, you either need to compress the spring more, make sure everything is aligned properly, or apply a bit of pressure to compress all the parts you just slid over the shock rod. It didn’t take me too much effort to get the nut to grab the thread. 
 

Get both nuts tightened firmly (I couldn’t find torque values for these so I looked up similar ones and used my best judgement, blue thread locker, and a torque wrench. Sorry, but I can’t remember what I ended up torquing them to. Anyone?

I’ve checked on them a couple of times just by feel after driving and it seems fine.

WHILE tightening the nuts, make sure the upper strut mount and is facing in the right direction so that you can reinstall it on your car. I did it by eye, holding the whole thing up to the wheel well, and readjusting once, but you are probably better off making careful marks on the mount and the old and new shocks to line up.

now release the spring compressor, making sure everything seats correctly as you do so. 
 

Reinstall in your car if you’re sure you didn’t forget anything. The three mounting bolts all get the same torque, I looked it up but will have to do so again to tell you here.

 

Clean the parts you reuse and use the right lubricants for each part. Figure out what they are or maybe someone knowledgeable can add them here.

 

I’ll add pictures soon - I have them, it’s just so tedious to share them all

please correct or complete this info; it’s my first time replacing a shock absorber. 

Edited October 10, 2021 by errantalmond
Didn’t manage to finish this in one sitting - but it will get there