Removing 4th gen Rear Shocks/Springs
This is my first attempt at a how to, so here goes.
This is how to remove your rear shock and spring assembly on your 4th generation Civic. I did it on my '89 CRX, I'm sure it's the same for the hatch. This is a very easy thing to do and requires little or no mechanical skill. But I'm sure if you own and maintain a 4th gen, you have good mechanical skills.
What you need:
3/8" Drive Ratchet (two would be good)
17mm socket or 19mm, I had two different sized nuts (that didn't sound right
)
9/16" socket
17mm, 19mm, and 9/16" Wrenches (if you want to use wrenches too)
Step One:
Jack the rear of the car up and make sure you put it on jack stands, remove the wheels.
Step Two:
Use the 17mm socket to unbolt the strut fork, you'll need two ratchets or a ratchet and a wrench, one to hold the bolt and one to loosen the nut. This is where I had the problem with two different sizes, hopefully somebody didn't ghetto rig your setup. My left strut had a 17mm bolt and a 17mm nut. The right has the 17mm bolt but a different 19mm nut.
Step Three:
Remove the two 9/16" nuts on the strut tower in the trunk. My car is stripped out so I didn't need to remove any interior panels to get at the strut tower. There is a little panel you can pop off and use an extension on your ratchet to get at the nuts.
Step Four:
Once you have unbolted the stut fork and strut tower nuts the shock and spring assembly is free. Now comes the easiest thing to do, yet it's a b***h. You have to get the strut assembly from out of the wheel well. With two people it would probably be hell of a lot easier. What I did was stand on the drum and reach over into the hatch and push the strut out of the tower. It's hard to explain, but once you see it, you should easily be able to do it. Once you get it out, you will have the whole strut and spring assembly out and ready to put in your OE or aftermarket suspension.
Note: It probably really helped that my hatch was off. I'm not going to get into removing it, although it is quite easy. Good luck!
This is my first attempt at a how to, so here goes.
This is how to remove your rear shock and spring assembly on your 4th generation Civic. I did it on my '89 CRX, I'm sure it's the same for the hatch. This is a very easy thing to do and requires little or no mechanical skill. But I'm sure if you own and maintain a 4th gen, you have good mechanical skills.
What you need:
3/8" Drive Ratchet (two would be good)
17mm socket or 19mm, I had two different sized nuts (that didn't sound right
)9/16" socket
17mm, 19mm, and 9/16" Wrenches (if you want to use wrenches too)
Step One:
Jack the rear of the car up and make sure you put it on jack stands, remove the wheels.
Step Two:
Use the 17mm socket to unbolt the strut fork, you'll need two ratchets or a ratchet and a wrench, one to hold the bolt and one to loosen the nut. This is where I had the problem with two different sizes, hopefully somebody didn't ghetto rig your setup. My left strut had a 17mm bolt and a 17mm nut. The right has the 17mm bolt but a different 19mm nut.
Step Three:
Remove the two 9/16" nuts on the strut tower in the trunk. My car is stripped out so I didn't need to remove any interior panels to get at the strut tower. There is a little panel you can pop off and use an extension on your ratchet to get at the nuts.
Step Four:
Once you have unbolted the stut fork and strut tower nuts the shock and spring assembly is free. Now comes the easiest thing to do, yet it's a b***h. You have to get the strut assembly from out of the wheel well. With two people it would probably be hell of a lot easier. What I did was stand on the drum and reach over into the hatch and push the strut out of the tower. It's hard to explain, but once you see it, you should easily be able to do it. Once you get it out, you will have the whole strut and spring assembly out and ready to put in your OE or aftermarket suspension.
Note: It probably really helped that my hatch was off. I'm not going to get into removing it, although it is quite easy. Good luck!