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And to the other side. The goal is to compress both sides of the spring enough so that we can take off the 3/4 inch screw on the top and effectively remove the spring.

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Right about the point of removal.

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Ah, here we are with the spring removed. You can see the upper insulator (dust cover), suspension support and spring upper seat.

If you want to see a better perspective of these pieces, check out or CL sponsor Carson Toyota's OEM parts site here and it will show the pieces on the front shock, http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...layCatalogid=0

I recommend getting the piece called the spring bumper or bumper back on Carson's site. The front ones do get rotted out and were so on mine. In addition, if you want the lower insulator or insulator back on Carson's site. However, I will show you a different idea on the latter, something I have presented before.

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Now, I wanted to make note of something first. On the driver's side you will need to remove the 10 mm bolt holding the brake fluid reservoir if you want to get at one of the 14 mm bolts on top. The end of my finger is where the 10 mm bolt is.

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Now you may have remembered my pictures of my old lower insulator.

They do rot and get holes in them, I have replaced them a few times.

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And you may have remembered we replaced it on my front right spring with a plastic hose.

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Well, that is exactly what we did for the other 3 springs as well.

Each individual spring needs at least 22 inches (yes, I am not kidding you, it does not look that long, when you wind it around it is) to get to the point shown in the preceding photograph.

The width of the hose is about 2 cm or .75 inches. The rear springs can use a slightly smaller width, but I recommend using the same width as the ones up front. Note, I am slightly squeezing the hoses in the last 2 pictures.

This type of hose can be found at Home Depot, though in downtown Cuajimalpa where we are at, such colored hose is abundant at small hardware stores.

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Another shot.

This hose will last much, much longer than any rubber support and is extremely common to find in use here in Mexico.

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Here was the old shock from the driver's side. This is OEM and unmodified.

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Now at this point, we have already reinstalled the spring and undone the previous steps mentioned. Let us take a look at the completed installation photos of the front shocks.

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Here we can see the 7/8th inch camber bolts already reinstalled and we are just lacking the 12 mm flexible hose (brake fluid) bolt just to the left.

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14 mm stabilizar bar link bolt.

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Wider view.

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Reattachment of the flexible hose bolt.

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Wider shot. Here we are adjusting the axle. This was to fix a problem with the steering due to the old bad shock on this side.