discovery 300tdi rear shock absorbers

hi folks,

the nex job on my list after replacing the boot floor is the rear shocks...

has any one got any tips for getting these off, the easyier the better as i can't stay down too long before my back locks up!

they look as if they are many years old.......

whilst doing the floor i've been giving them a squirt of wd

the bottom bolt looks well corroded.....just put spanner on too see and they were just turning .
but the rear was not jacked up applying presure.

new ones look good and i'm sure the difference will be noticable .

any tips will be welcome as said previously can't mess about to long without having a number of breaks in between

Grip the body of the shocker with a stilson.

Bolt the bottom, lift the axle, then do top, much easier!

He's trying to undo it not fit it.

OOOOOOHHHHHHH. Me no read propar likey. Well, if you have new nuts, put a bar on and wrag it off!!! For the bottom one anyway. The top one, i had to grind off carefully as that one was stuck.

Do you get new ones with the dampers that is (i got just one with my Cellular Dynamics for the rears)

markw said:

hi folks,

the nex job on my list after replacing the boot floor is the rear shocks...

has any one got any tips for getting these off, the easyier the better as i can't stay down too long before my back locks up!

they look as if they are many years old.......

whilst doing the floor i've been giving them a squirt of wd

the bottom bolt looks well corroded.....just put spanner on too see and they were just turning .
but the rear was not jacked up applying presure.

new ones look good and i'm sure the difference will be noticable .

any tips will be welcome as said previously can't mess about to long without having a number of breaks in between

Click to expand...

Hi Mark, the ones that were a problem on my Disco were the top ones. They would not budge no matter what. Eventually I tried a little too hard and the threaded section sheared off requiring me to get a pair of new hangers - bugger.

I found with the bottom ones first put the right sized ring spanner on, (can't remember size offhand sorry) but then put an open-end spanner on the flats of the threaded fixing at the bottom of the shock, to hold the spindle stil whilst cracking of the nut.

Worked for me

great,

these will help,

i do have all new bushes top and bottom so refitting should be great and not too long.

its just getting the old ones off!

hoping to do these in the next few days, just hope they arn't too bad.

i'm in aggony after what i've done today so could do without too much of a struggle.

wolud like to have all ideas and peoples experiances so i have a better idea of what to do if things don't go to plan.

cheers mark

markw said:

great,

these will help,

i do have all new bushes top and bottom so refitting should be great and not too long.

its just getting the old ones off!

hoping to do these in the next few days, just hope they arn't too bad.

i'm in aggony after what i've done today so could do without too much of a struggle.

wolud like to have all ideas and peoples experiances so i have a better idea of what to do if things don't go to plan.

cheers mark

Click to expand...

If you can't turn it burn it mate, worked for years on trucks and you could fook about forever, and fookin ever, on rusted ****e.

If you can't get somebody to heat it or burn it with oxy buy one of these hand torches with the gas mix, you can actually braze with them so enough heat to get it red at least. Once you get it red hot fook it with loads of cold water, this will shock it and it should come off. If you don't give a **** about the threads then wind it off when its hot. But best to try the cooling ploy first.

Wear a pair of welding gloves or sumit to protect yer knuckles.

david451 said:

If you can't turn it burn it mate, worked for years on trucks and you could fook about forever, and fookin ever, on rusted ****e.

If you can't get somebody to heat it or burn it with oxy buy one of these hand torches with the gas mix, you can actually braze with them so enough heat to get it red at least. Once you get it red hot fook it with loads of cold water, this will shock it and it should come off. If you don't give a **** about the threads then wind it off when its hot. But best to try the cooling ploy first.

Wear a pair of welding gloves or sumit to protect yer knuckles.

Click to expand...

Great suggestion about those small portable hand torches. I had such trouble getting some of the fastenings off.

Well, off to the shops then...................

Cheers
Dave

markw said:

great,

these will help,

i do have all new bushes top and bottom so refitting should be great and not too long.

its just getting the old ones off!

hoping to do these in the next few days, just hope they arn't too bad.

i'm in aggony after what i've done today so could do without too much of a struggle.

wolud like to have all ideas and peoples experiances so i have a better idea of what to do if things don't go to plan.

cheers mark

Click to expand...

Just a quick thought Mark, if you're having trouble getting something undone with a ratchet driver and sockets, try this: most drivers have a bar-shaped handle with a rubber grip which just slips off, take the grip off and get hold of one the long brown tubes from the cars tool kit (the ones for the jack) and slip it over the ratchet driver - loads more leverage with much less effort.

Just a thought.................
Cheers
Dave

thebiglad said:

Just a quick thought Mark, if you're having trouble getting something undone with a ratchet driver and sockets, try this: most drivers have a bar-shaped handle with a rubber grip which just slips off, take the grip off and get hold of one the long brown tubes from the cars tool kit (the ones for the jack) and slip it over the ratchet driver - loads more leverage with much less effort.

Just a thought.................
Cheers
Dave

Click to expand...

Tell yer somethin even better, a cab tilt bar from a truck and it fits right over it just as you say, and yel never bend it. All yev got to do is find a truck, scania pref, lift the grill and heh presto run like fook. But is yer no good at running then breakers.

Glad you mentioned that big lad. I used that technique all the time.

the bar sounds great idea ,

i have a snap on bar which socket fits, about 3 - 4 ft long
i never gave that a thought........ defenatly move the top bolt.

but if the bottom starts turning not so good.......

other than the stilson idea and jacking up axle to squash shocker,
any other ideas on gerring bottom bolt off.

keep the ideas coming

cheers mark

markw said:

the bar sounds great idea ,

i have a snap on bar which socket fits, about 3 - 4 ft long
i never gave that a thought........ defenatly move the top bolt.

but if the bottom starts turning not so good.......

other than the stilson idea and jacking up axle to squash shocker,
any other ideas on gerring bottom bolt off.

keep the ideas coming

cheers mark

Click to expand...

If after trying all else and if like me you don't have access to some kind of heat, then my final solution is always............a big grinder!!!!

Grind it off flat if you can get in or at 90 degrees to the nut and cold-chisel it off. It's not an elegant solution but if the componant (in this case a shock absorber) is to be chucked, then so what??

the top bush removal can be a right ****e. As hasd previously been said, burn it or give up and unbolt the shock bracket that attaches the top of the shock and the chassis. It aint cheap though, £37 from land rover and about £18 on line. Make sure you get replacement washers for the top if you can't retrieve the old ones.

markw said:

hi folks,

has any one got any tips for getting these off, the easyier the better as i can't stay down too long before my back locks up!

Click to expand...

I've not long since changed the shocks on our Disco as 120k had killed the originals, so I simply squirted WD40 on the nuts beforehand. After jacking up the axle to compress the shocks, the top nuts came off, with albeit some brute force! (I was cautious so as not to thread the upper bracket as they are well expensive).

After that bit of a workout and as I was fitting new shocks and bushes, I got p'd off and simply used a grinder on the bottom nuts

The biggest hassle I had was getting the top bush inner metal tube off the shock mount, but the grinder sorted that out too.

Just done the rears on my 300tdi (1995)
Top rubbers were well shot. 1/4 inch of clearance on both sides.
Bottom shock absorber nuts came off eventuall (I'd soaked them for 2 days in WD 40) bu that was with an Air driven Impact driver.
I've seen Elecric ones available, I think LRO mag had a test on a couple recently.

Next job is the fronts, already ordered the nut plates and new turrets (current ones are a bit rusty), have a set of spring compressors so it should be OK. How easy is the bottom shock nuts to get at?
Brilliant Site, Thanks to all you put thier ideas and help files on line

I did mine recently, the top bolts weren't too much of a problem they just took a bit of brute force, but the bottom bolts were pigs!! I used a stilson to grip the shock and found it easier to wedge the spanner on the nut and actually turn the shock with the stilson. this worked well on one side but on the other I had to hacksaw through the bottom of the shock to get it off as I couldn't budge the nut. The biggest problem I had was fitting the new bushes in the bottom. There is a sort of retainer underneath the mounting which the bushes need to fit into, the problem I had was getting the new bushes in far enough due to the corrosion to get the nut on the end of the shock. In the end I had to taper the bushes slightly with a sharp knife to get it all to fit.