Well I just finished putting new rear shocks in our 98 Runner and it's not the easiest job I've ever done. It's darn tight under there. I searched for a how to on doing the front shocks and haven't found much here on the board.

I don't have a service manual for my Runner and have a couple of concerns before I tear into the front.

1. Can the lower shock bolt just be removed with the truck jacked up and the front suspension hanging or does a ball joint have to be released to allow the suspension further decompress before the lower bolt is removed.

2. Can a normal Mcpherson strut type spring compressor be used on the spring? It looks like it's pretty tight and the spring wrap diameter is pretty small and I'm not sure if either of the two different spring compressors I have are going to work. Please let me know what some of you guys have done and what tools you had to use.

 

1. No, you dont need to release a ball joint. When putting things back together, the bottle jack, wedged in between the wheel well and the A-arm can be used to push the A-arm down to line things up on the lower edge of the shock.

2. I've not changed the front, but installed SAWS on my vehicle. I'd try the compressors with the shock still on the vehicle and see if they grab. A safer alternative is to remove the assembly from the vehicle, and just bring it to a shop and pay them to swap things out, then reinstall them yourself.

 

Well no luck with the spring compressors. I have a couple of sets that I was able to get fit but no luck compressing the spring far enough with them to safely remove. As for the botle jack idea I am not impressed with how much of a load it puts on the wheel tub. I won't be trying that again. Releasing a ball joint is more work and has it's risks but I'm guessing that's what the manual probably says to do.

Anybody got a service manual that can summarize the procedure?

 

Brian did a great writeup so just use his info:
http://www.drawhorn.org/front_ome_install_writeup.htm

You do not need to undo the ball joint to get the shock out.