Andrew B.

Ok...I took my car to a local shop and they said that it'll take 11-12hrs worth of labor to remove and replace the front shocks/springs.

Is it absolutely necessary to remover the upper control arm to do the R/R? I know that the newer cars don't have to.

Let me know.

Thanks,
Andrew

'84 928S

John Struthers

Andrew,
Another prison sex story... <img src="graemlins/crying.gif" border="0" alt="[crying]" />
Check the Greg Nichols site.
There was a lengthy series of replys to your type of situation.
I believe Ed Ruiz among others suggested a method other than prescribed by the book. They did the work from the bottom and even make a tool selection or two.
Snow did all of his work during the 'cool weather' and his post might be in the Archives, though I think he got a bit fastidious and rebushed everything - serious disassembly -.
<img src="graemlins/offtopic.gif" border="0" alt="[offtopic]" /> <img src="graemlins/soapbox.gif" border="0" alt="[soapbox]" />
As a friendly reminder; Everybody - landscapers, plumbers, electricians... - who see's a 928
parked in front of your house calculates their fee's, manhour charges accordingly! Hide it!!!
John S.

goodspeed

Good Luck,
BIG PAIN IN THE A@#,
Did my last fall, BOGE, good shock.
With the right tools, 5 hr should do it,
if you or THE SHOP have done it before.
You will love the new HANDERS.

TommyMB

Andrew

Park Place in Bellevue charged me $532 to install both the front and rear shocks/springs in December. I think they said 6 hours for the front. They did a professional job - cleaned everything before they installed the new parts.

By the way my old Boge shocks on my 87' S4 lasted on 25k miles. I put Bilstein on this time with Eibach springs. If I would do it again I will go with Koni because I don't think the Bilstein is valved correctly with the Eibach.

Tommy

Snowball the 81 white 928

you can pull the upper a-arms off, and some do. the last time around, i removed the entire lower arms as i also put on new lower shock brackets (thread strip), lower ball joints, adjuster eccentrics and locknuts. if you do it this way you will need an aid to pull the upper a-arm up 90 degrees to the shock to drop it down. even so, there is very little room to move around. also, measure your front ride height first, you might want to install some spacers (1=5mm) or new springs if they are worn and tired. easy to replace springs when entire unit is pulled apart to get to the shocks. now, open that wallet.

Randy V

Just a note that the methodology for swapping the fronts is different between the S and the S4/GT models due to differences in clearance.

jpitman

Yes, the pre-S4 has different clearance through the top arm. BUT i did manage to do my 83, replacing M474 Bilsteins with new ones last year. Dropped the bottom arm, and as someone remarked, you need to get the top arm as high as possible to get the spring perch through it - BUT it can be done without pulling the top arms off. The old spring perches are slightly smaller in OD, which makes it easier to reinstall them, but have a different centre hole, so need a part of the old centering cone fitted.
jp
83 euro at

Donald

RandV & JPitman:
Does the difference in clearance make it easier or more difficult for S4/GT models?
TIA
Donald

Andrew B.

Thanks for all the help guys! Looks like it can be done without removing the upper A arm.

For the last posting, the upper A arm on the S4/GT, there's more clearance for the spring to go through.

Andrew
'84 928S

jpitman

Donald,
The S4 and later is easier to do the front shock/spring assembly, as the upper arm hole is larger, according to all the stories I have heard. I can vouch for the earlier cars being HARD to do, BUT is is doable.
jp