Removal procedure for 355 rear shock?

It not too bad bad a job. It really isn't that hard. If you look at everything you can pretty much figure it out. But here are some general guide lines:

Block the front tires so the car doesn't roll

Lift the rear of the car up

Remove the wheels

Open the engine cover, and then remove the drip covers on the side/s of the engine bay

Disconnect the electric motors for the suspension settings (?)

Make sure that the tension on the spring is unsprung, or use a spring compressor.

Undo the bottom bolt holding the lower part of the shock to the wheel hub housing, and remove it

Undo the bolt/s holding the top of the shock, to the shock tower, on the subframe

Now remove the shock.


Just MAKE SURE that the tension on the spring is all the way out before you remove the bolt holding the shock in place. If that thing hits you while still under tension it will do some very serious damage. Busted bones type damage. If the suspension is extended all the way you should be good to go. But just make sure anyway to be safe.

Happy wrenching.

 

Hey no problem.

The workshop manual sucks. They aren't very detailed, and as you have found out, are missing alot of stuff. The only thing they are good for is giving you the specs.

 

Having done this a few months ago on a Mondial T, I would add
the following in case you get stuck. These are just my
experiences with one car, so they are not the advice of
an expert.

> Disconnect the electric motors for the suspension settings (?)

> Make sure that the tension on the spring is unsprung, or use a
> spring compressor.

LM> The Mondial T suspension had considerable preload,
and from looking at 355 parts drawings I suspect the 355
does as well. It was somewhat difficult to find a spring
compressor that fits on the spring within the confines of
the available space between the wishbones. I have an
old spring compressor from Eastwood that would fit if
I used shorter bolts. I bought new shorter grade8 bolts
and installed them so that the nut is at the top. To be
honest, the whole procedure felt somewhat unsafe so
be very careful. By the time I was done I had removed
4 shocks with no incidents.

> Undo the bottom bolt holding the lower part of the
> shock to the wheel hub housing, and remove it

> Undo the bolt/s holding the top of the shock,
> to the shock tower, on the subframe

LM> Just to be clear, you are going to remove
the 4 bolts at the corners of the shock tower.
Do not remove the center bolt as that disassembles
the strut itself and should be done after the
unit is out of the car.

> Now remove the shock.

LM> In my case, the above didn't allow enough
room to swing the strut out. For the rears, I had
to disconnect the upper a-arm from the hub and
tilt the hub out and down to clear the bottom of
the shock as it swung out. I only tilted it a bit
(circa 20degrees) since this is pullling on the CV
joints and I didn't know if it could cause damage.
For the fronts, I had
to disconnect the lower a-arm from the hub and
swing it down to free the bottom of the shock.
BTW, pay attention to the caster shims when you
disconnect this so you can put them back in the
same way that they were before you started.
I don't remember if disconnecting the sway bars
was also necessary, but I had done it anyway as
part of an overall bushing replacement.

When dismantling the struts I found that I needed
to use a different spring compressor that gripped
the spring over a longer distance. The local
auto parts had one made by Lisle(?) that did the
trick.

Sorry if this is scarey, but the preload made the
job much harder than I had imagined. I probably
did it the hard way not knowing any better, so
YMMV.

BTW, where are you getting the shocks rebuilt?


Lou

 

Hopefully here: http://www.deltavee.net/

 

Exactly the answer I was expecting
I had mine done there, very good job and I was very
happy with them. I didn't get to run them on the
track, but I've been happy with the street performance.
In fact, he has my two spares
still (from prior replacements) to finish up.

Anyway, one thing to worry about when re-installing
the shocks onto the car; you need to be careful to
make sure the schraeder valve that gets added
to the shock does not bind with the a-arm. In the
front of my car, this meant that the valve needed to
point in the direction of the wheel hub. I put it in
facing the other way at first and PSSSSSSSST
leaked all the nice nitrogen when I broke the valve
in the small clearance on the a-arm. Oooops.
Reinstalled the other way they were fine. As I
recall, the rears had more clearance and were not a
problem at all.

Again, this was on a Mondial T ... the 355 may have
more room.


Lou

 

Many thanks gentlemen.

Lou, I have a solution for your broken shocks, one's salvagable, the other is probably not much cheaper than new, I'll send you details soon.

Best regards,

Rob