Hey guys, the front shocks on my Omega are completely toast, I've got the shocks already and was going to get my mechanic to do it, but reading up online it seems pretty straight forward, I haven't done it before but I know the basics of working on a car and am reasonably mechanically inclined.

I have all the basic hand tools you would expect, and down at my grandparents I have tons of my grandpas old tools that I could probably find anything else I need. My parking spot it on a slight slope and I can't really move the car at the moment as the starter is on its last legs (another thing I'm considering doing myself) and I'd like to avoid totally cooking it, and I think its probably not the best on the engine when it fails to turn over and just buzzes.

I don't have jackstands although I might be able to borrow some, I have a floor jack though. Will I be ok with the car jacked up on a floorjack, chocks under the back wheels, and the parking brake on?

From what I'm reading it seems once I get the wheels off the shock is just held in place with a couple nuts/bolts and theres nothing that special to it?

 

You need to use jack stands, too many people have been hurt laying under the car and having it come down on them.


Shocks are probably one of the easiest projects to do on a car, very straight forward.


The starter is also and easy project, a bit awkward because of the weight. Make note as to which wire goes where before you disconnect it.

 

Ok I'll make sure to grab some, I'm almost certain my grandpa had a set. I'll probably go by and ask my uncle if hes done it before and willing to help, maybe I'll try and tackle it to day, it looks a lot easier than I thought. One quick question, the washers and the bushings, does it matter which one is on the top and bottom or are they the same? They look the same to me but in one box one washer has a 1 and the other has a 2 and in the other box one has a 1 and the other has a 3 on it.

I think my wiring might be toast too so I might just get my mechanic to do the starter, or maybe ill try to get it in there myself and if its no good get him to do the wiring after. I have a set of oil change ramps, do you think that would be the easiest way to get under there and to the starter, or would I be better off with it on jackstands?

 

Ramps will work fine for the starter, they may be in the way for the shocks.

 

Cool thanks, yeah I'm just gonna jackstand it for the shocks, I'm going to go fill up my jerry can haha and when my grandma and uncle get home later I'm gonna take it down there and get to work.

 

The ease of replacing shocks depends on how rusted the fasteners are. It's a rare car that I haven't needed to use a torch. The front shocks use two bolts to hold the shock to the lower control arm and a nut over the shock shaft where it goes through the frame on the top. The lower bolts thread into J-nuts clipped to the LCA, and these J-nuts are the two-piece design with a square nut snapped into a spring-steel clip. Any resistance due to rust and the square nut pops out and starts spinning. It's blind and virtually impossible to get a wrench on it. At the top, the only way to hold the shock shaft is a small pair of flats on the tip of the shaft. Any rust on the nut and these round off immediately. At a minimum, you want the shock tool shown below. Also, you'l find this easier if you have the weight of the car on the suspension.

 

Ended up having to cut the top nuts out with a sawzall, but got the new shocks in and she drives great now, it amazing being able to go over bumps over 40 km/h ahaha. The old shocks were total garbation, totally black and I could compress them all the way in with my hands and they wouldn't bounce back, I was basically riding on just springs.

 

Oh yeah, forgot to say I called around to all the local parts stores looking for that tool and the only one who even carried it apparently was Lordco, but they only had 1 in stock at the location an hour away and wanted 31 bucks before tax, Canada sucks