crolison

Yeah you got plenty of room to get a socket up there and tighten a new shock. Its just that old shocks are nice and seized up and hard to get out.

You can do what i did, so you can run normal eye and eye shocks.

DailyDrive

I already did my shocks, but installed a 2" body lift just prior to the job. That allowed just enough clearance to stick a smaller size ratchet and a shallow socket in there. I don't know how it would be possible to do a quality tighten job without those extra 2".

By the way, your rear sway is going to fall off

b88miller

BINGO! I discovered this myself installing my lifts on my truck. I did the body lift prior to replacing the springs/shocks which made getting to the top rear shock nuts a piece of cake.

I squeezed the heck out of the upper shock with a big channel lock and then used a ratchet with socket from the fender well. I think it was a deep socket I used and the ratchet fits perfect just above the frame.

I was going to pass this along to you folks who are considering a body lift in conjunction with a suspension lift. Do the body lift first, this makes replacing the rear shocks much easier!

Have a good week!

Brian

Team420

I have no body lift, and I think it took me all of 1/2 hour to get these shocks out, I cant remember exactly what I did, but I did not cut anything. There should be enough room, if you cant cut them out.

*EDIT*
After some thought...I think I did put the socket and ratchet in there, and just use the shock itself to work the bolt loose, just keep wrenching back and forth on the shock till that bolt loosens up, then, there is only just enough room to fit your hands in there to tighten the new shocks. Good luck

MadCityRich

I'm not so sure that is safe. The design Toyota uses is meant to pivot in more directions than the classic eye shocks can pivot. Maybe it's fine, but it looks like you've got a rigid mount where the adapter mates to the stock shock mount. That could be putting a lot of unplanned for forces on that shock mount area.

I will say that removing the rear shocks has got to be the worst job I've done on the 4Runner to date. First, I used a cut-off wheel and sliced into the fluid reservoir. Yuck! The sawzall did me right in the end and the second shock came off nice and quick.

MadCityRich

saulgoode

Didn't have a sawzall either so I used a drill with a cutting wheel attached took about 20 min. for each one but they snapped right off.

SoCalPaul

I used a flex end GearWrench on top & a pipe wrench on the metal dust cover. The GearWrench allows an allen key to tighten the top if you are installing Bilsteins. Big pain in the butt!!!

Paul

crolison

Yep, i broke that mount, and now the sway is totally gone. The front is going off sometime soon.

75w90mantraN

My skinny arms were able to form an 'X' at some point, at times just getting them past the sway bar, stabilizers, and other junk they would bend at humanly impossible angles. My fingers are not that long so I'm using my fingertips to create any torque to break off the seized nuts on the top shock mount. That and trying to squeeze my hand through any viable space to hold a measly little crescent wrench. Excellent forearm workout.

75w90mantraN

[QUOTE=kmcaprice14;50867477] skip all the steps... just go straight to cutting it off...As for torquing the nuts, just hand tight using a small socket wrench with a deep socket... QUOTE]

Well, it was 1130PM when I had finally finished removal/installation. The fact that you can't see the top shock mount practically had me feeling my whole way through, so it didn't matter whether I had sun or not, screw it.

I'm stubborn and decided to go against the popular recommendation of destructive removals and got me some Craftsman strap wrenches. Low and behold...made it all possible to take off the old POS without damaging the housing. Someone earlier on this post 'wedged' one of the wrenches...that's what I did with the strap wrench against the muffler on the passenger side and the fuel tank on the opposite. Miracles do happen Worked so well that when I did the next rear side, I didn't use as much PB prior and still found it easier to break the seized nutcase.

Torquing the top nut, uh, yah, couldn't . Took a 3/8" breaker bar with a crow's foot attachment and with the other hand used a cresent wrench to grip that super small stud - slow as hell.

GSGALLANT

x2! With the coil spring suspension setup we have, your shock is supposed to be able to pivot front to back as well as side to side. You will be stressing your shock and mount more the way you have it set up when you do any serious articulation. Will it break? Maybe not... but maybe it will, or maybe your shocks will not last as long, who knows? Only time will tell.