How difficult to replace shocks on 1990 Ford F53 Chassis?

[Raist11]

Greetings,

Not worried about which shocks to get, just wondering how hard is it to do? For a little background, I've done a lot of mechanical work on my vehicles over the years. I've done 3 suspension lift kits on Jeeps. I've replaced many different parts on varied vehicles. So the basic idea of removing a shock and putting a new one on isn't bad.

The part I'm concerned about is it's a 35' motorhome with a dry weight of 12,540lbs and that's pretty freakin' big! For those that have, what process did you follow?

[garry1p]

I did the swamp man trick and lost the end of my finger when things didn't line up just right. The shock will expand fairly quickly so be careful however you do it.

[Swamp_Man]

One thing that I have seen is that the gas pressurized shocks have a restraining device (wire or plastic) that holds them in a compressed state in the shipping container (box). I have installed the top of the shock, put the bolt in the hole on the mount, then cut the restraining device. As the shock expanded, I would slip the bolt through the eye and install the nut. You can not hesitate or you will need the jack as specified by Golden_HVAC!

[topflite51]

and don't forget the beer for when the job is done.:b

[MountainAir05]

Same here, like said , spray and have a jack handy.

[Raist11]

Thanks, Fred. Yeah that's the fun part of working on vehicles. A job could take an hour, but because of that rusted nut it takes 2hrs. 😛 If I had a nickel for every time I cursed a rusted nut. lol.

I know I checked the front bushings, while they didn't look great.. they weren't terrible either. To be honest I was quite surprised. Honestly, I can't remember now if I checked the rear or not. I'll definitely do that to make sure though. Later this summer I'm hoping to replace most everything underneath in an attempt to get the ride under control. It's pretty squirrely.

[Golden_HVAC]

I just unbolted the worn out year old factory shock, and took it off. The replacements where Bilstien, and pressurized, so it was a bit more difficult to compress and get the bolt in place. There is plenty of room to work under there, and a floor jack was helpful to compress the shock while getting the bolt into place.

Figure 2 hours start to finish to install all 4. You might be done in 30 minutes if all goes well, and you have air tools to loosen the bolts. You might want to spray some WD 40 on the bolts the night before starting, to help loosen up any rust on them.

Also check your rear sway bar bushings. Mine had worn out completely, and one fell off, basically making the bar useless. I replaced them with new ones from E-Bay.

Fred.