Write-Up: Rear Self-leveling Air Shocks

The Roadmaster wrote:

LARRY70GS wrote:

Anyone know the size for those extruded nuts? I'd like to order a box of them. Most of them broke when I did my shocks.

I am going over to Tradesman Fastener this week Larry if you want me to check on the price for a box.

That would be great Carl, Thank You.

Check the bolt size on your Riv, Larry. Just on the outside chance they may be a different size than mine.

The Roadmaster wrote:

Check the bolt size on your Riv, Larry. Just on the outside chance they may be a different size than mine.

The bolt size really doesn't matter. 3 out of 4 of them broke right off. I'll just get bolts to match the nuts.

That's what I did, Larry. Found a set of new flanged-head bolts and nuts w/ washers and blue thread locker.

Worked great!

Is this the size?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-Extruded-U-Nuts-M6-1-0-Screw-Size-GM-11503714-/400279288429?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5d32813a6d&vxp=mtr

1998 Riv wrote:

What did Carquest charge for the KYB's? I can get them at $82 + shipping. I'm still going to install the new Monroes again, since I have them already.

My local CarQuest charged me the CarQuest online price, $83.07 -- interestingly enough the Gabriel Hijackers are more.

I put the shocks on yesterday. The hold-up for me was corrosion on the lower mounting bolts. I had re-used the OE speednuts three times before, this time they were corroded too badly to remove. I ended up cutting them off with a Dremel and cutting wheels. I burned up a wheel per bolt (no surprise there); one bolt was in so stubbornly I had to punch out the rump of it with a drift and small (4 lb) sledgehammer - when I gripped it to remove it the head twisted off.

Installation was fine otherwise, I re-used the factory mounts, they were new a few years ago when I did the shocks last, and the replacement mounts were smaller and harder. I scraped off rust and repainted the lower washer with RustOleum. I also scraped off loose rustproofing/sound deadening in the wheel wells (there was not much at all), treated it with rust converter, then repainted and re-undercoated them.

It took **hours** to get this done. If the parts had not been so corroded it's a 1- hour job to do both sides. I must of burned up six hours including the scraping and painting.

But it's done! Rides well.

albertj wrote:

1998 Riv wrote:

What did Carquest charge for the KYB's? I can get them at $82 + shipping. I'm still going to install the new Monroes again, since I have them already.

My local CarQuest charged me the CarQuest online price, $83.07 -- interestingly enough the Gabriel Hijackers are more.

I put the shocks on yesterday. The hold-up for me was corrosion on the lower mounting bolts. I had re-used the OE speednuts three times before, this time they were corroded too badly to remove. I ended up cutting them off with a Dremel and cutting wheels. I burned up a wheel per bolt (no surprise there); one bolt was in so stubbornly I had to punch out the rump of it with a drift and small (4 lb) sledgehammer - when I gripped it to remove it the head twisted off.

Installation was fine otherwise, I re-used the factory mounts, they were new a few years ago when I did the shocks last, and the replacement mounts were smaller and harder. I scraped off rust and repainted the lower washer with RustOleum. I also scraped off loose rustproofing/sound deadening in the wheel wells (there was not much at all), treated it with rust converter, then repainted and re-undercoated them.

It took **hours** to get this done. If the parts had not been so corroded it's a 1- hour job to do both sides. I must of burned up six hours including the scraping and painting.

But it's done! Rides well.

Rusty bolts. never heard of them !!!!, mine were as clean as the day they were installed on the car, plus I reused the air lines.

96riv wrote:

albertj wrote:

1998 Riv wrote:

What did Carquest charge for the KYB's? I can get them at $82 + shipping. I'm still going to install the new Monroes again, since I have them already.

My local CarQuest charged me the CarQuest online price, $83.07 -- interestingly enough the Gabriel Hijackers are more.

I put the shocks on yesterday. The hold-up for me was corrosion on the lower mounting bolts. I had re-used the OE speednuts three times before, this time they were corroded too badly to remove. I ended up cutting them off with a Dremel and cutting wheels. I burned up a wheel per bolt (no surprise there); one bolt was in so stubbornly I had to punch out the rump of it with a drift and small (4 lb) sledgehammer - when I gripped it to remove it the head twisted off.

Installation was fine otherwise, I re-used the factory mounts, they were new a few years ago when I did the shocks last, and the replacement mounts were smaller and harder. I scraped off rust and repainted the lower washer with RustOleum. I also scraped off loose rustproofing/sound deadening in the wheel wells (there was not much at all), treated it with rust converter, then repainted and re-undercoated them.

It took **hours** to get this done. If the parts had not been so corroded it's a 1- hour job to do both sides. I must of burned up six hours including the scraping and painting.

But it's done! Rides well.

Rusty bolts. never heard of them !!!!, mine were as clean as the day they were installed on the car, plus I reused the air lines.

Which makes sense given your location.

My air lines were fine and plugged right into the shocks.

I am a little bothered by re-using the mounts - but they looked great. I did clean them off and apply rubber preservative. Also, cleaning and treating the wheel wells was probably a great catch, I'd have never seen that rust otherwise and at this point it's only surface.

I reused my mounts as well. They were replaced in 2006 and seem to be holding up well.

AA wrote:

I reused my mounts as well. They were replaced in 2006 and seem to be holding up well.

Thing that blew my mind was how long the job took because of those rusted bolts. I talked with a Goodyear tech (he was at the CarQuest picking up some rush parts - they are near each other) and he said they routinely simply bust the heads off those lower bolts and put on new hardware (grade 8 bolts, flat washers and matching nuts), they don't even try to remove the OE bolts really. I mentioned to him maybe using stainless nuts and bolts, if I could get the right grade (suspension parts = I use at least grade 8. Brake parts = I use at least grade 10). He said he thought that sounded interesting. I looked into it and decided not to because 304 stainless bolts do not meet the minimal specs of a Grade 5 bolt. I ended up getting Grade 10s from AutoZone.

I replaced my rear shocks with stainless hardware on my '70 Oldsmobile, retained the originals on the Riv, replaced the OE speed nuts with washers and nuts as you did. Two different cars with different functions.

I REALLY need to get my new shocks on. I can tell the left rear is gone when I go over bumps, it's just riding on the spring... the fluid leaked out in my garage a couple months ago. Maybe I can do it tomorrow in between baseball and soccer games.

Crap, i rushed thru my install friday am as i was leaving town and now I have a leak in left shock. I forgot about o-rings, likely lost them.

1998 Riv wrote:

Crap, i rushed thru my install friday am as i was leaving town and now I have a leak in left shock. I forgot about o-rings, likely lost them.

You can probably get replacement o-rings that fit at a full-line hardware (A True Value or Lowe's or such) or auto parts store (a NAPA or CarQuest).

Inspect the line end where it connects to the shock. I've experienced two cases where the flared end broke off inside the old shock fitting, keeping the old o-ring in the fitting. If this happens, use a flaring tool and a small amount of heat to reshape the end of the line, install o-rings and reinstall.

In one case it seemed loose, so I used two o-rings back to back for a tighter seal.

I am 3 hrs from home, so limited what i can do. But local napa had an air line kit with same ends, should be able to fix in parking lot.

Its the AK29 kit but looks exactly like oem, with o-rings.

Where exactly does tbe o-ring go, inside the fittings before the tube goes in? I just dont recall...

Ended up patching in the shock end only since i couldn't really get at the compressor to replace the whole line. Found a 1/8 comp ftg to serve as a temp patch and added an o-ring to both sides. Think i am good for now anyway.

And found the formed end of that one line was indeed missing.

Has anyone installed KYB air shocks ? Is it just that the Monroe's are less expensive or is there some installation / performance advantage to them?

With so many expressing satisfaction with the KYB GR2 struts I would think the KYB would be preferred for the rear as well. I'm going to be buying some shocks soon and am leaning towards Delco's or KYB's since I've read here, and elswhere, that the Monroe's ride a little rougher.

Comments ?

KYB rears weren't available until recently. I use the Monroes in rear, but would not hesitate to try the KYBs. If people are saying Monroes ride rough, I would argue they ride plenty firm, but not rough in a bad way. I think the KYB struts fronts are just as firm as the Monroes, if not more so. A good match, imo.

AA wrote:

KYB rears weren't available until recently. I use the Monroes in rear, but would not hesitate to try the KYBs. If people are saying Monroes ride rough, I would argue they ride plenty firm, but not rough in a bad way. I think the KYB struts fronts are just as firm as the Monroes, if not more so. A good match, imo.

I have had KYBs and OE shocks on the rear. Currently riding KYBs. They are fine, nicely tuned, seem to be valved so that they try to comply with the small bumps (pavement dividing lines) and give great control when pushed (twisty country roads). It would have been worth ditching the OEs for them, for my kind of driving.

Just got mine!

Drove down the street one morning and heard a bad rattling when going over slight bumps. I thought I was going to loose another tailpipe, the Miata lost its a few weeks prior. I turned around and took the X-fire. Just another justification for have a spare ride.

After looking it over with dad later that day we determined it to be the rear shocks.

Consumer Guide Auto's website of which has general estimations for repairs stated it would cost around $700!!!! Gladly it was nowhere near that.

Advance had a set of Monroes for $70, $10 coupon; $60.

I could see with a full shocks and struts repair, the leveling compressor costing $450 alone, it could reach the cost of around $700.

well we all seen the write up of how to install the shocks. read it myself to do these. heres a few pics to go along with these shocks and my install. btw my air compressor was shot so i ended up runnin manual kit that came with them/ these are from autozone and sale for 75 plus tax.
whats in the box

part id

before

after

side by sides old and new



my old stuff is horrible!



new stuff




old compressor was shot! and rusted beyond belief heres some pics of it and other rust areas stuff





hey robo can we fix it? yes we can!



sorry about the million pics. hope they help overall this is a great improvement over what i had.