Boy does this suck! It was barely drizzling when I started replacing the rear shocks on my 86 and now its almost a downpour. It figures the garage is only wide enough to park a car in but you can't do any work on the sides.



I just got the passenger side done. The shock shaft went all the way in and didn't come back out on the original factory Tokico's. One thing that concerns me is when I took the spring off, all the paint just fell off. I didn't get new springs because I just want to keep this car stock and limit spending to what is absolutely necessary.



From a safety standpoint, how do you really know when your springs absolutely need replacement? I mean, could they actually break? They aren't rusted through or anything.

i've never seen a spring break.........

they break all the time, it just depends on the vehicle.



I've never seen an FC with broken springs, when they do break it usually isnt that big of a deal your ride will just be a bit off balance. When I worked at CarX alot of the SUV's would come in with broken springs and the owner wouldnt even know about it other than some strange clunking that happened every now and then.



Just take a peek at them every now and then like when you clean the car or what not, it's pretty obvious when one breaks. It's not likely to happen unless you have a habit of carrying heavy **** in your car, like a boxed engine hoist.



when yer ready to spend more later just pickup a set of 1" drop springs, I wouldnt worry about it now though.

I'm done now. The car looks like it has a lift kit in the back compared to before! The ride is restored and the rear end lateral movement (floating) that I was feeling is almost gone too. :bigok:



It feels good to slowly get this car back to original stock condition... well, you know what I mean!

do you have the RB rear steer eliminator bushings?

do you have the RB rear steer eliminator bushings? [/quote]

No. I imagine all the bushings could used replaced including the rear steers but I dont want to deal with that install if I dont have to. Surprisingly, just putting in new shocks made a huge difference in all movement of the rear suspension. The car is so much more stable. The original shocks must have had no gas in them... the drivers side compressed with me barely touching it and did not come out at all.

sounds like they were pretty tired, I recommend the rear steer eliminator bushings, they changed the way my rear end behaved drastically. No more wagging ass end over bumps at speed. They're not expensive either, just a bit labour intensive to install.

I plan to get them for my 88. Did you have to use a torch or press to get them out? I saw the Mazdatrix install and it looks tough.

I documented my install with photos, you can find them here (thumbnailed)

rear steer eliminators installation



I used an impact gun, and a hand held ball joint press (glorified C clamp with hex head , so you can use the impact gun to drive it)... It's not that difficult, this approach should be doable by most home mechanics, the impact gun was helpful but not necessary. I've replaced the rear wheel bearings before with just sleeves from the ball joint press kit, some wood, and an old big assed sledge hammer... ghetto engineering rules.