Last night a friend and I installed Edelbrock shocks on my 97 xlt. For those who are wondering whether to do it themselfs or not, I am writing this installation instruction for you. It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes start to finish.
tools you will need:
jack, jack stands, 18mm, (2)15mm & 13mm open ended wrench, rubber malet, tire iron
First jack up front and remove tires. You can try to do the job with the tires on, but for the five minutes it takes, remove them. It makes life easier. Remove fiberous shroud that cover shock. It is connected to the plastic wheel well liner with plastic clips. Just pull them out and put it aside. Then hit the top of the shock and the two bolts on the bottom with a creaping oil or liquid wrench. While that soaks, go to rear of truck and remove spare tire. Then hit the two bolts on top of each shock with the oil and the single bolt on the bottom. Go back to the front of the truck and remove the two bottom bolts on the shock useing your 13mm wrench. (we found doing the bottom first was easier) then use the 2 15mm wrenches to remove the top nut. Pull out the shock. you will see it will compress easily. Follow the instructions provided with the Edelbrock shocks for the installation. It's easy. Then reinstall the fiber shroud. Lower the front end, block the tires to prevent roll and start on the rear. The rear is pretty open so working on it isn't hard. You may not need to jack the rear up but on my truck the shock extended past the bolting point so we had to raise it so the shock aligned. then just follow the directions from Edelbrock. The top bolts size is 13mm and the main stud is 18mm. Thats it. even if you are not that mechanically inclined, you can still do it. Hope this helped. If you have any questions, just ask. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being replacing windshield washer fluid and 10 being an engine rebuild, I give this a 4.
[This message has been edited by ETJAFFE (edited 08-24-1999).]
tools you will need:
jack, jack stands, 18mm, (2)15mm & 13mm open ended wrench, rubber malet, tire iron
First jack up front and remove tires. You can try to do the job with the tires on, but for the five minutes it takes, remove them. It makes life easier. Remove fiberous shroud that cover shock. It is connected to the plastic wheel well liner with plastic clips. Just pull them out and put it aside. Then hit the top of the shock and the two bolts on the bottom with a creaping oil or liquid wrench. While that soaks, go to rear of truck and remove spare tire. Then hit the two bolts on top of each shock with the oil and the single bolt on the bottom. Go back to the front of the truck and remove the two bottom bolts on the shock useing your 13mm wrench. (we found doing the bottom first was easier) then use the 2 15mm wrenches to remove the top nut. Pull out the shock. you will see it will compress easily. Follow the instructions provided with the Edelbrock shocks for the installation. It's easy. Then reinstall the fiber shroud. Lower the front end, block the tires to prevent roll and start on the rear. The rear is pretty open so working on it isn't hard. You may not need to jack the rear up but on my truck the shock extended past the bolting point so we had to raise it so the shock aligned. then just follow the directions from Edelbrock. The top bolts size is 13mm and the main stud is 18mm. Thats it. even if you are not that mechanically inclined, you can still do it. Hope this helped. If you have any questions, just ask. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being replacing windshield washer fluid and 10 being an engine rebuild, I give this a 4.
[This message has been edited by ETJAFFE (edited 08-24-1999).]
