dale88

Going to replace the front shocks on my 93 SC400 this weekend(already did rears). Anyone have instructions/posts on how to do this? I did a search but did not see anything of value. I have an Alldata account, but they tend to leave out important details. Any guidance would be appreciated.

pcmw

dale88,

I posted instructs on this a few days ago...

For the fronts only... you need some tools..

Socket set
Jack
Pickle Fork or Puller for the Ball Joint
Spring compressors
Two people.

1) Jack up car.. use jack stands...pull off wheel
2) Take off 14mm bolts under the hood for the top of the shocks.
3) Unbolt lower shock mount.
4) Carefully remove the lower ball joint on the lower control arm. This is the bottom triangular suspension bracket mounting point where it meets the brake/wheel assembly. The nut has a cotter pin in it. Remove that.. then CAREFULLY unscrew it. If you have a correctly sized puller. Use that to separate the two pieces. If not, a pickle fork will do it. But take care to line it up over the seal to insure you do not damage the seal.
5) Now you can have one person hold the brake assembly, while putting his foot down on the control arm to swing it DOWN. This will give you enough space to remove the front strut.
6) Once the strut is removed with the spring. You need to compress the spring and remove the top cap. The top cap comes off when you remove the center bolt under the dust cap.

Good Luck.

MW

dale88

Thanks a bunch!

808state

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...ght=suspension

i guess you could remove the lower control arm from the lower ball joint but you don't have to.

you would gain more clearance to install and remove the new shocks/struts though.

however, you could save yourself some work by just pushing down on the lower control arm with a big bar or have some friend push down on the lower control arm (both front and rear) instead of removing the lower control arm from the lower ball joint. remember to remove the upper control arm bolt and the stablizer (sway bar) linkage before you press down as keith mentioned.

i don't think even the manual says to remove it.

i saw hermosa's shock install and i think they went waaay overboard in removing the entire front end. but i guess if you have access to a lift, you might as well go for it.

quikturbo

This link should give you some assistance.
http://www.mkiv.com/manual/manualtt/...ent/index.html

pcmw

HAH...that was a joke by lex400sc. Nobody dropped the suspension out.

However, we choose to go the lower arm route because Hermosa wanted to swap the bushing at the same time.

MW