Replacing Rear Shocks?

[JoeyEunos]

Right, as per the title I'm in the process of gathering the bits to refresh the suspension at the arse end of my Lupo

 I've gathered together new bottom bolts/nuts, a set of new rubber mounting bushes and bumpstops. These will be coupled with a pair of very low mileage OEM shocks I've managed to pic up quite cheaply. FWIW the coils look in fairly good nick so they'll be staying put.

I feel as though the job is fairly simple and at sub £40 for the whole lot it seems like a worthwhile task to tighten up handling and hopefully loose a few clunks/knocks from the old units, however I do have a few questions (Probably a daft ones TBH) that have been troubling me slightly...

1. Usually when I jack the Lupo I place my jack/stands under the suspension mounting points for the rear coils, or alternatively under the rear beam pivot points, I'd imagine I need the beam to drop slightly to allow for removal of the rear shocks so this isn't going to work this time..? I'm also not keen on placing stands under the jacking points on the sill for any amount of time on the basis I don't really trust them (My sills). Where should I put the stands?

2. Following on from the previous question, do I actually need the rear beam to drop by much? Is it possible to just jack on the rear beam as usual, release the bottom bolts joining the shock to the beam then force the damper up to it's fully closed/retracted position thus creating the room to lift it over it's lower mounting point and pull it down from above (Bolts undone obviously)?

3. Alternatively, is it possible to jack one side at a time and change the shocks individually, ie jacking on the left sill and changing that shock whilst leaving the right side wheel on the ground? Is swapping the shocks a side at a time possible or does the full rear beam need to be off the ground and level?

As you can probably tell I've massively over thought this  I've spent all of my driving days around MX5's where rear wishbones are the modus operandi so the whole rear beam business is new ground for me... Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice/musings/answers to my queries!

 

[weslangdon]

Neither springs or shox are under much pressure so its a very easy task to change them. Undo the top mount first, allen key and spanner then the bottom bolt on the shock absorber, it's one of the simpler tasks of Lupo/Arosa ownership

[cj1]

14 hours ago, JoeyEunos said:

Right, as per the title I'm in the process of gathering the bits to refresh the suspension at the arse end of my Lupo

 I've gathered together new bottom bolts/nuts, a set of new rubber mounting bushes and bumpstops. These will be coupled with a pair of very low mileage OEM shocks I've managed to pic up quite cheaply. FWIW the coils look in fairly good nick so they'll be staying put.

I feel as though the job is fairly simple and at sub £40 for the whole lot it seems like a worthwhile task to tighten up handling and hopefully loose a few clunks/knocks from the old units, however I do have a few questions (Probably a daft ones TBH) that have been troubling me slightly...

1. Usually when I jack the Lupo I place my jack/stands under the suspension mounting points for the rear coils, or alternatively under the rear beam pivot points, I'd imagine I need the beam to drop slightly to allow for removal of the rear shocks so this isn't going to work this time..? I'm also not keen on placing stands under the jacking points on the sill for any amount of time on the basis I don't really trust them (My sills). Where should I put the stands?

2. Following on from the previous question, do I actually need the rear beam to drop by much? Is it possible to just jack on the rear beam as usual, release the bottom bolts joining the shock to the beam then force the damper up to it's fully closed/retracted position thus creating the room to lift it over it's lower mounting point and pull it down from above (Bolts undone obviously)?

3. Alternatively, is it possible to jack one side at a time and change the shocks individually, ie jacking on the left sill and changing that shock whilst leaving the right side wheel on the ground? Is swapping the shocks a side at a time possible or does the full rear beam need to be off the ground and level?

As you can probably tell I've massively over thought this  I've spent all of my driving days around MX5's where rear wishbones are the modus operandi so the whole rear beam business is new ground for me... Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice/musings/answers to my queries!

 

2) No

1) Would suggest jacking points anyway. "Any amount of time" - 10 minutes or so. Are your sills rotting away?

3) Yes 

"Over thought this" - Yes

[JoeyEunos]

2 hours ago, cj1 said:

2) No

1) Would suggest jacking points anyway. "Any amount of time" - 10 minutes or so. Are your sills rotting away?

3) Yes 

"Over thought this" - Yes

Firstly, thanks for the replies

Yep, pretty much knew I was overthinking this The whole rear beam thing is pretty exotic to me (Weird I know).

I recon in the light of mature reflection and your advice I'll probably just jack up/change one side at a time and tackle the job that way rather than putting the whole rear end of the car on stands.

[cj1]

4 hours ago, JoeyEunos said:

Firstly, thanks for the replies

Yep, pretty much knew I was overthinking this The whole rear beam thing is pretty exotic to me (Weird I know).

I recon in the light of mature reflection and your advice I'll probably just jack up/change one side at a time and tackle the job that way rather than putting the whole rear end of the car on stands.

haha yeah, much quicker!

[Skezza]

Easy as. Crack on

[JoeyEunos]

You lot were right, t'was a pice of piss. Turns out rear beams really aren't the work of the devil and are, in fact, easier to deal with than the wishbone set-ups I'm used to.

Feel slightly silly for procrastinating so much over this, what a plank